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Interesting article. The fact that the so-called "Syrian Arab Army"
(SAA) has been reduced to a skeleton, and that the armed forces that
seized Aleppo were largely from the global Shiite jihad organised by
Iran, which detachments from Iran, Iraq (the US-armed Iraqi army, err,
Shiite militia), Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc, is widely known by
clear-sighted observers; and even they couldn't have seized Aleppo from
its Syrian population without the massive terror unleashed by the
invading Russian imperialist airforce. The SAA is commonly nicknamed the
"Syrian Afghan Army", after the large numbers of desperate Afghan Hazara
refugees in Iran forcibly conscripted by the regime.
Far from heading an Arab nationalist regime, as the Baath Party may have
been about half a century ago (note: living half a century in the past
is, sadly, a common problem around parts of the left), the regime is a
pure satrapy of Russia and Iran, while the country is divided up under
the regime's watch. Russia has indicated it is staying forever, is
expanding and upgrading its air and naval bases, and in exchange for
saving the regime (for now) has extracted a fully colonial treaty from
the regime. It's main interest is the Alawite-dominated coast, where its
bases stand. Iran and its global jihad has control of Aleppo and the
Qalamoun region linking Damascus with the Lebanese border, a region from
which hundreds of thousands of Sunni have been ethnically cleansed by
the regime and Hezbollah, as Hezbollah now believes the "road to
liberating "Jerusalem" runs through Qalamoun, Damascus, Daraya, Madaya,
Homs, Aleppo, and everywhere else Arab kids can be slaughtered. Turkey,
with Russian support, controls a section of northern rural Aleppo along
the border, which it is now filling with Turkish nationalists, Grey
Wolves etc, as the AKP accepts Assad rule and wants the region, with a
significant Turkmen presence, to empty many of the 3 million Syrian
refugees into, the AKP's reversal of policy on both Assad and the
refugees symbolised by its current alliance with the Turanian
nationalist MHP. Beyond that region, from Kobane to the far north-east
is run by the PYD party-state; just to remind the Arabic populations
within this region who rules, giant pics of Ocalan, a Kurdish leader
from Turkey, not Syria, dominate the region, including the entrance to
mostly Arabic Tal Abyad. Strongly backed by the US air-force and US
special forces, this PYD-run region also sports 2-3 US air-bases. In the
south, the once mighty FSA Southern Front, which controls much of Daraa,
has been forcibly demobilised by the US and Jordan, turned from a major
anti-Assad force to a force maintaining a one-sided "ceasefire" with the
regime whose role is to protect the Jordanian border from ISIS (simple:
advance against Assad, arms and support cut off; advance against ISIS or
attack Nusra, get weapons). Israel of course will maintain its theft of
the Golan, as guaranteed by the Assad regimes the last 43 years; and now
guaranteed even more by Netanyahu's two best friends, Putin and Trump.
Still, I wonder why the article, and so many like it, write things like
this:
The opposing powers brokering peace talks later this month in Kazakhstan
look set to carve Syria up into different zones of influence.
Mr Assad would keep Aleppo, which is important to Iran as it serves as a
supply route from Tehran to Hizbollah in Lebanon, as well as coastal
regions where the Russians have bases.
Aleppo cannot serve as a supply route from Iran to Hezbollah, any more
than all the other volumes of fiction about Iran trying to maintain its
"land connection" to Hezbollah, via an Assad-ruled Syria, make sense.
Geographically, it is pure nonsense. The Syria-Iraq border is controlled
by Kurdish forces, on both sides, in the north, and by the Islamic State
further down. Even if IS were completely destroyed - an unlikely
short-term scenario - the Syria-Iraq border on both sides is solidly
Sunni and hostile to the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian sectarian regimes.
Iranian weapons get to Hezbollah via Damascus airport, via Iraqi
airports (which the US supervises). Until 2011, they were flown to
Damascus via Turkish airports.
-----Original Message-----
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2017 10:04 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Desperate Assad conscripting 50-year-olds as
beleaguered Syrian regime forces halved by deaths, defections and
draft-dodging
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