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Bizarrely, Putin is talking more sense on Syria than anyone else

Our Syria plans have been a total shambles – leaving a vacuum for Russia's

26 September 2015

8:00 AM

26 September 2015

8:00 AM

At the outset of Syria’s brutal four-year civil war, I was an almost unique voice in the British media deploring the push to depose the secular dictator President Bashar al-Assad, especially in the absence of a genuinely popular uprising against him. Here in The Spectator I tried to point out that such a short-term strategy would have devastating long-term consequences. Assad, I argued, would not fall, because the people of Damascus would not rise up against him. The so-called secular rebels were in fact vicious Islamists in disguise. Western interests in the region would be dramatically undermined by Saudi and Iranian militias, who would fight a devastating proxy war. Syria’s extraordinarily diverse population risked annihilation as a result. And we could even end up provoking a full-blown war with Russia.

No one listened, and I tired of trying to convince them of their folly. Four years on, the suffering of the Syrian people — 250,000 slaughtered, half of the population internally displaced and millions more made refugees — is obvious. And last week, in the midst of Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war (brought about in no small part by fleeing Syrians), the extent of the West’s geopolitical miscalculations became painfully evident. Jihadists of various affiliations, who are now unequivocally the only opposition, were encroaching on Syria’s Alawite-dominated coastal heartland, and inching ever closer towards Damascus. So the long-time Syrian ally Russia called Washington’s bluff by establishing military bases in the regime stronghold Latakia. In a flash its tanks, fighter jets, military advisers, warships and even its most modern anti-aircraft missile system were in place. Its engineers constructed an airport landing strip almost overnight, as its navy conducted menacing drills in the nearby (Russian-leased) Syrian port of Tartus.

This was the most brazen overseas military deployment by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. But it caught Nato off guard. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, we learnt of the Islamic State’s new caliphate — arguably the most important development in the region since the founding of Israel in 1948 — only when its leader announced the event on YouTube. Still, the question remains: why did the Russians move to guarantee Assad’s survival? The short answer is because the West’s Syrian strategy was in such disarray that Russia could expect Nato to look the other way.


In recent months, for fear of prolonging Assad’s rule, rather than seriously confronting the Islamic State the Pentagon has instead focused on doctoring intelligence briefings to sex up its limited successes. Meanwhile its harebrained idea of training an entirely new rebel army from scratch — to simultaneously topple the Assad regime and defeat the Islamic State — cost more than $40 million, and produced just four or five soldiers. Thirty of another batch of 75 immediately defected to al-Qaeda.

Vladimir Putin now pitches himself as Europe’s migrant-crisis saviour. Only by saving Assad, he argued, can we stem the flow. Bizarrely, he sounds as though he is making more sense than anyone else. Assad’s forces, long thought to be on the verge of collapse, meanwhile celebrated the bolstering of their military arsenal by bombing Islamic State targets in the north. Wave after wave of airstrikes hit their targets with previously unimaginable precision. Who could object to that? Senior Washington and London politicians, after years of repeating like a mantra that The Evil Dictator Assad Must Go Now, suddenly found themselves mumbling that, come to think of it, Assad does not need to go just yet after all. In fact, Nato should co-ordinate with Russia, in a renewed effort to destroy the Islamic State and stem the flow of refugees. Russia’s bluff played off.

Assad is in fact now more popular than ever in the roughly one third of Syria he still controls. Anyone in Damascus or on the coast who supported the Islamic State long since either joined it or blew themselves up among the infidels. The West, though, is more hated than ever. A recent poll found that 80 per cent of Syrians believe we created the Islamic State — a common belief, incidentally, throughout the Middle East (and not entirely inaccurate). So it took Washington and its reactionary Gulf allies four years and billions of dollars to end up eating humble pie. They have now effectively admitted that Moscow was right about Syria all along. In the process, they have undermined any humanitarian credibility our military adventurism may still have had after the Iraq nightmare.

And Russia has its navy, as well as its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system, on the edge of Europe. Since the Islamic State has no navy or air force, these are warnings to the West. Russia also looks set to deploy ground troops to Syria. Any effort to overthrow Assad in the future, we are being told, means war with Russia. Worse, we have managed to screw Israel, our only steadfast ally left in the region. For Iran joined the Russians in deploying elite Republican Guards to Syria, bolstering ties with a Hezbollah that is already leading Shiite militias fighting alongside Assad’s forces. The Obama administration has been spending the past few years trying to convince the world that Iran’s mullahs are to be trusted. So Iran knows that any criticism from Washington about its Syria meddling would play right into the hands of the nuclear deal’s opponents.

Yet more evidence, then, that US-backed calls for the removal of Assad, with the goal of weakening Iran and Hezbollah and installing a Saudi-backed proxy regime, will have the exact opposite outcome. For the entrenched regime, if it survives, will not only have the full military backing of Russia, but will also be a political tool of the Iranians.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

John R. Bradley is the author of four books on the Middle East.

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Show comments
  • virgile

    The Gulf countries are terrified by Iran to the point of blindness.
    They supported and funded Saddam Hussein for 8 years because he was fighting Iran. They got hit back with Iraq invasion and its change of hands with a Shia leadership close to Iran.
    They supported and funded Islamist extremists to topple Bashar al Assad because he was too close to Iran. They got ISIS as a reward and an even stronger closeness between Syria and Iran.
    Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemen because they believe that the Houthis are Iranian agents. It is yet to see how the situation in Yemen evolves. My hunch is that Iran’s influence in Yemen will increase.
    The whole Gulf foreign policy is infantile and ill-conceived. The result is that Iran’s influence is growing even more…

    • knave27

      Isn’t a smart geopolitical move by the US then to cozy up to a real power player in the region like Iran, hoping eventually to rely on it as the Shiite equivalent of Turkey to promote its policy, instead of relying to a non-country like Israel that without US support and money is nothing?

      • Sunshine Sux

        Israel hasn’t had US support since Obama took over in 2008, in fact, he has done everything to undermine Israeli security. Nothing the Obama administration has touched in the ME, has been discussed with Israel, and it’s her policy not to ever comment on anything in the region that does not directly involve her.
        Israel is still standing, ALONE, while US has been weakened considerably, not to mention what is going on all around Israel…..

        Try again.

        • Bonkim

          Israel had its own way for too long. Time Israel recognized the reality of its position.

          • Sunshine Sux

            What reality? Israel is standing despite all odds.
            The day Europe is going to be in a position to lecture Israel about survival in the most hostile region on earth, will be the day Israel dies.

          • Shazza

            Well said.

            Only one mistake in this comment. The term ‘islamist’ should be replaced by ‘islamic’.

          • Sunshine Sux

            agreed

          • Augustus

            “Just like Nazism started with Hitler’s vision, the Islamic vision is a caliphate, a society ruled by Sharia law, in which women who have sex before marriage are stoned to death, homosexuals are beaten, and apostates like me are killed. Sharia law is as inimical to liberal democracy as Nazism. … Violence is inherent in Islam; it’s a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder.”
            – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

          • Thomas Jefferson

            Just like a Nazi, eeevil Nazis, Nazi this Hitler that. Enough of this racist anti-German stupidity and bias. Any truthful reading of the history of the 30,s and the second world war undeniably points to all the Allies being far more “evil”than the Germans. How about 1.5 million German POW, s de -mobbed , disarmed left to rot and die deliberately behind barbed wire in open fields, anyone trying to feed them threatened with being shot. How about the fire bombing of 60 German towns and cities towards the end of the war, civilian targets, women and children , no strategic value whatsoever, some estimate up to 400,000 in one night at Dresden, the single greatest mass murder of civilians in a single day in history. How about the unspoken rape of nearly all German women and female children for 2 years after the war was won, GANG PUBLIC RAPE , mothers in front of their children , daughters in front of their fathers. No wonder the “heroes” who came back from that war did,nt want to talk about it.

          • Firebombing of German cities? Perhaps the Germans should have thought of that before they firebombed Guernica, Rotterdam, Warsaw, London, Coventry, Plymouth and countless other places as it can only be described as infantile to think you can do that without it being done back to you. Likewise, it was the Germans who not only invaded Russia but embarked on a so-called war of annihilation. How infantile to not expect a reaction to the atrocities committed during that invasion and war of annihilation.

          • Lee Butler

            Sorry you are miss informed. Civilian targets in Germany were bombed first. This is another fallacy entrenched into the minds of generations. Churchill needed to take the bombs away from the British military targets because we was losing the battle of Britain. Britain bombed German cities for a full three days and nights with pleads from Hitler to stop. This fell on deaf ears and the blitz began.

          • logdon

            Wrong!

          • Lee Butler

            The official explanation is below however in reality no civilians where bombed by the Luftwaffe. They dropped a bomb on a chicken coup just inside the exclusion zone and killed some chickens because of dense fog. This resulted in Churchill bombing German Civilians for three days. Research it!!!

            ”This was a result of a rapid escalation starting on 24 August 1940, when night bombers aiming for RAF airfields drifted off course and accidentally destroyed several London homes, killing civilians, combined with the UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s immediate response of bombing Berlin on the following night”.

          • logdon

            Wrong.

          • Bob-B

            Guernica, Rotterdam, Warsaw were all long before the Blitz.

          • For your information, I think you’ll find Guernica, Warsaw & Rotterdam were all bombed well before Britain bombed anywhere in Germany. In the case of Rotterdam, I think it was done even before the technicality of actually declaring war on Holland. In the case of the Soviet Union, you might also reflect on the fact that occurred in defiance of a treaty, the so-called Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939. Around 25 million civilian deaths are said to have occurred in the Soviet Union during the German invasion. I’ll leave the last words to the commander of Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris: “The Nazis started this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind”.

          • Lee Butler

            The official explanation is below however in reality no civilians in London were bombed by the Luftwaffe. They dropped a bomb on a chicken coup just inside the exclusion zone and killed some chickens because of dense fog. This resulted in Churchill bombing German Civilians for three days. Research it!!! Rotterdam was three months earlier. We and our allies declared war on Germany not vise versa. The Germans had a right to defend their people in the border towns of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The ethic poles and Czechs committed repeated atrocities again Ethnic Germans before any German soldier stepped foot on this soil. Hitler showed proof of this and Chamberlain agreed.

            ”This was a result of a rapid escalation starting on 24 August 1940, when night bombers aiming for RAF airfields drifted off course and accidentally destroyed several London homes, killing civilians, combined with the UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s immediate response of bombing Berlin on the following night”.

          • So the Russians, the Poles, the Dutch, the Americans, the Belgians, the Danes, the Norwegians, the Luxemburgers, the Greeks etc all declared war on Germany first? Very interesting! Rotterdam didn’t matter, but Dresden does?
            For your information too, the first British civilian casualties of the Second World War were the 128 passengers and crew of the SS Athenia, a defenceless passenger liner torpedoed by the German U-Boat U30 on the 3rd September 1939 within hours of war commencing between Britain and Germany.

          • Ninebobnote

            idiot

          • Lee Butler

            Dont speak about him like that you twat.

          • Sunshine Sux

            Yes, if anything these mouth foaming anti-semites only show how ridiculously uneducated and ignorant they are. We should thank them.

          • Thomas Jefferson

            Thank you Lee Butler for reply to these peoples victors propaganda “knowledge” of history. Lets just make one point absolutely clear , the National Socialists, Adolph Hitler and the German people did not want war and made repeated attempts to make peace. The war was brought to them “whether they want it or not” as one Polish general said because they had proved to the world that in the midst of a global depression of the 30,s , the German economy was going gangbusters because they had released themselves from the tyranny of the international bankers usurous monetary system and they refused to bend the knee to these globalists and also because they would not stand by while their Germanic brothers and sisters were slaughtered in territories that had been German before they were robbed by the unjust Versailles “treaty”. Also they were well aware of the countless millions of mass murders being committed by Marxists over the border in Russia and were not going to allow that attrocity tyranny to encroach further into Europe.

          • Bonkim

            Good.

          • Lee Butler

            Too true. In fact he was on the cover of Time magazine once! I always say if Hitler would have died in 1939 there would be statues of him all over Germany today. We refused to acknowledge Germany’s sovereign right to protect its own people. The treaty was the result of the Jewish lead monetary army that funded the surrender of Germany in WWI. They never give money away, business as usual. The same tactics are used today, creating internal chaos and arm one side ”light the fuse” step back and watch it explode. Syria! ”arm the rebels” Iraq ”arm the rebels” Libya ”arm the rebels” Afghanistan ”arm the government”

          • Владимир Неберт

            Write something about bombing Kyiv and Moscow.

          • Bonkim

            Are you rewriting the history of WW2?

          • Jackthesmilingblack

            And the East End paid the price.

          • Владимир Неберт

            It is not quite right to call the Nazys Germans. The Germans are not the same the Nazys. Nazy could be a man of any ethnic origin and there were many people who were Nazys but not Germans.
            In Germany not only lefts and liberals were against Hitler except them there were conservative aristocratic people who believed in God loved their motherland and many of them even wanted a restoration of the German empire with a Kaiser. They commited the attempt at Hitler in 1944. They were in my opinion real Germans but not the Nazys.

          • Freddythreepwood

            Are you up-ticking yourself?

          • Kenny Fraser

            nazism and the german people are NOT mutually compatable.typical idiotic “sausage and mash” mentality.

          • Hayate

            Thomas Jefferson,you have just spoken what you are not supposed to say AND dont you dare deny the Holocaust or talk about Jews,you will be considered an Anti-Semite.But you can go ahead and defame the prophet of Islam and you are protectyed.What proof do you need of the Zionists controlling the World?.But their empire will end.

          • Thomas Jefferson

            Yes Hayate if you look at the comments above you will see that I have already been called a “mouth foaming anti-semite” even though I did,nt mention the alleged “holocost” or jews even, so how they make that claim I really dont know other than they have been taught to use that as a kneejerk response to shut down a dialog anytime they cannot use logic and facts to win an arguement . They have cried wolf and over used that self pity tactic for too long and it just does,nt work anymore, nobody feels sorry for them and as for “dats rayciss” and all the other speech tyranny now people are sick of it and waking up to the false narrative of it all and giving it the finger.

          • Augustus

            “When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”
            -Thomas Jefferson

          • Владимир Неберт

            For them who wants to slim:

            “When hungry count to ten before you open the refrigerator. If very hungry, count to one hundred.”

          • Hayate

            Islamic State was created and funded by the US and its allies Saudi Arabia(Godless heathens),Qatar,The UAE and Turkey.You gambled on them doing your dirt work,but you never thought they would be your worst enemy.Battles for power are a big gamble.The US doesnt have ISIS knocking at its door.But they are now inside Europe.Why does Europe has to play the US game of follow the leader when Europe are the losers.I cant understand the rationale.And the war in Syria and Iraq are all to protect and keep Israel in control in the ME.See now?.Israel are the spawn of the Devil.Their doom is not far.

          • disqus_1HUI45H95s

            The new world order own both the USA and Europe thats why they follow the leader they are the leaders

          • Jambo25

            Islamic State and the other various groups of atavistic Islamic nutters have deep roots in Islamic culture going back to the more hateful bits (and there are a lot) of the Koran and Haddith. The modern lunacy we now see has its origin in Wahhabism, Deobandism and various other Muslim movements over the past 200 years or so. When observers say that Islam requires its own Reformation, they miss the point. It has already had its Reformation and the hateful, intolerant nutters we now see are the product. Islam requires its own Enlightenment but don’t hold your breath waiting on that.
            That’s where this article is spot on. The choice in the Islamic world is between secular and vaguely rational Fascist authoritarianism and the irrational, atavistic, barbaric lunacy we see from ISIS , Al Qaeda etc. In the Islamic world there is very little good and bad. There tends to be merely bad and worse.

          • Hayate

            Jambo25.I guess you too dont know much about Islam.ISIS,Al Qaeda etc were CREATED by the US to serve their purpose in Afghanistan then spread to Iraq and Syria.Syria was a peaceful country until the US GOADED Europe to join in dfestabilizing Syria for the sake of Israel.The Saudis and Qatar with Turkey joined in too.Now you are getting ISIS in Europe flooding (refugees?).They are in there.Erdogan yourTurkish ally is pushing them into Europe because Europe blocked his free zone INSIDWE SYRIA that he wanted so he could push the terrorists into Syria from there.He is another power hungry arrogant fool that wants the Ottoman Empire revived.YOUR ALLY,SAUDI ARABIA:YOUR ALLY,QATAR:YOUR ALLY.KUWAIT,BAHRAIN AND THE UAE:YOUR ALLY.ISRAEL:YOUR ALLY.AL QAEDA, AL NUSRA,ISIS,ISIL,TALIBAN ALL YOUR ALLIES.The US and Europe have destroyed the Middle East and now its Africa and they are coming your way.But your politicians were thinking about new conquests,colonies,oil.I say,YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.Send the Zionists who are hiding in Europe and the US to the Middle East to fight instead of skulking as you are far from the killings.

          • Jambo25

            Do not tell me what I do or do not Know. I clearly know far more than you. ISIS had little or nothing to do with Afghanistan and, in fact, didn’t exist in its present form when Western activity was at its height. Al Qaeda was created partly by Saudi Wahabbists but mainly by the Pakistani Military, particularly the ISI in their lunatic attempt to rival India in South Asia and negate the influence of the Bhuttos, their Scindi supporters and anyone else with a modicum of decency in the Pakistani elite. Al Qaeda, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan itself are in bed with elements of the military: once again, particularly the ISI.
            Before you leap in and show your ignorance and fanatical stupidity go and do some research on Wahabbism, Deobandism and the Muslim Brotherhood and its more extreme off shoots.

