How the U.S. helped create another huge humanitarian crisis
The headline says it all: Fears of mass killings as IS advances in Syria's Deir Ezzor
As the Islamic State group closes in on government-held areas of Syria's Deir Ezzor, residents said they are terrified of falling victim to the mass killings for which the jihadists have become infamous.
Besieged by IS since early 2015, the regime-controlled third of Deir Ezzor city is home to an estimated 100,000 people.
Since Saturday, IS has steadily advanced in a fresh assault on that part of the city, sparking fears among residents of widespread atrocities.
"Civilians in the city are terrified and anxious, afraid that IS will enter (government-held parts of) the city since they accuse us of being 'regime thugs'," said Abu Nour, 51.
For over a year the extremely isolated enclave withstood one ISIS assault after another.
With ISIS suffering massive defeats in 2016, it appeared that Deir Ezzor would outlast ISIS.
Then the United States got involved.
In the defense of the Deir Ezzor Airport, the Syrian military has long depended on an army base in Jebel Tharda to repel ISIS advances. That base has been lost this weekend, after a disastrous series of US-led airstrikes killed a large number of Syrian troops defending the base, and ISIS quickly overran what was left.
For over 20 minutes, the coalition warplanes attacked the base. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack killed at least 83 Syrian troops and wounded 120 others. The US Central Command claimed they thought the base belonged to ISIS.
It does now. With the forces decimated by the US attack, ISIS quickly overran the base.
Cutting off the airport cut off food to 100,000 refugees.
Relief by ground forces and ground supplies are not possible as Deir Ezzor is more than 100 km away from the nearest Syria government positions west of Palmyra, which was also recently overrun by ISIS.
Four days ago ISIS launched a major offensive.
It is now attacking in full force from all sides. Bad weather makes air support from the outside sporadic and difficult. Unless some unforeseen happens it is only a question of time until the airport and the city fall to ISIS.
The city falling may or may not be true, but "dire" is an accurate word to use.
Early January U.S. airforce attacks destroyed the electricity plant at the Omar oilfield near Deir Ezzor. The plant was the last one to supply the city of Deir Ezzor...
If ISIS takes Deir Ezzor it will likely kill (as it did on other occasions) all captured SAA troops and anyone it believes to have cooperated with them. The soldiers know this. They will fight down to the last bullet. But without any reinforcements and resupplies their chances are slim.
This could be the worst massacre of the entire war.
So western media is all over it, right?
When the Syrian government besieged al-Qaeda forces in east-Aleppo the "western" media and the various "Syrian opposition" propaganda outlets were running an all out campaign in support of the besieged Takfiris. There is no such campaign in support of the civilians and soldiers in Deir Ezzor.
Comments
With friends like the US who needs enemies?
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
At some point
you have to just say that the Obama administration's intention (or the CIA's) was to create chaos, pure and simple.
This was done by design.
To claim otherwise shows that someone is either (1) a Big Liar, (2) Delusional or (3) Non-sentient.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
It is part of a pattern
Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Yemen. At some point, one has to start believing that creating chaos is a goal, as you say Steven D, rather than a byproduct of stupidity. In none of these cases was there a reasonable likelihood that bombing would lead to an outcome that would beneficial to the US. What can these people be thinking? Are they just blowing stuff up so that they can funnel more money to the MIC?
Forces the Saudis
and others in the region to "allow us" to keep our bases there, for one thing. And we do love our overseas bases. Hell, we let the Saudis fund and foment a religious jihad against Shiites and other ethnic groups there using the same groups or their successors that attacked us, and murdered thousands of civilians in the ME, Africa and Europe because suddenly that was in our interest? And helped them commit genocide in Yemen? I guess fair is fair since we are permitting the Israelis to ethnic cleanse the Palestinians, because that has been such a winner for us, too.
And yes, war is a profit maker for the MIC at many levels.
But in the end, this is ultimately about Big Oil, not just the Western multinationals, but also the oil rich Sunni states in the region making climate change while the sun shines, because - money.
