The Syrian Army’s promised “regime of calm” is taking effect in the portions of the country where it was promised this weekend, but violence continues to rage in the northern city of Aleppo, as throughout the weekend military airstrikes pounded rebel neighborhoods, and rebels shelled the government districts.
Death tolls from the strikes over the weekend are uncertain so far, but appear to at the very least be down from the massive tolls seen late last week, when airstrikes pounded hospitals and other medical facilities in rebel-held parts of the city.
The Red Cross is calling for an immediate restoration of calm in Aleppo, and Russia and the US are said to be feverishly working to try to end the violence there, though they don’t appear to be making much progress on either side.
The military made much of not including Aleppo in its “calm,” while the rebels in the area are dominated by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, which has never been a party to any ceasefires. Even the Islamist factions who are in the ceasefire, and fighting alongside Nusra, are ruling out any regional ceasefires now, after the recent peace talks collapsed.
Nearly two weeks of trading fire in Aleppo has killed nearly 250 people, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stats, and those deaths were almost exclusively civilians,, with neither side making any real successful attacks on the other’s combatants.
Any Islamic factions or “rebels” fighting along with Al-Nusra — in case we forgot — Al-Qaeda, are not entitled for the protection of the cease fire. They made their alliances, and now they cannot pretend they are the virtuous rebels. Population of Aleppo under their rule is desperately hoping to be liberated. It is really a crime for anyone to support, arm and finance these psychopaths.
Are our 250 boots on the ground among the Al-Nusra, ISIS or the Army of Conquest. Because Free Syrian Army does not exist any more after it has gone under Al-Nusra. So, where oh where, did they go. To help whom?
FreeFictional Syrian ArmyAny Islamist group fighting with JaN (such as Ahrar al-Sham or Jaish al-Islam) are TERRORISTS, yet the US pointedly REFUSES to classify them as such.
The US justified its overthrow of the ICU In Somalia (the first decent government that nation had for at least 25 years) solely on the (unsubstantiated) claims that some of its coalition members had links to AQ, yet now they outrightly support Islamist terrorists in a bid to overthrow a foreign government they dislike. Do these neo-cons have any shame??? Do Uh’muricans have any common sense???
No, and no.
The goal of US foreign policy is to create as much chaos as possible FBO the institutional imperatives of the MIC. It is the only goal consistently achieved. Nothing else — not stability, democracy, human rights, control of resources nor even global leadership — matters in the final analysis.
A founding father
“There is security only in expansion”
“Do these neo-cons have any shame”
If you have no conscience, then you have no shame.
In regards to the latest “airstrikes pounded hospitals,” in view of past practice establishing that babies and hospitals are the highest value targets of our Empire, Anti-War needs to be a cut above corporate media in addressing this issue.