          • Tamerlane

            Everyone’s suddenly an expert on ISIS and Wahabism but then Jambo was friends with Bin Laden, Mandela and Che Guevara, they all drank together down at his local (fruit juice for Bin Laden of course, although there was the rumour he liked the odd tipple of Tequila in there). Anyhow just as well the Pakistani government, the UN and the world’s leaders have you to advise them before it gets really out of hand.

          • Tamerlane

            You do love the sound of your own voice Jambo. You do understand this is just your opinion right? It’s not fact, it’s one of several theories you’ve picked up from the reading the usual Western attempts to rationalise fundamentalism and you’re not offering anything ground breaking here. Do you actually realise you’re not an expert on this? Please tell me you’re not that much of a sad lonely man.

          • jeanne

            I’m really not a friend of Israel, but I have to congratulate you on your sense of reality. It is something Europeans have learned to avoid like the plague – we’re politically correct or bust, we’re full-tilt delusional, and so bust we will.

          • ardenjm

            “The reality is that Israel spends billions on the Iron Dome, and not on importing and feeding Muslims, here and abroad.”

            Just one, important, caveat: As a proportion of its population, Israel has a far higher number of Muslims than Europe does. Many Israeli citizens are Muslims – around 20% in fact. And that number is growing. So the demographics are not exactly on Israel’s side here. The Jewish population in Israel is growing by importing those with tenuous Jewish connections: those pork-eating Russian grandchildren of Jews scandalise their more Orthodox countrymen – and as for the Haredi their population growth is both a drain on Israeli resources and a destabilising influence politically: the Ultra-Orthodox are bully-boys ready for confrontation, even if they are not (yet) radicalised like Hezbollah and assorted Wahabbi fanatics around Israel.
            I hope Israel survives another 50 years. It’s an oasis of relative sanity in a desert of wilful ignorance.

          • Sunshine Sux

            You make good points, however the pork-eating Russian Jews serve proudly in the IDF, while the Orthodox do not. Israel as a whole is a secular society, and a military state, not by choice, but by necessity, so it is the Orthodox who will have to adapt more and more, and not the other way around – fortunately I believe.
            As for the Israeli Arabs: their demographics are high, but I like to believe that they enjoy their freedom and safety within Israel, something their brothers do not have in the neighbouring countries. I know many Arabs in Israel, they do well, they live well, and I’m sure that most wouldn’t leave Israel for any other country in the region. Because nothing is keeping them there, they are free to leave anytime, but they choose not to.
            I wholeheartedly agree with your last statement.
            Hey, nobody thought Israel would survive this long, so here’s to hope.

          • bobmattfran

            Israel sanity!!! Please gte 21st Nazi state that is Israel is I suppose in your dimmed eyes a beacon for good, when in fact it is nothing more than a corrupt stinking mess on the take from the US taxpayer.

          • RWJ

            When it comes to it………….the Jew can become the Nazi……….and has.

          • ItinerantView

            The Israelis are copying Hamas now?
            According to this Palestinian;
            “Hamas Uses Hitler-Like Methods”
            http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8719.htm

          • fred flintstone

            Further to your point, Most of the European and British races of people are dying out naturally. They are having 1.2-1.3 children per couple. That is not sustainable. Muslims are coming in from all over the world to make up the numbers and they are producing 3.1 children per couple minimum, so it will not be many years before they are the majority in our countries. the USA are holding their own and Israel are doing great and increasing their own race.

          • bobmattfran

            So the rest of the world is screwed. A bunch of corrupt greedy warmongering lunatic born again neocon lunatics controlled by AIPAC supporting a bunch of modern day neo nazis in US, peermanently on the take in Israel on the other.

          • Hayate

            Well said Bobmattfran.They shove down our throats that we should accept the Zionist racist bods for better or for worse.There would be no Muslims running to Europe if the US and Europe along with the colusion of Qatar,Saudi Arabia,Kuwait,Bahrain,UAE didnt invade,finance terrorists and destroy these countries making its people homeless when they were perfectly happy.

          • Yaser Haloum

            Sorry : What Israel does mean????? I reckon you mean this cancer in Palestine?? mostly you are crying for this cancer.
            This cancer would be extracted form its roots.

          • bobmattfran

            When I need lessons from an apologist for a Zionist Nazi will be the time that I no longer have the strength to fight corruption, warmongering, murderers and self serving lowlife who live theri lives based on lies, greed and murder of women and children.

          • Kenny Fraser

            well said! while i have no wish to harbour any ill feelings towards those of jewish faith, i will never support zionist militarist expansionism,nor its basic ill treatment of its palestinian neighbour.

          • Kenny Fraser

            and we’ll just murder a few more palestinians to make the point eh?

          • Hayate

            Kenny Fraser,are you in Israel saying ‘we’ll’ when you are skulking in fear of Hezbollah and Hamas?.The US calls Hezbollah ‘terrorist’ just to please Israel.Well Kenny show us if you have balls to back up your rhetoric.Go to Israel and kill.

          • Hayate

            Sunshine me boy.You stink of Zionist racism.Israel standing?.They are afraid of Hezbollah and Hamas and their end is near.Their Iron Dome is all talk.It has failed.I guess you dont have access to Israeli TV to hear and know what is going on in Israel.Jerusalem will bring down the Zionist State.Migration has never been bigger than now with many leaving Israel back to wherever they came from.Just watch Channel 10 among others and you will be enlightened

          • Jack Rocks

            Its position being … the only place in the entire region an Arab lives under the rule of law and can vote in free and fair elections?

          • jeanne

            Syria has elections and they seem to be free enough – it’s just that the alternatives, Assad against two of his ministers – aren’t all that alternative. But then you could say the same about elections in the US, where you always vote for the same plutocracy. Israel may be more lively in that respect 😉

          • Jack Rocks

            Syrian elections are “free enough”? Hahahahaha. You’re too funny.

            Same as the USA? No. It really isn’t.

          • Kenny Fraser

            are YOUR elections free? ha!ha!ha! just like the conveniently “lost” votes in florida for example? then of course there are those who are not permitted to vote,the homeless? the incarcerated?

          • Jack Rocks

            How many supreme court cases over “hanging chads” did you need to see?

          • Kenny Fraser

            your american terminology is an alien phenomenon to me old boy,just like my saying to you “yer a muckle gret neep,an dinna fash yersel” would mean to you probably. are “chads” the detritous that dangles from your butt-hair?

          • Hayate

            Jack,what DO YOU KNOW about Syria?.You have destroyed a whole nation and you laugh you poor ignorant grade 3 sod?.

          • Jack Rocks

            How did WE destroy Syria?

            Idiot.

          • bobmattfran

            Rubbish the extreme religious freaks in Israel control the government. You know the ones I mean, the ones that consider its OK to cheat the Goyim and any one with a dark skin is an animal.

          • Kenny Fraser

            dont forget they are the “chosen people” !!!! lol!

          • Fairly Educated Scot

            Apart from Turkey you mean?

          • Erique Lamont

            Love ’em or loathe ’em, Israel is the ONLY real democracy in the Middle-East, and a real thorn in the sides of the Medievalism that is Islam.

            The world should recognise that Israel is a buffer to Muslim aggression; imagine how bad things would be if all the Muslim aggression directed to Israel were also directed to the West?

          • Bonkim

            Agree somewhat but Israel needs to rein in the Jewish bigots too.

          • jeremy Morfey

            Except it isn’t. I don’t know what deal was stitched up between ISIS and Likud, but practically all ISIS’s aggression has been raining down on Christians, other Muslims and secular historians and aid workers. Very little against Israel, which seems to be being left alone.

            The buffer to Muslim aggression is where all the refugees and migrants are going – the neighbouring states of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, followed by most of Eastern Europe, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

          • Hayate

            Bonkim,dont bother with Sunshine whatever.You cant teach what is going on to an illiterate.All that is going on I wrote about 2-3 years ago here on Yahoo Comments.American policies are for the benefit of Israel.Europe are the losers as Turkey has unleashed the refugees to Europe in anger with the EU for going against his ‘free zone’ inside Syrian territory that the egotistic maniac Erdogan wants to continue pushing terrorists across the border into Syria.How do you think they are entering Syria and Iraq?.Europe followed America which has no fear of ISIS,Al Qaeda and Al Nusra(after all,Obama has been backing them).They are now inside Europe mingled in the refugee population.God help you in Europe.They are coming to kill and destroy.It will reach the US and Israel,give it time.You reap what you sow.The Aparheid State of Israel is doomed into extinction.Your erswhile ‘terrorists’ Hezbollah and the Syrian Army are the only ones fighting the Takfiri terrorists.

          • Bonkim

            Agree somewhat!

        • knave27

          The money Israel is receiving from the US has been growing steadily every year under Obama

          https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html

          You need to get out of your Jerusalem basement.

          • Sunshine Sux

            I believe it is you who lives in a basement, is it your mother’s?

            Israel does not receive aid. Palestinians receive aid: $8 billion per year, the highest amount of aid per capita worldwide, and have nothing to show for.
            What Israelis get from the US, is more of an investment towards military technology, medical technology and intelligence services. It’s not free, it’s an exchange of services.
            Israel also trades and sells technologies to 170+ countries worldwide, chances are that your pc/mobile phone is Israeli chipped, and your medicine cabinet is full of pharmaceuticals that went through Israeli laboratories. Your hospitals certainly have Israeli medical equipment and machines. You are welcome.

            Or you might prefer Palestinians inventions, such as the fantastic suicide belt.
            Now back to your Mama’s basement.

          • knave27

            Oh pwetty please, tell me more, I wanna know about your magic Talmudic powers and how they are going to take humanity to the stars, you can lead the way by building a spaceship and take your filthy parasitic tribe to the furthest end of the galaxy and leave the world to live in peace for once, you won’t be missed, and thanks for your contributions (usury, degeneracy, wars), it would be the best to happen in the solar system since the earth started orbiting the sun.

          • Ilya

            No magic required. Just hard work and a respect for knowledge. How unfortunate that neo-Nazis like yourself benefit from Jewish contributions along with the rest of humanity. For example, Jews have probably extended your lifespan. Over one in four Nobel Prizes for medicine have gone to Jews.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates#cite_note-about.com-article-4

          • knave27

            Jewish contribution to the advancement of mankind in any field of science is zero, everything was invented by white Europeans and the Nobel Prize is as joke, where Jews award other Jews for their self-referential Talmudic “contributions”.

          • Ilya

            Have you ever used air travel? Used GPS in any other way? If you have
            then I’m afraid that I have to tell you that you relied on Einstein’s
            ‘Talmudic’ theories of relativity.
            http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html
            Jews also developed the polio vaccine.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Sabin
            And the Hepatitis B vaccine.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Samuel_Blumberg
            I could go on and on. The sad fact is that you may very well be alive today as a result of Jewish contributions.

          • Fairly Educated Scot

            Was Einstein Israeli?

          • Ilya

            No but Robert Aumann, Daniel Kahneman, Arieh Warshel, Dan Shechtman, Ada Yonath, Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover are.

          • Fairly Educated Scot

            So why mention him then?

          • Ilya

            Because I assumed that knave27 was talking about all Jews. Considering his responses, I was probably right.

          • Hayate

            Who were these Zionist killers?

          • Ilya

            I’m not surprised that you’re this ignorant. Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates#cite_note-about.com-article-4
            They’re the ones with ‘Israel’ next to their names.

          • thomasaikenhead

            No, and he refused the chance to be President of Israel as well!

          • FORD

            Einstein developed his ideas from the work of a Scot, a Dutchman, and a Frenchman, who all preceded him, if I remember correctly.

          • Ilya

            It’s almost as if science builds on itself over time.

          • knave27

            All invented by white Europeans, apparently your intellectual laziness doesn’t allow your to read further than your entry level wiki articles, and Einstein was a charlatan fraud who would discuss physics with artists and art with scientists.

          • Ilya

            You’re not impressed by the theory of relativity? Ok, I don’t expect everyone to appreciate these things. But keep in mind that it’s essential to our global navigation
            system.
            The other two folks I mentioned also made essential contributions:
            “Albert Bruce Sabin, (born Aug. 26, 1906, Białystok, Poland, Russian Empire—died March 3, 1993, Washington, D.C., U.S.), Polish American physician and microbiologist best known for developing the oral polio vaccine. He was also known for his research in the fields of human viral diseases, toxoplasmosis, and cancer.” http://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Bruce-Sabin#ref273808
            “Baruch S. Blumberg, in full Baruch Samuel Blumberg
            (born July 28, 1925, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died April 5, 2011, Moffett Field, near Mountain View, California), American research physician whose discovery of an antigen that provokes antibody response against hepatitis B led to the development by other researchers of a successful vaccine against the disease. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1976 with D. Carleton Gajdusek for their work on the origins and spread of infectious viral diseases.”
            http://www.britannica.com/biography/Baruch-S-Blumberg

            Then there are these guys:
            “Karl Landsteiner, (born June 14, 1868, Vienna, Austrian Empire [Austria]—died June 26, 1943, New York, N.Y., U.S.), Austrian American immunologist and pathologist who received the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the major blood groups and the development of the ABO system of blood typing that has made blood transfusion a routine medical practice.” http://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Landsteiner
            “Sir Ernst Boris Chain, (born June 19, 1906, Berlin, Ger.—died Aug. 12, 1979, Mulrany, Ire.), German-born British biochemist who, with pathologist Howard Walter Florey (later Baron Florey), isolated and purified penicillin (which had been discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming) and performed the first clinical trials of the antibiotic. For their pioneering work on penicillin Chain, Florey, and Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.” http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernst-Boris-Chain
            I could go on and on.

          • Sunshine Sux

            you’re an embarrassment to anything white actually

          • knave27

            You’re not in a position to pass judgement on any color of the human race, Moshe, since you aren’t part of it, Judenfilth.

          • Ilya

            An ‘anti-Zionist’, ladies and gentlemen. Take a bow knave27.

          • knave27

            You aren’t in a position to pass judgement on any color of the human race, Moshe, since you’re not part of it, J*denfilth.

          • Muhammad Abbass

            Yes Einstein a fraud and WRONG about too much to bother with him anymore. He was also a nasty man and a philanderer.

          • freddiethegreat

            Unlike ol’ Mo, of course

          • Hayate

            Knave27,thy have been indoctrinatyed since babies in Israeli schools and believe what they have been fed.Dont discuss with an illiterate.

          • Roger Hudson

            If the Nazis hadn’t reacted stupidly to all forms of what they called ‘jewish sciences’ they could have conquered Europe totally.

          • Hayate

            Big Zionist money also ‘buys’ inventions and get patents in their name.Hell,they dominate the media.They can make you beleive anything.All it needs is money.They already have their plans laid out.See THE PROTOCOLS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION if they have not had this removed from the Net.

          • Ilya

            You think Einstein bought the theory of relativity? You’re hilariously bonkers. Also the Protocols are a bad hoax.

          • Hayate

            I would have been VERY surprised if you had answered differently Ilya.You are flabbergasted and dont know how to hit back.Why dont you go to the North of Israel; and I go to the South of Lebanon and see who has got BALLS.Israel was a myth.When you had weapons and the others didnt you were superior.Now that Hezbollah HAS weapons,you dont overfly Lebanese territory anymore.Your days are numbered.If you are hiding somewhere in Europe,change residence and go to Israel and show us what you’re made of.All you do is kill DEFENCELESS Palestinian kids who only have stones and now crazy Netanyahu has authorized live bullets to be used on stone throwing kids.Brave Zionists arent you.Cowardly lot

          • Ilya

            Hit back? What have you hit me with? You’re doing a superb job in making your side look crazy.
            “When you had weapons and the others didnt you were superior.”
            Actually the Soviet Union armed the Arab states very well. They just weren’t very good at using those weapons. Hezbollah isn’t much good either at anything other than hiding in Lebanon behind their civilians. I don’t see them ‘liberating’ Jerusalem. Do you?

          • Kennybhoy

            Just. Fuck. Off. Please…? 🙁

          • 2fishypoliticians

            I see Islamist trolls are now rearing their ugly heads. Sad… they want to wallow in a sense of victimhood and create their own version of events to justify it.

          • freddiethegreat

            Islamist trolls are “djinns”

          • Hayate

            2fishypoliticians,hahaha,getting on your narkers?.Idiot.Espece du cont.!!

          • Hayate

            Kennybhoy.Did I get to your sensitivities,oh Lord!!!.

          • freddiethegreat

            Aha! now we know! You’re a leftover from the Tsarist police

          • scotbot

            As impressive as this wee list is it’s nothing compared to Scots contributions to science, technology, and reasoning.

            Of course, maybe the Scots are secret Hebews and they just don’t know it yet. Who knows, eh!

          • Ilya

            It’s a comment post, not an exhaustive account of the many great Jewish contributions. There are books dealing with that topic, if you’re interested (which I doubt). Of course, you don’t have to be Jewish to make brilliant contributions to civilization. As I posted earlier, all you need is hard work and a respect for knowledge. Scotland has produced many such people. You’re not one of them.

          • Jambo25

            I don’t think scotbot was attacking the Jewish contribution to civilisation which is immense. Lighten up. I would forgive Jews whatever their transgressions may have been merely for Mendelssohn’s Octet and championing of Bach.
            We do seem, however, to have turned over a rock in this discussion and are seeing some very nasty things crawling out.

          • Ilya

            You may be right about scotbot. I’ve just had some very bizarre exchanges in this thread. Some really tragicomic stuff about Jews stealing all of their inventions and rigging the Nobels.