Pretty fucking evil, eh?
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
If you look at the history of American foreign interventions
sowing chaos is ALWAYS Plan B if Plan A fails. Interventions in foreign countries have always been beneficial to the MIC. Sanctions that are usually applied at the time invariably hurt the ordinary citizen rather than the intended targets. The MO of sanctions is to cause enough pain to the people so that they will do America's dirty work for them. It rarely works as intended.
The Shock Doctrine
Naomi Klein has a good book on chaos as a form of class warfare.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
"We" are the Deplorables
Not that our 99% have anything to say about it. I really hope Trump can drain this swamp.
Maybe there's some hint of change? Maybe, please?
There's an article in Zerohedge talking about Trump vs. the warmongers: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/does-rogue-deep-state-have-trum...
pointing out that most of the warmongers are civilians (except for crazy John McCain, who only got away with crashing five planes because his father was an admiral), and that all Trump's military appointments may mean that there's an opposing anti war group among those who have been in combat. I sure hope there are some tough bastards, who know the system and the people, who are on the anti-war side. We Shouldn't keep underestimating Trump's tactics.
Despite falling for Obama's "Hope and Change" in '08 (big flaw in judgment), I'm convinced that Hillary is the most bloodthirsty candidate we've seen in a long time. The CIA sure does seem to desperately hate and fear Trump.
Report by RT
thx for staying on top of this /eom
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
**sigh**
I have truly come to hate Barack Obama. He's nothing but an
Too bad for the aged, women and children, young men, and wedding parties. They should know better than to sit on our oil and get in our way.
BUT REMEMBER - this, as well as everything else that went wrong with this 'New' Democratic administration is the fault of Putin and Trump. They MAKE us kill innocent people and spy on our own citizens. /s
EDIT: sign/sigh
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
What's ahead for the war on Syria? Eva Bartlett speaks
Independent reporter, Eva Bartlett, speaks the truth about Syria. Jan 1, 2017.
Remember the YPG in Kobane?
I have more faith in the SAA defenders of Deir Ezzor than many. They are hardened veterans, professional defenders supported by the population and will fight smart, fearlessly and to the last man and woman. Daesh are a hoard of monkey-like banshees who will end up beating themselves to death with stupid tactics like making themselves targets shouting Alliah Akhbar as they rush into carefully set up crossfires, ambushes and traps.
200 crack troops were brought in by heliocopter, Russians are bombing the amoebas and pin worms out of Daesh, and I even saw reports of USA air strikes on Daesh positions today: "18 hours ago - 35°15′N 40°12′E US confirm they conducted several airstrikes since Saturday on IS in DeirEzzor to support government - destroyed 12 vehicles and 1 barrier.
https://isis.liveuamap.com/en/2017/18-january-us-confirm-they-conducted-...
This siege has the potential of breaking Daesh's assault on humanity. Here is an article about the siege of Kobani that will cheer you up:
http://www.napalminthemorning.com/kobane-siege-isis-defeat-ypg-resistance/
If you want to see the reality of Daesh's fighting ability, instead of watching their bullshit propaganda, watch this and compare to SAA or SDF fighters.
From the Light House.
Hope so.
Seven minutes...
Either it was one of the greatest tactical guesses in the History of Warfare for ISIS to launch its offensive practically immediately after the Americans ended their bombing runs on the Syrians, or someone in the US military told ISIS when the runs were over.
There are no other options.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
"We're a compassionate society" eom.
.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho
The timing of this strike
is like the one that essentially ended the September ceasefire.
I DON'T THINK WE MAKE MISTAKES.
I think we have a CIA-run operation in the region and a U.S. military-run operation in the region and that the two are in opposition to each other. These so-called mistakes are the response by CIA-run forces to the invitation by Russia for the U.S. to attend the peace negotiations in Astana.
Whenever there's a significant effort to end this madness, some part of our forces make a significant ERROR that dismembers the peace process. We have to face the reality that at least a part of our government's military leadership is acting against the interests of the United States. The timing of these errors is just too obvious.