Hot on the heels of Russia threatening to shoot down anything that flies in their area of influence, Australia has suspended air combat missions over Syria
Let me just remind you that the Government of Assad in Damascus is the democratically elected Government of Syria. You might moan about the standard of their electoral process but then again, the same criticism might be leveled at any US election also. There is no doubt either that the US has been attempting to overthrow Assad’s Government for the last seven years and has been quite open in admitting so. But this flies in the face of international law and the United Nations Charters and is just another in a long line of unilateral actions taken by America because they believe they can get away with it. It bears repeating that the United States has absolutely no legal right to interfere in the affairs of Syria or any other sovereign nation, never mind becoming militarily involved in the overthrow of their legitimate Government on its own soil.
However, as the democratically elected leader of Syria, Assad is legally within his rights to seek assistance from Nations friendly to him and that’s what he did with Russia. He asked the Russians to help him take back the skies over his country as a major step forward in the fight against ISIS. When they showed up, Putin’s boys didn’t hang around either. In city after city and town after town, they blasted the shit out of the nut cases, so much so that many of their number gave up and slipped back into Iraq or Turkey.
With the above as the background, last week the target area in the war on ISIS was the town Raqqa. ISIS have been there for nearly three years and though the Americans have aircraft in that area, they never laid a finger on the terrorists. More then once in the last year, the Russians have publicly asked, “Whose side are the Americans on?” So, as is their right as a Nation, the Syrians moved on Raqqa with elements of their Air Force attacking ISIS positions from the air. What happened next is very odd.
The US said its planes had acted to defend US-backed forces seeking to capture Raqqa and that was their excuse for shooting down a legitimate military aircraft acting in the confines of its own country during a time of almost civil war. The presence of the Americans in Syria is utterly illegal and yet our western media never mentions that. Not only were they not asked to come in, they have had demands that they leave from the elected Government of that country many times.
It becomes even more strange when you learn that ISIS is funded, armed and trained by Saudi Arabia, one of America’s most important allies. You could understand therefore why the Yanks have turned a complete blind eye to ISIS since the beginning. Indeed, it is rumored that ISIS is a means to an end for Washington if they, (ISIS), succeed in turning Syria into the sort of basket cases that Iraq and Libya have become.
But back to last week in Raqqa. Col John Thomas, a spokesman for US Central Command, said there were no US forces in the immediate vicinity but that the SDF was under threat for more than two hours. Therefore American lives were not in danger and instead they were protecting the SDF. According to the Guardian, “The SDF, is an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters working alongside western special forces.” But Turkey is fighting the Kurds and the US & Turkey are in NATO together. If that wasn’t crazy enough, have a look at the list of all of the nine warring factions currently operating in Syria.
The Turks are bombing Syria along their border, the Iranians fired missiles into Syria last weekend, the Americans are on the ground there offering help to anyone who will fight to overthrow Assad regardless of their declared terrorist intentions towards the West and the Russians are there helping Assad to stay in power by retaking his country.
I am leaning towards support for Moscow in this regard as Putin has told the West several times that Russia wants ISIS defeated first, then it wants to see a ceasefire and after that they have Assad’s agreement to hold national (internationally monitored), elections so that Syrians can decide their own fate in their own country. Compare that to the stated American position where they want to see Syria broken up into warring factions, much like has happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. They would appear to be supporting absolute savagery where civil law and order is gone completely, the infrastructure of the country has been utterly destroyed and the citizens are at the mercy of the ruling warlord in their own area.
Personally, I’d prefer Assad, with all his faults!