          • Jambo25

            For what its worth Israel (and probably Jordan) seems to be the only state worth living in in the rat’s nest we call the Mid East. I certainly found Arab Christians to be happy, on the quiet, to be living there rather than elsewhere in the region.

          • scotbot

            “You’re not one of them.” Easy on the flattery, dude.

          • freddiethegreat

            True, but the scots, being Protestants, adopted the Bible – which gave them the Hebrew worldview

          • Jambo25

            Not too far from the truth. Scottish Presbyterianism tended to see the Scots as a modern “chosen people”.

          • Hayate

            Too right Scotbot. freddiethegreat,go research.Spain’s greatest period was under the Muslim Arab rule AND you idiot,the Jews that were being hunted and killed under the Inquisition were PROTECTED by the Muslims in Spain.Their GREATEST period was under IslamJust go and research before you open your a….All you Zionist lovers,dont join discussions with a closed patriotic mind.Educate yourselves first.Come up to our level.I guess what they omit from your schooling you wont know as they DELIBERATELY keep this from you for you to feel superior.

          • Ilya

            Spain under Muslim imperialism was a pretty good place to live by the standards of that time. The civilised world has since moved on to bigger and better things. Partly thanks to Jewish contributions. Enjoy wallowing in your dead, primitive past.

          • FORD

            Which “Scots” are you referring to? The English, (Angles and Frisians) who settled and still live in the Borders? and gave you your language. The native British of the south west of Scotland, and also Cumbria. Or the Highlanders who referred to all the people south of the Highlands as Sassenachs.
            Which ones were most responsible for the fine Scottish character?

          • Muhammad Abbass

            STOLEN

            STOLEN

            STOLEN

            STOLEN

            I too could go on as long and at least I’d be correct.

          • Ilya

            Do you have any proof? I think you’re just bitter because Muslims have only won 2 Nobel Prizes for sciences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_laureates

          • 2fishypoliticians

            That’s because islam is purely faith based and is not open to reason. Until it opens up to reason and other people it will continue to be bitter twisted and backward.

          • Ilya

            There was a period of Islamic history, a very long time ago, when they were actually more advanced than the Europeans. Then they fell far behind. That’s where a lot of this rage and paranoia comes from.

          • freddiethegreat

            It was islam that crushed science among the Arabs

          • Hayate

            Idiot Ilya,you must be.Not all Arabs are Muslims just as not all Jews are Zionists.But you wouldnt know that.

          • Ilya

            Do you have a point? The vast majority of Arabs are Muslims. And I didn’t even call him an Arab. And it’s not like the non-Muslim Arab are cleaning up at the Nobels.

          • Bonkim

            That is crap – Jews feature very high in all aspects of human achievement in relation to their population.

          • knave27

            In relation to their population they only feature disproportionately in ownership of banks, media, film studios with with which manipulate and corrupt the non-Jewish masses with cultural filth, and steal their wealth with their ponzi schemes and speculation contributing nothing in the real economy.

          • Bonkim

            Where did you learn that? Jews feature very high in technology and science, the arts, films and theatre, and also in other walks of human endeavour. Compare that to the 1.5+billion Muslims on earth mostly illiterate and contributing little to man’s development.

            I would rather Jews trumped over the useless lot.

          • snipper

            Bonkim Jews do feature in the fields that you mention, the other walks of life you forgot to include are paedophilia and pornography and they feature in a big way in both.

          • Bonkim

            Who does not?Wherever ther is vice – man follows regardless of ethnicity and religion. By the way youngsters were betrothed/married off at or before puberty under Church Law – as it is now under Sharia. Present age restrictions even in Britain are a feature of the last century.

            Victorian Gents were notorious – and how?

          • 2fishypoliticians

            Err..and you are forgetting (deliberately) that the ‘severe onanologists’ that Boris Johnson referred to and the racist gangs that rape white girls in Oxford, Lancashire etc are from the rop. Good one!

          • Hayate

            I never cease to be amazed by the idiocy and stupidity of the Zionist shit eating idiots that marry their nieces.You are an incestuous clan and God forbade incest.You are spawn of the devil,Satan,Beelzebub,Baal.

          • Bonkim

            You sound like one of these illiterate Muslim degenerates that fell of the back of the lorry on your way to Hungary.

            Go wash your filth elsewhere.

          • dwarfpoo

            I think you will find Pakistani Muslims in Bradford have a very high incidence of birth defects from breeding within their family.

          • Fairly Educated Scot

            The vast majority of these “Jewish contributions” have not been from Israelis. Why does Israel get credit for the excellent work of American Jews living and working in a secular country like the US?

          • Bonkim

            and Jews in Russia, and many other countries. Hollywood would not have done what it did but for Jewish emigres from Europe. Simply that modern Israel is home to many clever people too.

          • Jambo25

            Because Israel alone is still more prominent in terms of human progress than most other states and more prominent over the length of its existence than the entire Islamic world.

          • Mony Shlomo

            well, israel is number two in the world in term of scientific publications 140 for every 10000 people. israel is number 1 in the world in the ratio of nobel prizes relative to its size.

          • Hayate

            What contributions when you have always been beggars and usurpers?.You stole Palestine from the Palestinians and with the guilt you dumped on Europe and America(overplayed by the Media you controlled),you got their support and money.Whoever challenges you in Europe or the US you destroy their careers/lives.

          • Sunshine Sux

            pathetic

          • Abie Vee

            aren’t you just.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Hey it’s Abie McNazi, not only defending a statement that the Jews are a “parasitic tribe” that cause all wars, but being a playground idiot in order to do so!

          • Abie Vee

            Hmm. “a parasitic tribe who cause all wars”? Is that how you see it ?

            Things may be that simple in your cartoonish world-view… unfortunately for the rest of us, things are actually more complicated and nuanced.

          • Ivan Ewan

            That was the actual content of the post you were defending, you illiterate pillock.

          • Abie Vee

            No, that was the context YOU gave it. I am not answerable for your crude Cowboys and Indians view of global affairs.

          • Hayate

            Example,in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE or you have that as banned literature.See how far back you have been known for evil?

          • Ivan Ewan

            I would be surprised if you could even tell me the name of the Merchant without looking it up, much less make any salient point about his situation, motivation, or Shakespeare’s intentions for the character.

            And you also assume that I consider Shakespeare to be an authoritative moral guide. I don’t. I don’t think anyone really does.

            And why would it be banned? Hardly any works of literature are banned. Neither Mein Kampf nor the Koran are banned. We currently have the right and the freedom to examine, study and even believe in the most hateful of texts, you see.

          • Hayate

            It is known throughout history that the Jews are a parasitic tribe that usurp other peoples’ property claiming Gog-given Rights over us all.Shitty liers that changed the old testament to suit them.Which is why Jesus came to correct the lies.

          • Ivan Ewan

            It is known? It is asserted by liars and believed by idiots. I don’t know what or who Gog is. Only Muslims seriously believe that Jews altered the Old Testament, and they do so because Mohammad was a false prophet having a hissy fit and throwing his toys out of the pram. And only Muslims generally believe that Jesus was simply a prophet who failed utterly in returning Judaism to a yet-to-be-invented religion called Islam.

            Your arguments are entirely based on the delirious fantasies of a 7th Century cult leader who believed that sperm is produced within the confines of the ribcage and that the only medicines you’d ever need are honey and camel urine. You are not simply qualified to take part in an intelligent conversation…. about any subject.

          • freddiethegreat

            djinn

          • Hayate

            Hurray Knave27

          • bobmattfran

            Another lie by a paid apologist for Israel. Like all Zionists you think if you continue to lie tha people will believe you. US taxes to the tune of $5Billion a year that the US Treasury admits to is just bthe tip of the ice berg. hen of course their is the military hardwar that Israel never pays for. Keep lying, the hole you are in is getting deeper.

          • thomasaikenhead

            Well said indeed!

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Nothing wrong with Zionism friend, nothing wrong at all. Zionists should be proud of their contributions I know I would be.

            The Jewish people are a fantastic people that have contributed to the world.

          • Muhammad Abbass

            Zionists are the only thing so evil and anti-humanity as ISIS which like the Saudi filth are deeply connected allies in fact, as they all three have the same satanic aims of destroying all goodness and humanity as they usher in a filthy satanic reptilian regime of world domination. May Allah blast you all to hell and chain you to the biggest, most massive rock nearest the heart of the place where you may speculate upon your failure to reach a higher self, or of stopping others from doing so.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Muslims are the evil ones, pure evil, Islam should be banned

          • freddiethegreat

            The evil eye is on you, djinn

          • Hayate

            Up yours mate,AI am laughing my head off as I seem to be getting on your narkers freddietheclown and O’Chief(funny name that but what should I expect from a lunatic?

          • freddiethegreat

            “Allah” has a pretty bad record when is comes to Israel vs his favourites in battle!
            Also, in terms of contribution to mankind

          • Hayate

            freddie,are you stoned?.Where were you in 2006?.Didnt Hezbollah massacre your lot and whup your ass?.And by the way Allah is God in Arabic,but you wouldnt know that.Your too dumb to know.Research before you open your gob.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Yeah, and Pravda is Russian for “Truth”. Don’t bother to tell me you don’t know why that’s relevant, because I don’t say it for the benefit of the terminally stupid.

          • Hayate

            I dont bother with illiterates.It belittles my education which is far above your grade 3 level.

          • FORD

            Contribution to mankind? Bernie Madoff?

          • Hayate

            You blaspheme?.Huh,you will get your retribution.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Well I know you would. That’s because you’re a wretched slave, doomed to slavery under Satan… I mean Allah, sorry… probably until you die. You hate other Muslims because they enslave you, you hate non-Muslims because they are free, you hate yourself because Islam teaches you that you are a worthless slave, and you hate Allah because he is your master. Pretending that Allah is all-powerful is an illusion you perpetuate in order to absolve yourself of the evil you do in his name – all the lies you hear and repeat in order to justify a bloodlust that most religions seek to purge or dispell, but that Islam inflames and enrages.

            And if you die in that state, you will die permanently, irretrievably warped and tortured by your own self-enforced slavery. It will be pitiable, and if I took pleasure in that I would be inhuman.

            God hates slavery. Allah – or Satan, more correctly – could not thrive without it.

          • Hayate

            You have always been God’s enemies and never believed in Him.You are no different than your kind.Doomed to extinction.Hopefully you will be in Israel in the Galilee?.

          • Ivan Ewan

            You don’t know anything about God. Secondly I’m not Jewish. Thirdly, thanks for the genocidal fantasy – but the truth is that your kind has failed for what is now more than two thousand years to take revenge on the Jewish. You speak of extinction, but humanity itself blunders to its own extinction, helped along by the bitter hatred of people like you.

          • Cobbett

            Brown noser. Also not all Jews are Zionists.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Still absolutely nothing wrong with Zionism, take the Jews over muslims any day. Horrific species of aggressive violent hordes.

          • Hayate

            You mean you are a Zionist and DONT know your history?.Always filled with violence.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Proud

          • freddiethegreat

            Correct. Ignore these djinns (muslim trolls)

          • Hayate

            O’Chief do you know the difference between a Jew and a Zionist?.Not all Jews are Zionists crazy coke sniffing ‘akrut’.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Couldn’t care less, only live to see the day Islam gets crushed into oblivion

          • Hayate

            Sorry,the other way round,I pray you dont die bbefore seeing the end of Israel.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            apology accepted, weakness apologising.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            weak

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            and all their left wing liberal slaves

          • Roger Hudson

            As Zionism , either the Herzel or Jabotinsky flavour, was a direct response to centuries of evil European anti-semitism we goyim should stop going on about it and lower our heads in shame.

          • Hayate

            You are a disgrace Roger.Just like the Germans are exploited up to this day and paying for Hitler.They will never stop.Try dentying the Holocaust see where you end up in France but the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians,nothing will happen to you.Publish caricatures of the Prophet of Islam and you will get away with murder but the Jews?.You will be hounded and if you atre a politician,they will end your career.The time is near that a stand should be made to these scum of the earth.

          • arnieus

            Thanks much but I could have done without these Zionist Contributions:

            All the wars and chaos in the Middle East because of Israel and continuing genocide of the SEMITIC Palestinians.

            French revolution and Napoleon wars.

            Opium wars in China for the Sassoon family

            Bolshevik revolution, Stalin and millions of Russians murdered.

            US pointless involvement in WWI

            German revolution and defeat WWI leading to financing of Hitler and Nazis = WWII unprecedented death and destruction of Europe

            Spanish Civil War

            Legalized counterfeiting. Central banks, and Bank of International Settlements

            Just to name a few.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Zionists are the spearhead against Islam, against muslims in the coming war for total domination, choose sides. If you’re pro Islam then face annihilation.

          • Hayate

            Just face Hezbollah if You dare.Do you live in Israel?.Then ask to be transferred to the north of Israel but I suspect you have the balls as you are far away in the safety of Europe. Spearhead against Islam?,my,my what big words.Enough said to uneducated idiots like you Zionist scum.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Weakness

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            total obliteration

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Merkel’s going to trigger the world’s mightiest backlash in history.
            If you think the wars of slaughter in the 20th century were bad, wait
            until you see what’s coming when threatened “Survivalist Westerners”
            shed morality, shed political correctness, unite and seize political
            power the left-liberals now take for granted.

            No one can do war of annihilation better than pissed off Europeans.

            You can see what’s coming…May I remind you what they’re capable of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?…

            Remember,it took the combined might of 3 empires to stop just the Germans alone, this time those 3 empires are united and possibly white Christian Russia with them as the political battlefield changes. UKIP in the England is pro Putin, Front National in France is pro Putin, the Swedes just became the largest party that’s anti-muslim, Hungary anti-muslim, Finland and it seems next year when Obama is ejected from office, the next POTUS could well be anti-muslim.

            Get ready for WW3 slaughter.

          • Kennie

            Oh, you have cheered me up!

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            You aint seen nothing yet my friend. Wait until the economic crisis deepens as globalization collapses, this will create the “environment” for hatred to spread and when hatred, anger, envy sweeps through the Western world, you’ll see things you never thought possible. The truth is we’re already in the early stages of World War 3

          • Ilya

            You’re posting Neo-Nazi tropes.
            “All the wars and chaos in the Middle East because of Israel and continuing genocide of the SEMITIC Palestinians.”
            There are other fault lines in the Mid East. Shia vs Sunni. Arab vs Iranian.
            “French revolution and Napoleon wars.”
            Silly old myths.
            “Opium wars in China for the Sassoon family”
            Britain fought the Opium wars because it didn’t like its trade balance with China.
            “Bolshevik revolution, Stalin and millions of Russians murdered.”
            The Bolsheviks were anti-Zionist. Stalin was Georgian and oppressed Russian Jews.
            “German revolution and defeat WWI leading to financing of Hitler and Nazis = WWII unprecedented death and destruction of Europe”
            Now you’re just plagiarising Mein Kampf.

          • Hayate

            If you had any brains,sunni Shjia divisions NEVER existed until the US and ISRAEL pushed this fear into the weak Saudi Arabia and Gulf States promoting this stand.The anti Iran stand came when the Shah of Iran was overthrown,he was in the US and Israel’s pockets just like Mubarak in Egypt.You lost Irand by supprting all the dictator scums of the earth.IF you had any brains,no religious intolerance existed in the ME until you Israelis decided to try and destroy Christianity and Islam.Just as what you are doing in Jerusalem right now.I love it.This will bring youi Zionists down.Most Jewish rabbis(not Zionist),will tell you that the State of Israel was NEVER meant to be.But then,you have always been an unruly people who challenged God and killed his prophets..Wait for it you disbelieving idiots.

          • Ilya

            “If you had any brains,sunni Shjia divisions NEVER existed until the US
            and ISRAEL pushed this fear into the weak Saudi Arabia and Gulf States
            promoting this stand.”

            Haha, you’re not just ignorant with regards to Jews and Western civilisation, you don’t even understand the history of your own religion:
            “Shiites believe that all or most of their imams, as well as hundreds
            of their children and grandchildren, were murdered by Umayyad (632-750)
            and Abbasid caliphs (750-1258), which constitute the first and second
            Islamic empires in the history of Islam. Thousands of shrines are spread
            across the cities and villages of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and
            Shiites visit them constantly.
            The different governments have forbidden Shiites, throughout several
            periods, from visiting the main shrines in Karbala and Najaf. But rather than stopping them, this has pushed devotees to risk their lives to reach the shrines.
            The Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (861-822) destroyed Hussein’s shrine in Karbala
            and arrested everyone who visited it, but this did not stop the
            Shiites. The Shiites’ heritage is rich with stories of challenges that
            their ancestors endured in insistence on visiting their shrines. All
            Shiites are familiar with the story of the man whose right arm was severed by Mutawakkil for visiting Karbala. The man did not back down and visited the year after, and lost his left arm, too.
            Similarly, the successive governments in the Ottoman era (1299-1923)
            and the former Iraqi regime did not succeed in forbidding Shiites from
            visiting their shrines and performing their religious rituals. The visit
            to Karbala was one of the main incentives for Iranian militants in the
            Iraqi-Iranian war (1980-1988), and they were ready to sacrifice all they
            had, their lives included, to fulfill their wish. Many Shiite shrines
            in Saudi Arabia have been destroyed by Salafists,
            who consider them houses of idolatry, feeding the Shiites’ ideological
            enmity with the Saudi regime and the Wahhabi institution.”
            http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/shiite-shrines-history-sunni-oppression.html#ixzz3n1yhmyTh

            “But then,you have always been an unruly people who challenged God and killed his prophets”
            Of the prophets you believe in, all but the last one were Jews. Deal with it, loser.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Couldn’t you make your insane accusations a bit briefer and to the point? Like, “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in all of history, ever”? That’s the usual libel. Or did you just mean to build up to that statement bit by bit?

          • arnieus

            Such sweeping statements might accuse Zionists when they are innocent. I would not want to do that.

          • Ivan Ewan

            So “Mossad stole my shoe” but you’re not sure if they also stole your hat?

          • Hayate

            Ivan the Terrible.Be silent.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Yes, I indeed AM Ivan the Terrible, and I won’t be silent at the command of a twerp who stinks the place up with cruddy slander against the Jewish people, whose greatest crime is that they’re too easily hated.

          • arnieus

            And what about the 2.3 trillion unaccounted for with ordained Rabbi Dov S. Zakheim cooking the books at the Pentagon. Now its like 8 trillion.

          • Hayate

            Wow,thanks for the info.I never knew that.Do you now see why the US is in an economic strait?.They control,thieve your sweat and you are their Goyim.Yes they are even entitled to sleep with your wife the first night.They can rob you but you cannot do anything against them.They are above the law.And they always deny any truths like saying THE PROTOCOLS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION is a hoax.Just because they were exposed.You will see the global domination that is taking place now by these SUPERIOR thieves.I have nothing against Jews but Talmudic pigtail Zionists,they are the scum of the earth.

          • Roger Hudson

            I though most of the ultra orthodox will not go to Israel ( yet, without a messiah) for theological reasons, most of those I meet around Stamford Hill seem to say that.
            ‘Pigtail’ is pathetically offensive.

          • Ivan Ewan

            Are you a parody or are you genuinely sick in the head?

          • Toy Pupanbai

            The Pentagon Missile, sailed over Rumsfeld to get at the Accounts Dep’t in order to murder the staff and destroy the records.
            Those not killed by the, ‘missile’, were killed by secondary explosions.

          • Muhammad Abbass

            So true, but isn’t it starting to be just a little bit exciting anticipating the obvious culmination of their arrogance? I am in no doubt that if one doesn’t buy one’s drinks and popcorn soon you’ll be watching the show without any.

          • Hayate

            Am sure a Pro-Hamas rally would be more enlightening and interesting than a Zionist rally begging for funds for the Satanic State of Israel.

          • Ivan Ewan

            I wish we did get paid, it’s the least we deserve for wading into thankless arguments against empty-headed wallies who feel hot flushes when some bearded a***hole rants about exterminating the J… the Zionists. Haven’t you got some pro-Hamas rally to attend?

          • Dubravko Janjetovic

            Thank you. You have made my day. 🙂

          • Hayate

            Sunshine,stop concocting.Iasrael is the largest recipent of US ‘grants’ that dont have to be repaid.Arent the US citizens entitled to a say in SPENDING IT AT HOME ON US CITIZENS’ WELFARE?.Or you have to be sponging on our tax money because you have politicians in your pocket?.And where is the democracy in the US?.Money gets elections won in the US.Zionist money.After all the American economy is OWNED by the Zionists which is why Netanyahu can tell the US President what to do.

          • thomasaikenhead

            “Israel also trades and sells technologies to 170+ countries worldwide, chances are that your pc/mobile phone is Israeli chipped…”

            Please spare us all the hoary of chestnut that Israel invented the PC chip or the mobile phonre?

            These claims have been proven false time and time again, the facts are readily available on the internet with even the most cursory of searches.

            Once again, the mobile phone owes its origin to the likes of Eric Tigerstedt, Martin Cooper and others in Finland, the USA and other Nordic countries.

            Israel played no role in the origins and development whatsoever.

            Please do us all a favour bynot making blatantly false claims about the role of Israel in developing technology?

          • Abie Vee

            You’re kiddin’ eh? It’s a shill you’re addressing. It doesn’t care for facts at all. The State of Israel was founded, built and maintained to this day upon a tissue of lies. It’s what they do.

          • Hayate

            Hey Thomas,next they’ll claim they made God(if they’re not claiming that already).

          • Abie Vee

            Saying so doesn’t make it so.

            The US Congressional Research Services report “US Aid to Israel” published June 10 2015 suggests otherwise. Do feel free to refer, won’t you.

            *To date, the US has provided Israel with US$124.3 billion in bi-lateral assistance.
            * In 2007 a 10-years, US$ £30 billion, deal was signed between the US and Israel. Obama has stood by that agreement. The deal expires in 2018, and negotiations are being sought by Israel for a further 10-year package (in excess of US$40 billion).

            The last World Bank figures showed the Palestinian territories received US$ 2.6 billion from all sources (of which the USA contributed under US$500 million) . World Bank, May 8. 2015 refers… again, feel free to refer.

            I have given you these figures before. You simply ignore them; you don’t challenge them in any way, you just ignore the truth and substitute it with your lies. Do you not?

            Seriously, who do you think you’re fooling, besides fooling yourself.

          • Bonkim

            US/Israel are buddies – Palestinians are not. Simple.

          • Jambo25

            Why aren’t the money dripping Arabs of the Gulf pouring similar sums into the coffers of their religious and ethnic Palestinian brothers?

          • Abie Vee

            What’s that got to do with the price of nuclear weapons?

          • Muhammad Abbass

            Hey there dopey hasbara agent. Israel receives $5 BILLION a year and there is roughly the same amount in gifted or discounted military hardware. That is even without the turning of a blind eye to Israel spying and theft of anything which isn’t freely given, as well.

          • Hayate

            Sunshine you must be high on something.We saw you guys CRYING like kids when Hezbollah defeated you in 2006.You lost more than 150 of your famous (invincible?)Mirkava tanks to a group of ‘terrorists’ as you choose to call them.Whaat does that say for the ‘invincible’ Israeli Armesd Forces so highly trained?.You are all a bunch of dopeys who feel good about beating and killing small boys throwing stones.Typical case of David and Goliath,remember?.Research your Channel 10 TV.I see it all the time.Do you?.

          • patriot1407

            Liar…check your nose

          • scampy

            Suicide belt Sri Lanka Tamil tigers?

          • knave27

            Oh pwetty please, tell me more, I wanna know about your magic Talmudic powers and how they are going to take humanity to the stars, you can lead the way by building a spaceship and take your entire filthy parasitic tribe to the furthest end of the galaxy and leave the world to live in peace for once, you won’t be missed, and thanks for your contributions (usury, degeneracy, wars), it would be the best thing to happen in the solar system since the earth started orbiting the sun.

          • thomasaikenhead

            Well said, the facts often undermine the false allegations that President Obama does not support Israel!

          • Muhammad Abbass

            Yes but money is needed to buy back influence again in each successive administration and it’s other branches of US government. What really counts is the continued adherence to the Zionist falsehoods which have brought the world to the verge of WWIII.

          • Michael Abramovich

            The thing US so-called “aid” is not an aid in it original meaning.
            It just a part of deal where Israel should spend this “aid” to buy American weapon. Same aid is tranfsered to Israeli enemies in ME by the same American “ally”. Thus this “aid” is just a balance to keep the opposite sides in permament war state while spreading the weapon in region and legally hand over American national taxes to Colt, Boeing, Martin Lockhead, etc pockets.
            America has just one interest in region: full time infinite war. This is how it earns. And it really succeded.

            One more notice: Israel got aid of $5 billions. The rest $300 billions of GDP it earned itself 🙂 Are you sure this $5 billions had any influence?

            For what it worth, maybe Israel couldn’t survive without American aid. But Israel definitly would live in peace if US didn’t exist at all.

        • RWJ

          Obama is trying to get his country back………..into the hands of the American taxpayer and away from the Jewish Lobby. Good on him.

        • Nikki

          Israel has not had the support of the US, are you seriously off your rocker. The Senate pledge and die for Israel and have killed thousands of their own on 9/11 to stand for Israel. To allow Israel a legitimate lie to wage war and dismantle the Middle East! Operation Northwood, PNAC. Yidot Plan have highlighted and documented Israels desire to wage war. Israelis were the only people arrested on the morning of 9/11 caught celebrating the catastrophe with explosives, fake id and in their words to “document the event”. Passengers on many of the flights were dual/ Israeli nationals and on Flight 11 Daniel Lewin an IDF trained SaetMetkal assassin and hyjacking expert! Killed with a box cutter lmao! Larry Silverstein stated pull it for wtc7. the 3rd tower to free fall without plane impact. The evidence goes on and on and on and we will get to the truth and Israel will pay the heavy price for the millions of people it has attacked based on a lie!

          The US need to stop arming the Israeli spies ready to nuke Americans given half on an opportunity with their Samson Plan. Obama knows the truth and he knows it will be ousted and best to be on the right side of history!

        • Thomas Jefferson

          So are you saying that Israel has not received any US tax payers $$ in “foreign” aid ? Yeah thought so

          • Bonkim

            Israel’s security is guaranteed by the US.

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Israel’s security is guaranteed by Israel. They are some of the smartest soldiers in the world that would obliterate most armies on the battlefield.

          • Jules Mac

            that would be why a minuscule hezbollah force sent them packing in 2006 in lebanon

          • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

            Israel holds back with the disease of Western morality, when the shackles are lifted, game over

        • bobmattfran

          Over $5Billion a year courtesy of US tax dollars says different. When a so called “freind” insults your head of state publicly, it says a lot about the parasite doing the insulting.

          Netanyahu is a pariah as is the present state of Israel. I am still waiting for an apology from the modern nazi state over the murder of British soldiers by their ancestors in 1948 in Palstine.

        • Hayate

          Sunshine Sux you Idiot,dont you KNOW Israel is in with ISIS,Al Nusra and Al Qaeda?.They are treating the wounded terrorists frwho cross into Israel from the Golan Heights.They dont realise they will get them soon.Al Qaeda have no allegiance.I say good riddance.You stupid guy.More assistance than the US is giving Israel?.Why dont you go and fight for Israel or you expect Americans to go and die for you useless lot who think you are better than the whole world?.What you are doing in Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem will bring your downfall.Go and defend Israel you Zionist lackey.You know NOTHING about the Middle East except what you are led to believe.

        • WarriorPrincess111111

          You are joking of course! Israel, although comparatively wealthy itself, enjoys the benefit of almost a quarter of the US’s overseas money meant for poor countries and unlike the other countries that the US sends money to – it is allowed full autonomy over its military spending. Consequently, Israel now holds huge stocks of some very serious armaments!

          NATO (hand in glove with the US) is supposed to supervise all such activity in Israel, but the U.S. defends Israel’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty allowing it to claim “strategic ambiguity” where Israel refuses to officially acknowledge its nuclear capacity. It has been published that Israel has an arsenal of over 200 high-density nuclear bombs in the Dimona nuclear facility – this remains un-inspected.

          In fact the US relied on Israel during the cold war as an extension of its own armed forces – that relationship still continues today.

          Diplomatically, the U.S. alone protects Israel in the United Nations and other interested parties, from being held accountable for its violations of international law.

        • disqus_1HUI45H95s

          Bush when to war because off Israel and now Obama still gives billions in aid every year and tried to over throw Assad only for people power and Russia all for Israel and its land grabbing project

        • Abie Vee

          Gosh… it’s rare that one comes across so much inaccuracy (I’m being polite there) and misinformation in so few lines… every one of which is wrong, and hardly a word of which is true. If I had the time, I’d have myself a ball shredding that juvenile polemic to dust.

          A tour de force dear (capital letters notwithstanding).

        • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

          Obama is an enemy of the American right and Israel ideologically who now looks Eastwards as the West slowly collapses into the abyss. America is collapsing on all fronts and the world knows it. It’s now obvious Obama was voted in to manage the decline of America which is exactly what he’s done, although he’s even gone and shocked some Democrats in the process.

          The UK is also finished as a power, it was a long slide post WW2 but the end game is getting closer. The left wing socialistic EU project is definitely over given tens of millions of MENA illegal immigrants are currently rushing for the borders under Obama/Merkel’s wishes with no prospects of control. This will fuel the rise of the right now that terrified voters can see the plan in action.

          This is likely the West’s final few decades if WW3 hasn’t kicked off well before 2050. Think about the start of the 20th century, we had WW1 then the main event 1939.

          Well we’re in 2015 and things are spiralling, history is repeating.

          Israel will survive, the Jews are born survivors and now they have a powerful state to navigate the chaos, wouldn’t be surprised if they made friends with Iran at some point, sounds crazy right now, but could happen.

        • Muhammad Abbass

          If Obama has done as you say, then I have to say he actually did deserve that Nobel Peace Prize after all. The only thing more worthy will be whoever ENDS ROTHSCHILDLANDIA, the nasty fake state of terror, crime and lies.

          Oh and Shiny Sucker, Israel is widely known, indeed acknowledged by UN reports to be supporting ISIS with air power and medical aid as well as logistics.

          Did those lousy Takfiris ever say a nice big thank you for all those nice new white Toyota pickup trucks Israel supplied them at the start? Yes buddy all your secrets are not secret anymore which renders “Israel’s” future to that of a snowflake in the Sahara.

        • Abie Vee

          A straightforward lie. You really must lift your game you desperate shill. The 2007 agreement between the USA and Israel which guarantees Israel US$30 billion over ten years is still in place. Obama has honoured the agreement The Zionists are now back at the table trying to grab even more money from the gullible “useful idiot” American taxpayers to the tune of US$ 40 billion over anther ten years from 2018 when the old agreement expires. Hopefully, the Jews are talking to the wrong man this time.

        • Saffa Coza

          Why does Israel not support all the many other countries that want independence, self determination and strong national borders? It would form a far more sustainable truly diverse and peaceful paradigm…
          Why do Jews not castigate and publicly reject people like Barbare Lerner Spectre? (or do they silently approve of the genocide of Europe?)

        • patriot1407

          You think israhell doesn’t get aid? Wow a tad bit daft are we???????

        • Toy Pupanbai

          Israel ha a world class military: 2 or 3 hundred atomic weapons annually inspected by the I.A.E.A, (What’s that ? They haven’t…………?), is well able to take care of itself!

      • virgile

        Yes, I agree. I think Obama has been very smart. Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries are doomed politically. Their obsolete system will sooner or later collapse, like the Shah of Iran’s. Israel is also demographically doomed and is artificially kept alive.
        Iran is a semi-democracy, the best that can be done in Moslem countries where the religion is engrained in people. A healthy relation between Shia Iran and the USA would balance the nefarious influence of Sunni Saudi Arabia.
        Turkey is a US ally, a difficult one but a faithful one.
        What Obama needs now is a stable and powerful Arab country ally to complete the picture. Egypt is the only Arab heavy weight in the region and Al Sissi’s regime is not antagonistic to Israel or the USA. It has even lately shown an interest in re-establishing relation with Syria to the displease of Saudi Arabia. Yet, Syria is the backdoor to the Middle East on long term. Despite its smaller population, Syria plays a strategic role in the region. It is the home of Arab Nationalism and of the Resistance toward Israel/USA hegemony. It has had a consistent attitude of independence from the West and it has excellent relation with Iran. Syria is the best ally the superpower could have if they want access to both Iran and the Arab world.
        Russia knows it and has been acting accordingly. The USA lags because it has been only concerned by its immediate goals, the oil and protection of their only reliable ally in the region, Israel.
        Obama has a longer term view and has worked to change that. He has taken his distance toward Israel, operated a rapprochement with Iran and now trying to re-establish the USA presence in Egypt. He also wants to have a foot in Syria just to prevent Russia to re-enter the Middle east through that door . Until now he failed but there are signs that the USA and Russia will find a modus vivendi in ther region.
        One wonders if, when Obama is gone, the USA will stay on that path.

        • knave27

          I agree that Obama’s policy looks at long-term US domination in the region as opposed to the short-sighted policy of Israel-firsters.

        • jeanne

          You’re an optimist,, virgile…

          • virgile

            Most of what I saw coming actually came. I predicted that Bashar al Assad will stay in power after Sarkozy.. I predicted that Erdogan will find himself in deep trouble after the elections.
            I now believe that Erdogan will cease to be in power in Turkey by end 2016. I also believe that, if alive, Bashar Al Assad will stay in power long after Obama and Hollande would be gone.
            Optimistic, I don’t know…

        • Bonkim

          Lots of sense in what you say – I would bet Iran will take its natural role in the region soon – Iran was a power to reckon with historically when the Arab Peninsula was inhabited by Bedouin tribes before oil..

      • Muhammad Abbass

        It is possible Washington is yet more clueless than so far seen, yes. The fact is that to assume Iran will ever cooperate with ANYBODY who is not a true Islamic power, is to show a breathtaking ignorance of Shia Islam in fact. Even crazier than speaking of Shias as terrorists, an idea so preposterous and impossible to conceive of if you understand Shia Islam that the suggestion has become utterly ludicrous to me as I learned about it all myself. Iran is 100% an Islamic Republic and in it’s history has never deviated from the principles which are defended by the Ayatollah. It is almost impossible if not completely so, that even He could alter the course of Iran in this respect, because whilst He is the highest earthly authority within Islam (I’m basically Sunni but make that assertion without any caveats) He is in fact bound by the Quran and a direct, simple reading of it which may not even be debated using any verses from the Quran itself if it is even possible to debate. The only parts of the Quran which are NOT allowed to be breached are those which are impossible to question or debate. This is one of the earlier verses saying so and Shias have historically never deviated from the original and intended Islamic code as such. I repeat it, Iran will never deviate from it’s Islamic course. They will never accept any protection or alliance with a non-Muslim power even though they will cooperate and deal in honest and friendly fashion with all who reciprocate, because these are in fact irrefutable tenets of true Islam. Above all they will never trust or place their interests in the hands of powers they rightly see as satanic.

      • Gettingby

        “non-country like Israel that without US support and money is nothing?”

        Good God did you ever pick an appropriate name.
        Knave…a dishonest or unscrupulous man.

      • donhank

        I am neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but there is a fact no one can deny: The Neocons that condemn Assad for his collateral damage in Syria give Israel a pass for bombing civilians in Gaza and, of course, didn’t notice the US bombs dropped on Iraq and Kosovo, for example, which killed a lot of civilians. Not to mention Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The hypocrisy is thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

    • Vaughan Montgomery

      so the bombing in yemen, has nothing to do with the oil fields, minerals, uranium, potassium, cobalt, and thorium deposits then? I wonder who has a vested interest in those…

    • thomasaikenhead

      Great comment and it is important to remember that it was George W Bush who toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the Saddam regime in Iraq, both hostile to Iran, that allowed Iran to emerge as a regional power?

    • WarriorPrincess111111

      It is the allies of the US who are fighting in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslims. Yemen also has oil!
      ISIS – and you will find this is a regular report throughout the internet – are Sunni Muslims from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and combine with regional believers in the Middle East, who were trained in Turkey, Israel and the US. ISIS are funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US!
      Iran has always been an ally of Syria because Iran is a majority Shia Muslims who have many similar beliefs to Alawite Muslims of Syria.

    • Bonkim

      Saudi Arabia’s days are numbered.

    • Muhammad Abbass

      I predict the Saudis have unleashed their own destruction in Yemen. If you know about Islam and it’s history and especially where it concerns the Wahhabis and their ascendency after having already been seen for hundreds of years as NOT EVEN TRUE MUSLIMS then the crucial role Yemen plays for all it’s apparent poverty and weakness is obvious. Indeed one is hard put not to marvel at the short sighted idiocy which rules in Riyadh. They unleashed their own destruction when they turned against what is in fact their homeland.

    • 2fishypoliticians

      Let’s be clear Saudi Arabia are no angels either. Treating the Shia minority as 2nd class as well as an effective apartheid system being applied to non Muslims has gone on for generations. Iran is a country that we are playing a dangerous game with by potentially cosying up to, but Saudi Arabia is just as bad. Our government is trying to ignore the Saudi hypocrisy … funding of terrorism, wahhabist islam in our own country and a lot more besides in the hope of getting oil and trade. Saudi Arabia will never reciprocate this level of trust and just abuse ours, so why in heaven’s name are we doing this?

      • virgile

        The answer is simple. Saudi Arabia is rich and the Saud family are increasingly worried about its legitimacy as Sunni leaders and about the growing Iranian Shia power. They are corrupted, weak and politically amateurish. Therefore they represent the ideal consumer market for the West and the easiest puppet to manipulate. In addition they secretly support Israel. What better ally can the USA dream of?

    • Hayate

      Hurray for a clear viewpoint on US policy which has NEVER won through
      but you get blackmailed by Israe; and its Congress Lobby to do what THEY
      WANT and NOT what is good for US interests.They are a selfish
      lot.Always their interests came first even before the US interests.Now
      the US has gotten a rotten standing because of Israel,Saudi Arabia and
      the Gulf.Nobody but Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states support the US in
      the region.

    • Clothcap

      …psychopathic, megalomaniacal and ill conceived imperialism – is what I would have said.

      “We’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
      Each considered a threat to occupied Palestine.
      How’s that working out?

    • LyovMyshkin

      Also note the difference in the reaction to the Yemeni and Ukraine crisis. I’d ask time and time again “Doesn’t Russia have a legitimate, regional concern in what happens on their border – their Munroe Doctrine in other words??”

      I’ve yet to hear with the same strength those same voices denounce Saudi Arabia for intervening in a sovereign, neighbouring nation when their regional interest are perceived as threatened.

      • virgile

        No Western countries benefiting for the lucrative business of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and buying their oil will lift a finger to point at the abuses of this country in so many areas.
        In addition the GCC has on its payroll many powerful PR companies that make sure these abuses are minimized in the media.
        The Yemen war may be expose Saudi Arabia ( and its allies) to war crimes suits and reveal the immature and nefarious nature of their middle-aged family-religion system.
        Unless Saudi Arabia makes a u-turn and accept Iran’s invitation to negotiate a regional deal, it is on the path to loose whatever control it still have.

        • LyovMyshkin

          Yes, yes and yes.

  • Toy Pupanbai

    Best article I’ve seen so far on the Syrian mess.
    I will always be wary about symbiotic Israel’s agenda!

    • Sunshine Sux

      Go trust the Muslims then, you know, the ones who can not even live in peace with their own.

    • sandy winder

      I am far more wary of Islam’s agenda.

      • Sunshine Sux

        That probably means you will live. Islamophiles usually get beheaded first.

    • Augustus

      And Israel will always be wary of any transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah on its Northern border, and who might try to get their hands on Assad’s chemical and biological weapons caches.

  • Gilbert White

    Agree with the thrust. However generally we have made the best of a bad job. The Gulf could have been treacle in black sludge with no petrol. More bombs needed?

  • Bonkim

    Makes sound sense apart from the Iranian nuclear deal which was sensible.

  • Jack Rocks

    They haven’t made fools of us. The situation has changed. The “Arab Spring” has failed. It was a good effort but nature abhors a power vacuum. And so do Iran and Saudi Arabia. One wants to fill it with Sunnis, the other with Shiites. Russia wants to prevent the spread of Islamism to its southern, central asian borders.

    The most you can accuse the west of is naiveté.

    • Randal

      Even if it were true (and the US figures who have openly declared their intention to overthrow the Syrian government since before the 2003 invasion of Iraq are certainly not naïve), naivety is simply not good enough when you are interfering in other nations in matters of war and peace, and of revolution.

      • Jack Rocks

        Did you live through the Cold War? We’ve been interfering in other nations’ internal affairs since 1943. Many of them with good reason. The intention isn’t or wasn’t to “overthrow the Syrian government”, it was to “overthrow the Syrian government and replace it with a moderate, secular Western-minded government”. That’s where naivety comes into place.

        • Randal

          I agree about where any naivety came in, and I stand by my point that such naivety is simply not good enough from foreign policy professionals thinking about interfering to overthrow a government or to wage war.

          Apart from anything else, we have the clear examples of Iraq and Libya in front of us to point out the folly of overthrowing the Syrian government and expecting it to be replaced by anything other than bloody chaos in which jihadists and warlords are the main beneficiaries. Naivety on the scale you are talking about, in that context and from the people making the decisions, is positively culpable.

          Imo the politicians responsible should be disgraced and removed from office and the media figures who covered for them utterly discredited.

          • Jack Rocks

            Why are we getting the blame for Syria anyway? What did we do there? As far as I know, we weren’t involved. We thought about getting involved, had a vote in Parliament and who knows, perhaps there’s some covert involvement, but I think it’s a bit rich to blame it on us. Remember how the Arab Spring started: A guy unable to sell his fruit and vegetables on a little stall in Tunisia set himself on fire.

          • Randal

            In this context “we” is “the west”, as in your original comment and the article above. “The west” is usually code for the US and its satellite states and proxies. And the only reason the Syrian rebellion was not crushed by Assad in a few months hard fighting and stern repression was the huge material support and cross-border sanctuaries and reinforcements provided to the rebels by NATO Turkey and by US protectorates Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

            We (the UK) played our small part by shouting as loudly as we could from the sidelines, giving as much “non-lethal aid” and doubtless covert assistance as we could get away with, and tried our best to encourage the Syrians to believe the rebels would soon have superpower air support, but as usual nowadays we were only ever going to be a bit player. Our government did try its very hardest to bring about a more prompt disaster in Syria, as it had in Libya and in Iraq, but was amazingly (and almost unprecedentedly) prevented from doing so by a combination of a popular uprising against another war, and parliamentary managerial incompetence on the part of Cameron and Miliband.

          • Jack Rocks

            The last “stern repression” in Syria was carried out by Assad’s father. He killed 30,000 people.

          • Randal

            Exactly. The current civil war, because the Syrian government was prevented from restoring order in the usual bloody manner, is estimated to have cost around a quarter of a million lives already, with no end in sight.

        • tyke87

          Syria is secular!

          • Jack Rocks

            I know. So?

  • taytelbaum

    Rhetoric: who dares wins.

    • Lawrence James.

      Like Napoleon at Waterloo ? Or Hitler in Russia ?

  • Randal

    “At the outset of Syria’s brutal four-year civil war, I was an almost unique voice in the British media deploring the push to depose the secular dictator President Bashar al-Assad”

    If you said that then I agree with you, because I was saying the same thing. But there weren’t very many of us – the majority (including people in positions where they ought to have known better, such as the likes of Cameron, Hague and Osborne) were too busy indulging in the national paroxysm of holier than thou denunciations of the evil of the Assad government and our essential nobility in being prepared to expend any number of Syrian lives in order to overthrow it.

    But since US sphere foreign policy is still run by pretty much the same interventionist political and media elites who brought us the Iraq disaster and the Libya disaster, why is it in the slightest surprising that their policies have brought disaster in Syria? What possible reason is there to expect anything else? The differences between Obama and Bush on foreign policy are largely just ones of nuance – liberal “humanitarian” interventionism as opposed to US-uber-alles neocon interventionism. The commitment to interventionism is bipartisan. And the differences between Blair and the Cameron clique on foreign policy are pretty much non-existent, as Libya demonstrated.

    If we want to see better, we need to begin by replacing the voices in our media that endlessly call for military intervention – pretty much the default setting, with a few notable exceptions, at places like the Spectator and the Telegraph – in response to any opportunity to do so, in total wilful refusal to take on board past experience or current repeated warnings from wiser heads.

  • DavidMurphy57

    Given that our lightweight leaders are characterised by narcissism, low intelligence, brutality and an addiction to power, what exactly do you expect?

  • Lawrence James.

    Hitchens’s arguments are precariously based. He alleges that ‘Western’ intervention would have toppled Assad. Would they have been hailed as ‘liberators’ as they marched through ruined towns and cities ? Or would have Assad been treated as a patriot rallying his people to evict foreigners, just as they had when they resisted French occupation in 1920 and re-occupation in 1944-1945. Even if Assad had been overthrown, who would govern Syria – remember the aftermath of victory in Iraq.

    As it is Russia is hurrying to rescue its client ( and naval base ) as it did in Afghanistan. Lets leave them to it. If the CIA wants a Lawrence-of-Arabia type war, they can get on with it. Recent history suggests they will lose. Britain should steer clear: our last attempt to do as Hitchens rashly suggests ended in the Suez fiasco.

    • tyke87

      But according to former French foreign minister Roland Dumas it was Britain who set up the war to depose Assad back in 2009, the objective being to please Israel:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyRwFHR8WY

      • Lawrence James.

        Can one trust French foreign ministers ? From Talleyrand onwards they have been foxy coves.

      • Jack Rocks

        To “please Israel”? You dumb ***k. Since when has British foreign policy ever been to please Israel? Jesus. Get a grip.

        • Sunshine Sux

          When I read comments such as these, I sincerely hope that when home made Quassam rockets start flying over London, people such as tyke, will not expect Israelis to give them the Iron Dome military defence technology.
          He will hopefully ask the peaceful pro-British Palestinians for help.

          • tyke87

            The Iron Dome technology comes from the USA and is not necessary. It is just propaganda. The rockets have no accuracy. Why would the Palestinians fire rockets in the UK. We are not occupying and terrorising their country, although we did give it away as the Stern gang ,et al, were killing British soldiers and civilians.

        • tyke87

          As Cameron told the Knesset “Israel is within the DNA of the Conservative party”
          Did you watch the short video, Roland Dumas tells you who benefits from the war on Assad?

          • Jack Rocks

            Israel is an ally, that’s why. It’s a bit of a stretch to argue the entire thing was cooked up to direct Hezbollah fighters from Gaza to Syria. That’s just the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard.

        • K.Al-Khatib

          In case you don’t know, It was British foreign policy that created Israel – from the so-called Balfour declaration during WW1, to the mandate on Palestine after WWI , to the immigration of more than six hundred thousand European jews into Palestine between WWI and WW2 and giving a blind eye to their military training and smuggling of weapons while imposing the death penalty if a Palestinian was caught with pistol or a shot gun> . There was almost no European Jews in Palestine and only a few thousand arab Jews before the British mandate on Palestine. If you don’t know these facts you know nothing of the history of the creation of Israel . In 1948 the Jewish terrorist organisations mustered more than one hundred thousand Jewish armed men and women in Palestine. Palestine was recognized provisionally as state in 1921 under the UN League of Nations. It had a national flag, a
          nationality law (1926), a Central bank and Palestinian currency > and a population of about two million in 1948, one third of whom were European Jews. Can you see the scale of the genocide and ethnic cleansing which the jewish terrorist organisations committed under the nose of the British government of Palestine ? For your own sanity, don’t you better not believe the Zionist Lies and propaganda. The motto of zionism: ‘A Land without a people to a people without a land’ is premeditated genocide.. As for ‘the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ in 1948, please read Ilam Pappe’s book with the same title – it is based on the Israeli Army’s (IDF) archives and the minutes of meetings and diaries/ memoirs of Jewish leaders of the time. I believe Only the willfully blind would continue to defend Israel after reading the facts.

          • Gilbert White

            You do not agree with the idea of Israel being given more Arab land because they do such wonderful With it then?

          • K.Al-Khatib

            Dear Mr Guilbert White,
            You must be kidding.  If they can make the desert bloom !!! Why don;t they go to the USA – it is at least many thousands of times bigger than Palestine and they have thousands of times bigger deserts than tiny Palestine. However, I suppose you know from the bible that Palestine was the land of milk and honey long before Abraham was born and long before Judaism was born. Have you seen palestine in 1948 ? or even in 1914? it was more prosperous than the United kingdom and the USA and most of European countries, at that time. And who doesn’t know the Jaffa oranges and the olives of Palstine.  I was born in Acre, and had my KG nursery school in Haifa, and my father and grandfather owned land, vineyards and groves of olive trees of which we have been deprived for the past 67 year. Are you seriously saying that it was fair to be dispossessed by terrorist gangs that later became the state of Israel ? I am told that the land is still the same and is cultivated by Yemeni jewish farmers.
            Yet by the same token of yours (if you are serious)? the people of all less developed countries should then be dispossessed by the more skilled and richer people – simply because they can make such wonders with the land.?   And by the way, are you aware that what you are advocating is precisely what Hitler and his Nazi party advocated and claimed to be their right?  Zionism and Nazism are twin sisters, and I would venture to suggest that the Nazis copied the zionist ideology.  The zionist slogan – a land without a people to a people without a land – is tantamount to premedidated Genocide.
            And please don’t tell me that Israel is an oasis of democracy – the only democracy in the middle east???  For I happened to believe that if a band of highway robbers happened to take all decisions by the highest standards of democracy and equality and distributed their spoils among themselves in equal measures – they remain Highway Robbers. No doubt that fairminded people will agree that the so-called Balfour declaration was wrong and illegal; that the Zionist program was wrong, and that everything they did to the palestinians was wrong. Yet in a spirit of reconcilliation I regard both the Jews and the Palestinians as victims of zionism and British colonialism, and on this basis, I would welcome them as equal Palestinian citizens.  At the same time I advocate the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their lands and homes, and to be compensated for their losses in the same way as Germany paid compensation to the Jews.   All living in one state with equal rights without discrimination.  This is the only fair solution to prevent further bloodshed and sufferings.      Regards .

          • Jack Rocks

            What the hell are you talking about?

            Get a job.

      • Lawrence James.

        Yes. of course Eisenhower did: he was fearful of losing Egypt as a potential ally. I wonder whether we could have marched on Cairo, overturned Nasser and then set up a government that would have been accepted by Egyptians. This was 1956 not 1882 !

    • Cobbett

      Suez ended in fiasco because the Yanks threatened to pull the plug on us. Militarily It was a success.

    • Ron Chandler

      The CIA sits in the next chairs to MI6 operatives in their terror-enablers’ base at Iskanderun, Turkey — right next door to a camp full of Syrian refugees, and just down the road from the Incirlik NATO base. It’s been open since early 2011, paid for by US and UK taxpayers.
      They are unlikely to close shop soon, unless the Turk thug Erdogan is thrown out, and his AKP apparatus, which supports ISIS, is closed down. Thus is the covert empire of rhe Anglo Menace continued…

  • Tamerlane

    Spot on article. Our Syria plans have been like all our plans in the Middle East, grovel at the altar of something called democracy and when that doesn’t work out and throws up fundamentalists and nut-jobs retreat into our moral safety zones from where we can preach and hope for the best. At least in the cold war the Americans got it – depose commie Presidents, elected or not, and put in your own Dictator. Job done. It wasn’t democratic but it was Real Politik; to which we need a very significant return.

    • Ian Beale Steeplecoque

      Now Hitler,’s apologist advocates coups to impose right wing dictators. Shame on you ,you nasty piece of work.

  • logdon

    Whilst Obama, Cameron are dilettante all for effect politicians, Putin is the realist.

  • Peter Stroud

    It is very fortunate that Labour, and some sensible Tories voted against the UK bombing Assad’s forces – even though Labour’s reasons were purely parochially political. The move even stopped Obama. The situation would have been even more grave had the US started a bombing campaign.

    • Mara Naile-Akim

      And I think you will find that Mr Corbyn is a staunch opponent of getting involved in Syria.

      • Bob-B

        Taking in Syrian refugees is ‘getting involved in Syria’.

        • Fairly Educated Scot

          Cleaning up the mess in other people’s countries left by years of BP-dictated foreign policy is not “getting involved”.

        • Mara Naile-Akim

          it really is not

  • AJH1968

    Supporting
    the Arab spring was one of the most ill conceived policies of all time. There was
    always the danger that with more freedom the populace would elect Islamist
    governments. There was no alternative then and certainly not now any chance of
    a rational democratically elected secular state (except perhaps Tunisia, but
    demographic change does not bode well for them). By supporting these so called
    democratic forces we have ushered in a period of monstrous instability (witnessed
    the human waves of Islamic immigrants). The problem with western policy makers
    is that they desperately want to be seen to be doing good deeds so that a
    celebrity might invite them to the occasional soiree (one is reminded of a
    besotted Ian Duncan Smith). Putin is not interested in this; he moves to act
    against a very real an existential threat to the native inhabitants of Europe,
    not to win a popularity contest.

  • Patrick_Blankfein

    The people of Britain and Europe should look after their own communities; these foreign peoples’ problems are not the fault of the European demographic, the poor leaders perhaps. Without a closing of ranks amongst the European populace, weak European politicians will turn your homelands – maybe more cherished than prior to the refugee inundation – into wholly unrecognisable places; a mosque in your village – you laugh, but there is no stopping those from such cultures from trying this on.

    • tyke87

      Mosque or synagogue, what does it matter?

  • mountain dweller

    still no official real intention of being their, maybe his coming out of the cold speech at the UN will shed some light, but one can expect the usual BS that Putin is famous for , as he portrays himself as the saviour , yet their is already a coalition in place, sure they should welcome him to join, and commend him for putting troops on the ground and wish him luck ! but serious , the International community can see this for what it really is and that’s his self preservation in the middle east and to keep that , he needs Assad in place , as for his real intention experts are calling it a big defence force for his new military bases 70 miles from Turkey and NATO

  • Scarsdale Fats

    This is better. Are you sorting out the Spectator coverage of the Middle East at last, after last week’s Nick Cohen ill-informed tabloid journalism.

  • Simon Fay

    “Putin and Assad have made fools of the West”

    Unfair: the West’s elites were largely fools long before Syria brewed up.

  • Cobbett

    Yep the US(the ‘West’) is a real fcuk up. Best to just stay at home

  • thetrashheap

    The fact of the matter is we are on the wrong side.

  • MickC

    So far as I know, the NATO treaty does not include any country in the Middle East. Therefore, NATO has no legitimate interest whatsoever in who controls any country in the Middle East.

    Individual members, particularly the USA, undoubtedly have such interests, but I cannot see that the UK does. Our interference in the Middle East has been catastrophic for the region and its peoples. We should desist, forthwith.

    Russia has a legitimate interest, having a naval base and a treaty with Syria. The UK cannot properly complain about Russia’s actions, much less expend blood or treasure trying to block them.

    If the US wishes to do so, it should do so itself.

    • Lawrence James.

      Yes: agree with letting the US dig its own grave. Yet the security and control of the Mediterranean is vital to Europe and NATO should so all in its power to stay paramount.

      • MickC

        Certainly the freedom of passage in the Med is important, but that is not under threat, and certainly not by Russia. What would it gain?

        Russia wants to sell Europe oil and commodities, and buy manufactured goods and some agricultural products from Europe. This seems the basis for an amicable and mutually beneficial arrangement.

        I don’t know how much trade actually goes through the Med nowadays, but probably less than used to, especially for the UK. Those countries which depend on the Med should step up to defend their right to use it.

        One point on which the US is correct is that the Europeans have depended on the US for their security for too long. Of course, that itself gives the US power, which it may not want to lose.

        Incidentally, are you perchance Lawrence James the historian?

        • Lawrence James.

          Yes I am. I agree. We should accommodate Russia in the Mediterranean – I once watched the unending flow of Russian merchant ships passing to and fro in the Bosphorus. The trouble of the moment is the emergence of a strident Russophobe lobby in Europe, egged on by the USA and to an extent by Germany.It is dangerous and ought to be resisted.

          • MickC

            Indeed, the current anti Russian rhetoric is worrying and dangerous. The Russian people are intensely patriotic, (and extremely tough, as many invaders have found) and such rhetoric is counter productive.

            Regrettably, our leaders seem intent on parrotting the US line on Russia.

            Btw, and at the risk of OBN, rather good books.

          • Lawrence James.

            Thank you so much

  • Ermi Taney

    That is really interesting. The author was right for the wrong reason at the start, and wrong for the right reason now.

  • RWJ

    The west wanted Iraq Libya and Syria to hand to the Jews as failed states. The YINON plan or the greater Israel obscenity was the wests intention.

    • Mow_the_Grass

      Listen you moron – do you actually know where any of these countries are situated.
      Gonna give you (and that imbecile that upvoted you) a clue.
      Libya is in north Africa (Maghreb) hundreds and hundreds of clicks from Israel.
      That’s just for starters.
      The rest is garbage – just like you.

      • RWJ

        Libya covered……but Iraq and Syria isn’t……..and you are still a Mo.

  • RWJ

    If we had left things alone in the middle east we would not be having this conversation. If these so called despots were so bad why did WE install them in the first place.

  • Paul Holland

    I could not give the tits on a fish about Israel sick of the jews victim card they never been victims its not the holey lands its a place grow up no god we are born and we die end of

  • Michael Hartley

    I don’t think Europe needed Putin & Assad to make them look like idiots.

  • King Kong Tess Tickles

    It didst all starteth whenst t something wast Putin hist Assad

  • knarky knickers

    I had to do a talk on what is going on in the world at the moment as part of a course I am currently undertaking. My conclusion to all world leaders is ‘ wash your own dishes, cook your own fish and don’t poke your nose in my clean dish’. if you take this into contact in today’s world, each country should be left to sort out their in-house differences. There will be casualties, blood shed and families left in tatters but this is nothing new. Regardless of what religion you are it has happened but today one would like to think people had a brain to think for themselves rather than be a sheep. I have enjoyed reading the lively debate going on tonight.

  • Nathaniel Ramanaden

    Having seen what has happened in Libya and Iraq after the dictators were toppled. the West must be very careful in attempting to topple President Assad. It is best that he is kept in situ and make all attempts to destroy ISIS

  • Mara Naile-Akim

    It always surprised me how when the ISIS were tearing apart Syria in 2013, no one reported this except Russian TV. As soon as they moved into Iraq, they stopped being rebels and became terrorist.

    I am not one to trust Russian TV, but the similarities between what they reported in Syria in 2013 and what is now reported in Iraq by the mainstream are uncanny.

  • 88Cardey

    Why is it being ignored in this article that Assad started this civil war? Amidst the Arab spring he gunned down peaceful protesters nationwide, and has since been responsible for over 90% of all deaths in Syria.
    He’s a Bathist tyrant who’s been rigging elections for over a decade since his farther put him in power… This inspired protests as the Alawite minority had being ruling over the Sunni majority for so long… That’s not democracy it’s a sham. And was always going to cause instability, tyrants only ever give short term stability and at horrific cost until things boil over likely to greater extremes that it ever would without…
    People that offer capitulations to dictators and tyrants I suspect know very little about them.
    I’m not saying the people of Syria wouldn’t prefer things to go back to how it was before the civil war, I’m sure most would. They’d be mad not to, but it’s Assads fault for the nature of his rule and his refusal to give up power. I’m sure most of the Syrian people would’ve preferred Assad to give up power before all this began but it just didn’t happen. Instead he indiscriminately gassed men women and children and incinerated many more with barrel bombs…

  • At best the West has behaved like a bunch of naive amateurs in Syria, coming very close to achieving a similar disaster to that which occurred in Libya. At worst the West has been the stooge of dark forces at work intent on destroying all the secular regimes in the Arab world, regardless of the calamitous consequences.

  • Patrick Linggard

    It never ceases to surprise me about how ignorantly corrupt the US-dominated. Pentagon-inspired NATO forces truly are … Who are the real amoral outside predators, here, …It seems like their acting more and more like Imperial Japan of WW11, but on this long-term, intrusive, niave, Middle-Eastern nightmare, which has cost many innocent so-called previously persecuted, human beings much more of their lives, by using the same olde Cold War/human rights/democracy propaganda . …another one of the US-backed pure facist-designed (lead by military monied interests, ostensibly to wipe out regional crime, — like Mussolini —) corrupt capitalism, waiting to set up another one of its numerous, so-called, ethically-minded miliatary bases, embassies, and follow-up monied interests.

  • fred flintstone

    I could not agree more. I am no expert but it always seemed to me that allegations against Assad were false and even less likely to be true than those against Saddam Hussein and the WMD.

    • dailytelaviv

      indeed they were. leaked documents available online. I have a copy somewhere show that the chemical weapons incident was staged by the West to serve as a faked pretext. I strongly oppose our policies that have DEMONSTRABLY failed

  • Yaser Haloum

    ‘A recent poll found that 80 per cent of Syrians believe we created the Islamic State — a common belief ‘.

    I am Syrian sir, and that is not a believe , it is a fact.
    The White House Terrorist Organization and their ally: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia share same interest-to a certain limit- in getting Syria and Iraq into strict Islam to make the area a ‘ New Terrorist Factory’ which would be injected into Russia in some stage in future. I wonder how the Westerns make foll of them selves and didn’t see that White House Terrorist Organization handed weapons to their old beloved Al Qaeda in Syria, How you they don’t see how Turkey opened the borders for ISIS and other look alike groups.
    Do you want more sir?????
    Yaser Haloum
    Ireland

  • Patrick Linggard

    Furthermore, I am sick and tired of hearing about the Jewish peoples’ holocaust, and to send money to its few depressed survivors (ended 1945), when Israel, always unusually paranoid about its arch enemy Iran, itself illegally gained access to nuclear weapons, via France, in the mid-60’s, and often, free military aid from the USA, and recently killed numerous of, otherwise, innocent Muslim peple, (who at least honor Christ as being a major, humanistic profit, prior to the coming of their primary humanistic/lawful profit Mohammed, and not deemed a heretic, like most Jews still beleve) because of the, then, unexplained murders of 3 Jewish teenagers … So, that’s what their own corruptible leaders and citzens leanred from the horrid holocaust of WW11? And, the self-centred Jewish citizens of Israel further endorsed this hideous, unethical retalitory action, by re-elected him.
    And, stop ufairly keep targeting present-day German citizens, for past circumstances, which were largely made possible because of unethical World War1 Reparations, via the Versailles treaty, where the German people were treated like dogs by money-grubbing foreigners, after the war ended, hence, decorated WW1 heroes, like Hitler, gave inspirational, propaganda-rich speeches mainly, initially, to revitalize the German’s sense of self-worth and inherent pride; unfortunately, after intial early successes, the Aryan propoganda, got completely out-of-hand, hence, the horrors of the death camps, etc., occurred.

    • pedestrianblogger

      Blah, blah, blah, (fucking) blah.

      • Norsefire_Stacey
      • Patrick Linggard

        But, the actual historically-based truth, Mr. Blah Blah, so either get something for your recurrent throat condition, or introspectively review real socio-political history, for once in your vomit-induced life.

        • pedestrianblogger

          You are Igonikon Jack and I claim my £5.

    • Mow_the_Grass

      Listen ‘pal/ette’ – nobody here is interested in the deranged neo Nazi rantings of some moron situated a million clicks away from the situation in the ME – in nice pleasantville Canada.
      So FO back to one of your favourite aryan white supremacists site where your strange convoluted muslim/christian garbage – might gain some traction.

      • dailytelaviv

        au contraire Schlomo I am VERY interested in what Patrick had to say. Its also called free speech something you obviouly oppose

        • Mow_the_Grass

          Is that so.
          Why don’t you swop details and then maybe you two can get a room somewhere – where you can show him how VERY interested you really are.
          Whaddya say Freddie

  • Patrick Linggard

    Sure, Yaser Haloum. but only certifiable facts, not any imaginary and/or distorted so-called facts ….
    P.S. Sorry to see your country’s respective citizens presently being terrorized, or, otherwse, left homeless,because of outsiders own private interests..

  • bobmattfran

    Putin and Assad haven’t made a fool of the West they didn’t have to, the Wet following the USA is quite capable of screwing up without any outside help.
    The war criminals. GW Bush, Cheyney, Blair, Cameron and all the other blind short sighted fools who have no respect for different cultures and attempt to ram US “democracy” down peoples throats are the losers and followed the same failed policies of McCarthyism which was rampant in the 1950’s/60’s.
    They never learned the lesson of over throwing an elected government in Iran, and putting in place a corrupt US puppet so that the USA could control Irans oil.

    They ignored history when they used Saddam to attempt to start a full scale war with Iran. They couldn’t understand that Saddam was entitled to sell his oil in any currency he chose, so they manufactured WMD;s lied, and conned the rest of the world.

    Not content with that they moved on to Afghanistan, which was Number 2 on GW Bush’s hit list of undesireable countries, then Libya with the results we see today. Then they went completely round the bend by deliberately financing and supporting thugs (Thank you Victoria Nuland) to destabilise and bring down an elected legal governmnent in Ukraine.

    Why? Because the brain dead in NATO together with the brain dead in the US State Department and the US military wanted to surround Russia. Isn’t that turning out well???

    Up to now the USA and the UK and NATO look like a bunch of idiots brought about by their own arrogant stupidity.

    What next for the necons? China, I don’t think so. China and Russia together would be a military and financial disaster for the US.

    The only good that has come out of this mess is that the worlds premier bully has for once been slowed down in its empire building attempts.

    Sadly the by products of US hegemony are usual the poorest and weakest who have had their lives, homes, and cities destroyed by the greed of the military industrial complex the USA.

  • Patrick Linggard

    Thank you, Bob, for bringing back to mind, the anti-commie Richard Nixon-dominated persecution, via the predatory Unamerican Activities, investigative committee, after the ranting & raving, otherwise, bullshit propaganda-rehearsed remarks by the charismatic, but (paranoid/delusioal) socio/psychotic US senator, McCarthy, who hoped to further his own political career, by further unethically endorising spending more and more US citizens’ tax money, on more and more technologicslly advanced Militaristic “so-called” defense weaponry

  • CO Jones

    One small criticism: the headline “Putin and Assad have made fools of the West” might be more accurate if it read “The West has made fools of the West”.

  • Patrick Linggard

    CO JONES,
    Someone sensible within Canada’s borders should send our current, US-puppet, Prime Minister, your last sarcastically thought-filled, discerning blog

  • Marc

    There was no refuge problem until the US and it’s blind followers decided to illegally destroy Iraq, Libya and then Syria, no wonder Eastern EU states are angry, they were not part of the crime, and look at the US taking 10,000 refugees only, thank god for the Russians. As the US and it’s allies persist on destabilising the world and twisting the interpretation of the law to suit them selves, does this mean we need Russia and China more to step up and send it’s military to areas under threat by the US to prevent further instability.

  • Patrick Linggard

    Marc,
    Great point, but I think President Putin does not actually fully trust burgeoning China on its Eastern border, either, but, incidentally, he is currently building a massive casino-based business, like Las Vegas, to filter out wealthy, primarily, Chinese business men’s money. But, Putin, certainly has proved, throughout his relatively short history, that he is a patient listener, savy evaluator, and shrewd respective leader of Russia, regardless of the West’s targeted propaganda against him and his defensive-minded military maneouvers to protect his borders, and to support his often undisclosed Middle-Eastern and other internationally-based allies.

  • Sinbad2

    The WEST, the term the west is used by Americans to spread the blame, if it was a great victory, USA would be used, not the west.
    Other
    westerners also use the term the west, when they don’t want to be seen
    to be laying the blame for some failure at the feet of the USA, or
    trying to claim a bit of glory for their nation when the US has done
    something good.

    However neither Assad or
    Putin made fools of the west, which in this case refers to the US and
    UK, they did that all by themselves.

  • Jose Palomino

    forwards to all: LATINO-AMERICA SAY: VICTORY TO THE HEROIC SYRIAN PEOPLE, SAA AND PRESIDENT ASSAD!!.
    DOWN WITH CRIMINAL USA NATO ISRAEL AND ARAB STOOGES/SAVAGES MERCENARIES!!
    YANKEES GO HOME!!!.

    • Mow_the_Grass

      YALLA ABDUL

    • Trofim

      How does a Muslim sheep worship his God? Allahu ak Baaaaaaaah

  • MrJones

    Washington and their poodles in Westminster made fools of themselves by supporting Isis to get Assad.

  • Jiří Novák

    What? Are you crazy? I read first paragraph – you were against military action against Assad. West did not make any action – as you wanted – and the result is 4 years long war and unspeakable suffering of people and exodus from Syria!

    So, if anything was proven is that YOUR advice was the one which caused the suffering. omg.
    I won’t read rest of the article, from such a hypocrite, sorry.

  • Gano1

    They have indeed.

  • dailytelaviv

    The West has made fools of itself. Anyway what exactly is the ‘ West’ is Ukraine in the West ? Israel? Albania ? I dont identify with the so called West or its failed institutions like the IMF, EU or NATO

  • dailytelaviv

    NB< ISIS is the exact acronym of the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service, Nice 'coincidence'

  • Shaun Tootell

    A Fake War on terror with Al Qaeda, Al Noor, Boko Haram, and Isis all created armed and supported by the American / European military alliance through its Wahhabi Puppet Arab states of Saudi and Quatar, designed and already used by the Washington Neocons and their Nato allies to smash up and grab former sovereign states of Serbia, Bosnia, Iraq, Afganistan, Egypt and Libya and now Syria and next Iran under the pretext of the Arab spring uprisings
    The results are weakened and fractured Arab states which border the true masters of terrorism and no longer pose a military threat to those nuclear armed lunatics and the greedy globalist murderers get total control of the middle east’s oil and natural resources.
    Europeans face the onslaught of thousands upon thousands of bombed up refugees
    fleeing the effects of indiscriminate bombing of civilians and genocidal maniacs doing the West’s dirty business whilst believing they are carrying out the will of their God.
    The Globalist Elite Banking criminals who control our governments from the shadows have engineered the phony war on Syria so they can depose Assad and install a subservient dictatorship and yet another House of Rothschild controlled central banking system.
    Putin knows that this policy is also designed to encircle Russia from the Caspian to western Europe with Nato allies and bases. He has already successfully thwarted the Globalist plan for a direct UN lead invasion of Syria. He is a wily old bird who has shown that he can out
    manoeuvre Washington’s war mongers and his latest intervention in Syrian politics is designed to strengthen the Assad regime against further western sponsored civil war and terrorist atrocities.

  • David

    This wasnt an Arab spring from the beginning, This was an US spring that thank Goodness the people saw through

  • David

    The US have caused this unrest and volatility in the world. It is a far more dangerous place since they started to INVADE other countries

  • Shaun Tootell

    A Fake War on terror with Al Qaeda, Al Noor, Boko Haram, and Isis all created armed and supported by the American / European military alliance through its Wahhabi Puppet Arab states of Saudi and Quatar, designed and already used by the Washington Neocons and their Nato allies to smash up and grab former sovereign states of Serbia, Bosnia, Iraq, Afganistan, Egypt and Libya and now Syria and next Iran under the pretext of the Arab spring uprisings
    The results are weakened and fractured Arab states which border the true masters of terrorism and no longer pose a military threat to those nuclear armed lunatics and the greedy globalist murderers get total control of the middle east’s oil and natural resources.
    Europeans face the onslaught of thousands upon thousands of bombed up refugees
    fleeing the effects of indiscriminate bombing of civilians and genocidal maniacs doing the West’s dirty business whilst believing they are carrying out the will of their God.
    The Globalist Elite Banking criminals who control our governments from the shadows have engineered the phony war on Syria so they can depose Assad and install a subservient dictatorship and yet another House of Rothschild controlled central banking system.
    Putin knows that this policy is also designed to encircle Russia from the Caspian to western Europe with Nato allies and bases. He has already successfully thwarted the Globalist plan for a direct UN lead invasion of Syria. He is a wily old bird who has shown that he can out
    manoeuvre Washington’s war mongers and his latest intervention in Syrian politics is designed to strengthen the Assad regime against further western sponsored civil war and terrorist atrocities.

  • WFB56

    I think that we need a trigger warning on these comments as the article has attracted an unusually high number of “crazies”.

    • dailytelaviv

      crazies meaning people who support Israel and NATOs policies ? Its a great honour to be classed as crazy by a Zionist extremist

    • Trofim

      Me fink you is like wrong, innit. It is all da fault of dem yankees and the Joos, innit.

      • dailytelaviv

        if you think you are being clever then rethink , oaf

  • Philip

    First bit of common sense I have seen from a journalist

  • Baz

    Islam does not recognise democracy. Which is why Muslims need strong dictators just to stop them murdering each other… and everyone else!

  • Kenny Fraser

    sounds like its that cretin john bradley who is miffed at being shown to be a fool,the wests support for radical islamists seeking to bring ruin to an elected government running a previously stable and peaceful country,merely because they didnt like that government,is pure hypocrisy. president assad should have all the necessary support required to smash the threat to the country.

  • blandings

    “Putin and Assad have made fools of the West”

    Even I could do that.- The West is governed by monkeys

    • dailytelaviv

      indeed , sick of the West and our failed policies. South Sudan? Yemen,? Libya? Kosovo? Iraq? Syria? Afghanistan? Yemen? show me the success of NATO and EU Zionist policy?

  • sidor

    It wasn’t Putin: the Saudis who have been making the West to act as their puppet for decades. Bush was hugging prince Bandar a couple of weeks after the 11th September. The “Arab Spring” promoted by madam Clinton was a wahhabi revolution in the Moslem world. They succeeded in Libya but fortunately failed in Egypt and Syria.

  • Davedeparis

    The author seems to be saying, ” no-one listened to me and look Syria is therefore a mess.” But the reality is that the west took his advice and did not intervene or took ineffectual action designed to fail and as a result Syria is a more of a mess than it otherwise would have been.

  • Frank

    This is quite an interesting development.
    Happy for Russia to get into its very own version of Vietnam, bound to end well! Eventually the west will be arming all the neighbouring states and eventually a Russian / Israeli / NATO jet/drone will shoot down an Israeli / Russian / NATO jet/drone, etc, etc.

  • Avner Eliyahu Romm
  • Greg

    The greatest risk to all this is the US election next year. Clinton and Biden have proved to be completely and utterly incompetent when it comes to foreign policy and it is their actions that started this civil war and created such a mess.
    Then on the other side the GOP candidates seem to want to start a war with Iran/Russia/China and will not even entertain some sort of achievable solution.
    When Putin is the sanest leader in the world then you know we are in trouble.

    • dailytelaviv

      almost all leaders are maniacs, the only two leaders that I can think of that are not are President Putin and Viktor Orban , Cameron s only suitable to roger pigs heads

  • rtj1211

    ‘At the outset of Syria’s brutal four-year civil war, I was an almost unique voice in the British media deploring the push to depose the secular dictator President Bashar al-Assad’

    The key words there are IN THE BRITISH MEDIA. There were plenty of people voicing similar opinions to yours, they just weren’t employed by the BRITISH MEDIA.

    Perhaps the most important thing Britain needs to do is reform radically its strident media to represent both the views of people who live in this country but also the values it purports to live by.

    They do neither when judged by actions and outcomes, rather than the gazillions of words they print literally or electronically every day of the damn world……

  • Carol

    Get rid of the dictators in these Arab countries and the results are devastating. Look at Iraq….. at least there was some sort of peace when Sudam Hussain was alive. What has it proved for the West to interfere

  • WarriorPrincess111111

    The US is not finished yet. The latest reports are that the US intends to establish a nuclear base in Germany. The US is not interested in the various fighting factions in the Middle East and they never have been – their only focus has been on the oil wells!

    ISIS, to whom the above report infers are Sunni Muslims from Saudi Arabia and Qatar combined with various believers across the Middle East. ISIS, have been trained in the US, Turkey and Israel and are funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US. The US cannot publicly admit that, obviously, and Russia has called their bluff in that aspect also.

    The Americans have never recovered from the Cold War. The only reason that the two countries have never been to war is that Russia has superior arms and forces to that of the States, and that the States had the A-bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

    We have that thousands of immigrants are being enticed into Europe – enticed, because they are focussed on the EU. The huge majority of these immigrants are young men! The Americans have been energetic in forming allegiances with some of the richest Middle Eastern countries, and have been, along with Germany and France, supplying these areas with large amounts of arms. Oil, is the prime necessity in times of War! Russia may well find that it will have to fight on two fronts – the Middle East and Europe! Europe will be involved because the Americans have always been keen to promote the EU and have acted constantly to try to keep it stable, for among the member countries there is a large combined army. The US would not even have to put its country at risk – it would as it has in the past leave client states to fight for their beliefs on their behalf.

    America has been steadily over the years, introducing their policies to the EU by business investments and the agreements made along with these. Hence the term Americanism is applied to many European markets. America is now ready to expand their involvement in the EU.

  • Claudia Georgiou

    Having read about 50 comments plus the article by Mr Bradley I wonder what the truth is? We all have opinions, but no one knows for sure. Why not stop fighting about opinions but sit together and work out a strategy to find peace? Don’t worry about all the guns and explosives around us – take all the people who do not want any more killing on any side, and peace will be possible. As my seven year old son says, if you want to stop the war just stop killing. We can.

    • Greg

      Why has nobody thought of that? Lets tell the ISIS psycho’s to stop killing. Maybe they will stop killing.

      Or maybe, here in the real world, they will continue to do as they do!

    • Mary Ann

      Nice idea but what about the people on the other side? how will you stop them killing in the name of their god.

  • Mike Blyth

    looks very much like Mr Putin has taken the bull by the horns , something our own politicians and the USA should have done months ago , then we probably wouldn’t be overrun by muslim immegrants, were in this wonderful EU who should have got this crisis sorted but have let it go to far Could’nt run a p**s up in a brewery sooner were out of this farcical club the better off we’ll be their pathetic

  • WarriorPrincess111111

    Good on them! In the West people have come to distrus the EU and the US that they now have more allegiance to Russia.
    The US is not finished yet. The latest reports are that the US intends to establish a nuclear base in Germany. The US is not interested in the various fighting factions in the Middle East and they never have been – their only focus has been on the oil wells!
    ISIS, to whom the above report infers are Sunni Muslims from Saudi Arabia and Qatar combined with various believers across the Middle East. ISIS, have been trained in the US, Turkey and Israel and are funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US. The US cannot publicly admit that, obviously, and Russia has called their bluff in that aspect also.
    The Americans have never recovered from the Cold War. The only reason that the two countries have never been to war is that Russia has superior arms and forces to that of the States, and that the States had the A-bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
    We have that thousands of immigrants are being enticed into Europe – enticed, because they are focussed on the EU. The huge majority of these immigrants are young men! The Americans have been energetic in forming allegiances with some of the richest Middle Eastern countries, and have been, along with Germany and France, supplying these areas with large amounts of arms. Oil, is the prime necessity in times of War! Russia may well find that it will have to fight on two fronts – the Middle East and Europe! Europe will be involved because the Americans have always been keen to promote the EU and have acted constantly to try to keep it stable, for among the member countries there is a large combined army. The US would not even have to put its country at risk – it would as it has in the past leave client states to fight for their beliefs on their behalf.
    This combined with the favours to its old ally from the cold wars, Israel – that has now huge stocks of arms including numerous nuclear arms – the US pays over a quarter of the money for overseas aid to Israel – a comparatively wealthy country – to enable its arms stockpile, while defending Israel’s refusal to publicly acknowledge these arms – appears to be very suspicious indeed.
    America has been steadily over the years, introducing their policies to the EU by business investments and the agreements made along with these. Hence the term Americanism is applied to many European markets. America is now ready to expand their involvement in the EU.

    If the UK leaders show any wisdom at all, they will elect to come out of the EU and distance themselves from the US.

  • Lynn

    Indirectly we did create the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Bush and Blair on their dictator toppling mission unleashed a far more dangerous Middle East and Europe. There has to a prime directive of sorts when dealing with the Middle East, we tolerate African dictators, so why not Middle Eastern ones, we don’t have to like them, but they are the lesser evil, and funnily enough the lives of Christians were never at risk under the rule of secular dictators. If Cameron had his inexperienced and short sighted way Syria would like Libya before it become another dangerous failed state, with all the nasty Middle Eastern groups fighting like vultures over the remains of a kill.

    • Weaver

      It was probably coming anyway. Nearly every other state in the region has long term stability problems. The Arab Spring didn’t kick off in Baghdad, after all.

  • R Fairless

    After a lifetime of opposing Russia I find myself in complete support of its policy and actions regarding Syria.
    America and British policies in the Middle East have been a disaster resulting in the destruction and degeneration into anarchy of several countries. Millions are homeless, unemployed and starving and desperate to find safety and security.
    How can America and Britain view their actions with anything but shame?
    They could of course take a step in the right direction by supporting Putin and Al-Assad, help to defeat the Islamic insurrectionists and then help to repair and restore Syria. Something tells me that Obama and Cameron are too misguided and stupid to do this so it must be up to Putin and Assad.

    • Augustus

      Not only stupid, but weakly hesitant to get involved, and they rather distanced themselves from the drawn out conflict in the Middle East. Naturally Russia exploited a vacuum created mainly by Obama’s weakness. Furthermore, Assad has more allies than Russia. The Hezbollah movement and Iran support him, and the question is how far they will go to keep supporting him. And Russia probably won’t abandon Assad either because it would then lose its last remaining ally in the Middle East.

    • MickC

      Russia is not the USSR.

      The USSR vigorously promoted an ideology, Communism. Russia, like every other country, merely promotes its own interests.

  • JamesR

    Pity Hague and Cameron- and America- learned nothing for the shambles that went before with Bliar and Bush. They have just made it far worse.

  • Kamran

    Seriously are these fucking articles generated by madlib programs? I’m starting to think that, because there always a mumble of different topical words thrown together to make the author look like a fucking expert in the middle east or something.

    Exampli Gratia:

    ” A spokesman for the US command in Kabul attempted to pin the blame on Iran in what has become a standard tactic for diverting attention from failure. Extremist groups outside of Afghanistan were responsible, he said: “outside agitators” so to speak. Allegedly, fanatics of the Falafel Brotherhood were crossing the Afghan-Tajic border with weaponry supplied by Tehran. This view drew support from the later Bush administration and came to be accepted in Congress.

    Those more familiar with the region responded that the “Afghans” and “Tajiks” were in fact pastoralists dominated by tribal, not national loyalties, and looked not to the central government in Kabul, but to their own leaders, Ahmed Shah Massoud and Sala al-Din for guidance. (Or Akhmed Shah Massoud: The guttural is transliterated in various ways.) These men were essentially rebranded Mamelukes, having been raised in or around the Janissary madrassas (Koranic schools) of Kandahar before the Russian invasion of1976. Warlords at heart, they were suspected by US intelligence of being interested chiefly in extending their rule beyond the Chagras River into the rich opium lands of the Bekaa Valley. They had no connection to Iran.”

  • Abie Vee

    Tell it like it is JR! Excellent piece.

    One small point of order: “no one listened” you say. The British public listened, and Ed Miliband and the Labour Party listened too, and for once in their miserable lives the dogs of war were brought sharply to heel. A rare triumph for public opinion, and real democracy in action.

    • MickC

      Yes, indeed! A rare occasion when Parliament followed public opinion.

  • Song Servant

    “why did the Russians move to guarantee Assad’s survival?” So that the country will be in peace and the west could send back the refugee. People from that part of the world need strict leadership. If saddam was to be alive there will not be isis.
    The media made the stupid Iraqis and Libyans to believe that their dictators were their problem, so the idiots rebelled and the dictators were eliminated.

    The isis terrorist spranged up and the west couldn’t deal with them

    the same people who rebelled against the eliminated dictators can no longer live in the country anymore.

    When Saddam was alive we didn’t have these max immigration to the west, Why?

    Those country who helped to eliminate the dictator will have to keep the refugees that is what is happening

  • Sean L

    So have Obama and Cameron. With Merkel on their tail…

  • OneWoman

    As we see from the above, the narrative and inhumanity of the far right and far left is essentially no different: dictators are fine for “lesser peoples”, just not for the people of the West who are “civilised” and deserve freedom and human rights.
    By the same reasoning, any external exploitation of a revolution must be the reason behind the uprising since Arabs and other non-Western peoples are congenitally incapable of rising up being essentially docile creatures who should be subjugated “for their own good” – because of course they (apart from the dictators) are innately extremist.

    • O’ChiefHusseinChimp

      Shut up you silly b(i)tch

    • new_number_2

      It isn’t a support for dictators but an opposition to imperialist meddling in these countries. It shouldn’t be up to the West who rules these countries.

    • Weaver

      Yeah, but we’re out of local allies now. All the secular democrat forces there are exiled or dead.

  • mark roman

    Has Dopey Dithery Davey Do Nothing seen this excellent analysis? perhaps but the the facts were never a vital part of his personal integrity.

  • Noa

    “Vladimir Putin now pitches himself as Europe’s migrant-crisis saviour. Only by saving Assad, he argued, can we stem the flow…”

    And where are the flaws in his argument?
    A nationalist, conservative leader acts in the interests of conservative values and is accordingly condemned by a liberal democrat who is the Prime Minister of the UK.

    • new_number_2

      Vladimir Putin is acting in the interests of Russian hegemony in Syria.

      • sidor

        And Obama is acting in the interests of Saudi hegemony in Syria.

        • new_number_2

          Exactly.

      • Noa

        The same opportunity was eschewed by Cameron and Hollande, who wanted – and still do want, to bomb in favour of establishing an IS hegemony.

        • new_number_2

          They had wanted and still want a pro Western and pro Saudi puppet government in Syria regardless of the cost.

  • Yozsef Gad von Flumenthal

    I strongly believe that the Saudi Royal family’s days are numbered as are the days of American influence in the region. NATO as been proven to be nothing but a joke all along and now it is the turn of the Russians to blow the trumpet.

  • Guest

    When Russia starts annihilating ISIS,I think it’s a fair bet a considerable number of terrorists will head to soft target Europe rather than face Russian troops.

  • allanee777

    F…k me ..what have I come across on this blog????People in this day and age actually supporting Nazi Germany??…I am GOBSMACKED…to think that you have “people” on here believing that the jews are to blame for everything that,s happened to the world since time began…What a f…king indictment of our “free and honest”western society and it,s education systems. Putin has played a blinder in overtaking the the west in the moral superiority stakes, but if Cameron and especially Obama had been anything of a statesman they would have seen this bullsh..t coming a mile away. And to the guy who said the Germans were only defending themselves …..SIX MILLION PEOPLE MURDERED,….

    • Guest

      Don’t worry. Just a group of losers on welfare with nothing to fill their empty lives except in nourishing their rabid Jew hatred by “researching” texts such as the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf. Anti-semitism hasn’t gone away it is still alive and breathing amongst the parasites raised on welfare Europe finding a useful caliban ally in fundamental Islam that has purged the lands occupied by Islam of the Jews and others. Together hand in hand they lay their genocidal gaze on Israel so that they can finish the work started by Nazi Europe and Islam.

      • Augustus

        Yes, rabid left-wing extremists, now collaborating with imported religious extremists, who use radical anti-Israelism as an excuse for traditional anti-Semitism. And when they march on anti-Israeli demonstrations they think it ingenious to wave placards ‎shamelessly accusing Israelis of emulating Nazis.

        • Weaver

          I think you’ll find that the left is also very busy in Anti-Semitism nowadays. Muslim groups in the UK aren’t in league with the BNP; its Socialist Worker Party and Stop The War who are their allies. See comrade Corbyn and friends for details.

  • DC Musicfreak

    Isn’t it more a matter of Putin and Assad having absolutely no compunction about killing as many Syrian civilians as it takes to keep the Assad dictatorship in power? Democracies have factors that stay their hands, while Putin critics die painful deaths. As awful as ISIS is, Assad has killed 7 Syrians for every one killed by ISIS, and the refugees are mostly fleeing their own government — and they’re not fleeing to “savior” Russia because they know Assad’s barrel bombs had Putin’s blessing.

    • sidor

      Do you suggest to support ISIS out of the general principles of humanism? If not, what is it about?

    • Cyril Sneer

      “As awful as ISIS is…”

      Perhaps you should run that by anyone who lives in Syria and Iraq that of any religious connotation that isn’t Sunni.

      And I’m confused by this barrel bombing hysteria in the western news – the use of barrel bombs indicate to me that the side using them has a shortage of proper bombs or are lacking the means with which to drop the proper bombs.

      There seems little strategic or tactical advantage to be had in deliberately targeting civilian areas in an attempt to kill masses of civilians, but it works wonders for propaganda, western propaganda.

      I don’t see the SAA as being as bad as ISIS and I know that non-muslim groups for the most part fight on the side of the SAA against the Jihadists.

      “and the refugees are mostly fleeing their own government”

      Yet more western propaganda.

  • disqus_XVbpeZ156A

    It is a shame that the discussion about the mistakes made by America and its EU puppets has descended in to racial slagging. Millions are being displaced and many young futures destroyed because of vested interests, political and business,this is the crime of the Century, and those responsible should find the same fate as other War Criminals. Many on Social Media have put forward the same arguments, concerning Assad, as has John Bradley and they to have been proven right. The Palestinian/Israel problem is for another debate, but notice that Netanyahu is courting Putin, so watch this space.

  • Sanctimony

    Putin makes Cameron and Obama look like tyros…

  • theguerrilla

    To justify it’s existance, NATO (especially USA) has lost no chance to antagonise Russia. NATO and the EU are responsible for the bloodshed in Eastern Ukraine, by forcing out it’s elected leader and offering NATO membership to the Kiev regime. They are also prolonging the civil war in Syria, hoping to oust Russian ships from their Syrian base. Corbyn has good reason to withdraw us from NATO, which is 40 years past it’s sell-by date.

    • Clive

      In fact NATO membership was refused to Ukraine https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/09/04/that-time-ukraine-tried-to-join-nato-and-nato-said-no/
      During NATO’s 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, the issue was discussed and, after opposition from France and Germany, a decision was made to offer neither Ukraine nor Georgia a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) — essentially a path for Ukraine to receive membership — at that moment. Vague promises of NATO membership in the future were made, but the United States later appeared to drop its support for NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. Russia’s brief war with Georgia in August 2008 helped underscore the decision’s importance, but NATO and Ukraine held further talks in December. Again, however, no specific MAP was announced.

      If anyone caused the problem with Ukraine, it was the EU – by forcing Ukraine to make a choice between joining the EU – which even Yanukovych was willing to do – and joining the Russian customs union. The EU could have made a deal with the Russian customs union before that but refused

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/war-in-ukraine-a-result-of-misunderstandings-between-europe-and-russia-a-1004706.html
      The Kremlin then proposed to Brussels that negotiations be conducted between the EU and the Eurasion Union — directly between the two blocs of power. But European Commission President José Manuel Barroso refused to meet with the leaders of the Eurasion Union, a bloc he considered to be an EU competitor.

  • rj

    As an indigenous European I’d like to disassociate myself from the anti-semetic comments on this thread.

    In all my years, I’ve never even heard friends or colleagues speak in this way. This makes me wonder where the hatred is really coming from.

  • Andrew Murray

    Jewish controlled media helping along the warmongering Israeli Jews funded by and backed by ZOG occupied American duel passport holding Israelis. The Greater Israel Yinon plan is going like clockwork, they have dislogged millions of people into Western Europe and have vilified Assad they will soon have a Jewish central bank in Aleppo.

    • Trofim

      You mean Aleppo might have a bank that works properly?

  • DellerboyNZ

    It’s too late now, but name one ME conflagration-spot that wouldn’t have been better served by working with the dictator and easing him into some semblance of acceptable behaviour.
    The American ‘Liberation of Paris’ model just doesn’t work in this region.
    As I think the incomparable Bernard Lewis (turns 100 next year – bless him) said if you invade and topple be prepared to stay.

    • Kate S.

      “The American ‘Liberation of Paris’ model just doesn’t work in this region. ”
      ^ This x 1,000!

    • Ron Chandler

      You might have a better hope of working with Assad if you understood he’s not a dictator, and has been freely re-elected three times. Your media is lying to you.

  • Dogsnob

    Not bizarre at all that a wise and strong leader triumphs where a host of hollow wind-watchers displayed nothing but well-rehearsed ineptitude.

  • Jack Rocks

    Syria has always been a political tool of the Iranians. Iran was also instrumental in controlling the Shia militias that did so much to undermine Iraq post-invasion. I’m sure it has a hand in Libya too.
    The whole thing is a mess.

    • sidor

      It’s not a mess. Look at the ME map 2500 years ago, and you will see the pattern. The problem is that nobody of the US politicians learned history that far.

    • Kate S.

      It’s a proxy war. Syria is receiving support from fellow Shias in Iran as well as Russia, whilst Saudi Arabia is adding Salafist oil to the flames of IS. For four years, I’ve been saying that backing Assad would be the smartest thing any Western government could do.

      • Clive

        Assad has also been cooperating with ISIS

        http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/syria-isis-advance-on-aleppo-aided-by-assad-regime-air-strikes-us-says
        The US has accused the Syrian government of providing air support to an advance by Islamic State militants against opposition groups north of Aleppo.

        Fighters opposing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have made the same claims since Sunday, when Isis began advancing towards the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.

        The seizure of Azaz, 20 miles north-west of Aleppo, would imperil the main opposition supply line into Syria’s biggest city, the rebel-held east of which has been besieged by government forces for more than two years.

        A post to a Twitter account used by the US embassy in Syria said late on Monday: “Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of [Isis’s] advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population.

        “We have long seen that the regime avoids Isis lines, in complete contradiction to the regime’s claims to be fighting Isis,” the embassy said in a separate tweet.

        • sidor

          Do you really expect us to believe this crap? It is like Iran collaborating with the Saudis.

        • Kate S.

          Clive, there is a lot of seemingly contradicting information out there. Is Assad a saint? Of course not! We all know that, but he’s the lesser of two evils, and when your choices are limited, as a realist (international relations terminology) and a pragmatist, I choose damage control.

          Regarding the reports that Assad does not fight against ISIS. Firstly, the US has a clear agenda; Obama always insisted on the removal of Assad. Secondly, yes, the Assad regime has given up on certain parts of Syria. Again, that’s not a secret, and it’s not really news either. It was announced back in July: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-with-isis-president-assad-admits-he-has-given-up-on-parts-of-syria-10417158.html

          Thirdly, some government troops may have elected to avoid fighting ISIS. That would be a form of defection, but considering the general state of chaos, I highly doubt that a single unit’s (platoon or company) unwillingness to fight ISIS would immediately be noticed by Damascus. I am speculating here, but the US embassy’s tweet doesn’t even say that. It just says that the regime avoids ISIS lines. It doesn’t say where those lines are, and if they are indeed in areas considered lost, it all falls together, doesn’t it?

          Can I state with certainty that Assad never had any dealings with ISIS? No. However, I can state that while he was in control ISIS was not a threat.

  • “Bizarrely, Putin is talking more sense on Syria than anyone else”

    The Spectator magazine pretending it doesn’t know what’s going on!

    The so-called ‘War on Terror’ is an operation being carried out by the Marxist co-opted governments of the West in alliance with the USSR and other Communist nations, the purpose being to (1) destroy the prominence of the West in the eyes of the world, where the West is seen (i) invading nations without cause; (ii) causing chaos around the globe; and (iii) killing over one-million civilians and boasting of torture; (2) close off non-Russian supplies of oil for export, thereby increasing the price of oil, the higher price allowing oil exporting Russia to maintain economic stability while she modernizes and increases her military forces; (3) destroy the United States Armed Forces via the never-ending ‘War on Terror’; the ultimate purpose of the aforementioned to (4) bring about the demise of the United States in the world, opening up a political void to be filled by a new pan-national entity composed of Europe and Russia (replacing the European Union), a union ‘From the Atlantic to Vladivostok’; which will (5) see the end of NATO.

    The following is a discovery I made in April regarding the fake collapse of the USSR, and what that fraudulent collapse proves about the institutions of the West…

    When Soviet citizens were liberated from up to 74 years of horrific Marxist oppression on December 26, 1991 there were ZERO celebrations throughout the USSR, proving (1) the ‘collapse’ of the USSR is a strategic ruse; and (2) the political parties of the West were already co-opted by Marxists,* otherwise the USSR (and East Bloc nations) couldn’t have gotten away with the ruse.

    ZERO celebrations, as the The Atlantic article inadvertently informs us…

    http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/12/20-years-since-the-fall-of-the-soviet-union/100214/

    Notice, however, the Kremlin staged anti-government demonstrations that took place in Russia (and other Soviet republics) in the years immediately preceding the ‘collapse’, yet ZERO celebrations after the ‘collapse’!

    For more on this discovery see my blog…

    https://sites.google.com/site/deanjackson60/

    Conclusion:

    The West will form new political parties where candidates are vetted for Marxist ideology, the use of the polygraph to be an important tool for such vetting. Then the West can finally liberate the globe of vanguard Communism.
    ————————-
    * The failed socialist inspired and controlled pan-European revolutions that swept the continent in 1848(1) thought Marxists and socialists a powerful lesson, that lesson being they couldn’t win overtly,(2) so they adopted the tactic of infiltration of the West’s political parties/institutions. In the case of the United States…(continue reading at DNotice)…

    https://sites.google.com/site/deanjackson60/now-you-see-me-now-you-don-t

    Now you know why not one political party in the West requested verification of the collapse of the USSR, and the media failed to alert your attention to this fact, including the ‘alternative’ media. When determining whether the ‘former’ USSR is complying with arms control treaties, what does the United States do to confirm compliance? Right, the United States sends into the ‘former’ USSR investigative teams to VERIFY compliance, yet when it’s the fate of the West that’s at stake should the collapse of the USSR be a ruse, what does the United States do to confirm the collapse? Nothing!

    The fraudulent ‘collapse’ of the USSR (and East Bloc) couldn’t have been pulled off until both political parties in the United States (and political parties elsewhere in the West) were co-opted by Marxists, which explains why verification of the ‘collapse’ was never undertaken by the West, such verification being (1) a natural administrative procedure (since the USSR wasn’t occupied by Western military forces); and (2) necessary for the survival of the West. Recall President Reagan’s favorite phrase, “Trust, but verify”.

    It gets worse–the ‘freed’ Soviets and West also never (1) de-Communized the Soviet Armed Forces of its Communist Party officer corps, which was 90% officered by Communist Party members; and (2) arrested/de-mobilized the 6-million vigilantes that assisted the Soviet Union’s Ministry of the Interior and police control the populations of the larger cities during the period of ‘Perestroika’ (1986-1991)!

    There can be no collapse of the USSR (or East Bloc nations) without…

    Verification, De-Communization and De-mobilization.

    The West never verified the collapse of the USSR because no collapse occurred, since if a real collapse had occurred the West would have verified it, since the survival of the West depends on verification. Conversely, this proves that the political parties of the West were co-opted by Marxists long before the fraudulent collapse of the USSR, since the survival of the West depends on verification.

    Now you know how Bolshevik Russia survived in 1917; how the West ‘lost’ China to the Communists in 1949; why the Eisenhower administration turned a deaf ear to the anti-Communist Hungarian uprising in 1956; why the Eisenhower administration in 1959 was indifferent to the Castro brothers’ Communist fidelity, actually used the CIA to overthrow the Batista government; why the Nixon administration abandoned Taiwan for Communist China, and signed treaties/provided economic aid to the USSR; why the Nixon administration refused to tell the American People that over 50% of North Vietnamese NVA regiments were actually Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers (attired in NVA uniforms, and proving that the Sino/Soviet Split was a ruse, as KGB defector Major Anatoliy Golitsyn told the West back in 1962), thereby (1) ensuring the Vietnam War would be lost; (2) destroying the prominence of the United States abroad and at home; (3) breeding distrust between the American people and their government; and (4) securing Communist victories in Southeast Asia. Working in the background within the political parties of the United States and Great Britain were Marxist agents doing their best to (1) ensure the survival of Communist nations when they popped up; and (2) sabotage any policies that would bring down a Communist nation. That’s why after the fake collapses of the East Bloc nations and USSR there was no mandatory Western verification process to ensure the Communists weren’t still in control.

  • WilliamJ38748

    We must make Syria a tolerant, diverse multicultural society, free of hate

    • CO Jones

      And we must also make sure that every day is sunny and that it only rains during the nighttime, between the hours of, say, 02:00 and 03:00.

      • WilliamJ38748

        Don’t be silly

    • Guest

      Good luck.

    • WTF

      Why, as long as they stay in their own back yard I don’t give a toss !

    • Cyril Sneer

      That must the liberal progressive opinion yes?

      The one that has helped destroy Syria.

  • Muhammad Abbass

    Yes, that’s it and it was never really in doubt either from the outset as you detail. It has been painful to watch and the harm resulting from the creation of ISIS (It was 100% deliberately created by the US/Israel and a few vicious Wahhabi regimes along with Erdogan to clown sultan) however the pending developments promise to be gorgeous to behold as comeuppance truly does make a sweet show when those getting it are so deserving as are our pestilential, corrupt and pervert leadership in the West and among its overwhelmingly vile allies and puppets.

    • Sunshine Sux

      I will never tire of Muslims killing Muslims, and blaming Americans/Jews for it. LOL

      • WTF

        Like being called racist or bigots by the left, this cop out of blaming the west for all of Islams problems is even more over used and discredited.

    • Clive

      The Saudis may have financed ISIS – probably not, their money would go to Nusra – but they did not create it.

      from Al Jazeera, March 2014
      http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/al-assad-fatal-strategic-mistak-201432910353132476.html
      In attempting to quell the opposition in 2011, Assad opened prison doors, letting out jihadists who later became the founders of ISIS, a radical group that has been terrorising the Syrian population, and in doing so, confirming the regime’s narrative that it is engaged in a fight against Islamist extremism. Reports from Syria show that the regime has been cooperating with ISIS both directly and indirectly, allowing ISIS access into certain towns, refraining from bombing areas under ISIS control, and even buying petrol from oil wells run by ISIS in the north.

    • Weaver

      I love how paranoid and conspiratorial muslims are. Nothing is ever their fault. They have no moral agency. Its all done by evil infidels and Jews.

      Every time I think the Muslim world is suffering enough, I read something like this and think “Nawh; you guys carry on killing each other.”.

      • Sunshine Sux

        I agree. it’s the only thing they actually do to contribute to humanity.

    • WTF

      As my mother used to say when I did something dumb as a kid “Would you jump off a bridge if I told you to”.

      So the US & UK created ISIS did they, I hardly think so as Muslims have been a disparate bunch of sectarian Islamic sects warring between themselves from the time Big Mo started the civil war between Medina & Mecca. The west doesn’t tell Muslims what to do as they are more than capable of being dumb s**** on their own account as they’ve proved time and again over 1400 years.

      Even when the west stood aside on the Yon Kippur war between Israel and Muslim nations, despite being out gunned and grossly outnumbered by Syria, Egypt and Jordan, Israel showed its worth and beat them all.

      There’s something in the psyche of Israel that brings their people all together during times of adversity just like the UK during WWII but sadly we seemed to have lost that now. Muslim nations never had that cohesiveness as they were too busy fighting other countries and once they conquered them, they ended up fighting each other in genocidal civil wars. War is a way of life as ordered by Islam, that’s just the way it is whilst this religion of hate exists !

    • Cyril Sneer

      ISIS was formed by the Sunni disenfranchisement in Iraq, the instability in Syria caused by the war and the ex baathist regime in Iraq. The likes of Turkey and the Gulf States have been facilitating and supporting the likes of Al Nusra and ISIS.

      If school kids can cross the Turkish border with little hassle then you know the border has been open for the jihadists since the war began. If you look at the territory held and gained it’s clear which border AQ and its affiliates gets its reinforcements – The Turkish border, of which the US is silent on.

  • Guest

    The West has made a fool of itself.
    Assad could have been cajoled to the negotiating table ages ago if it wasn’t for the meddling powers who care more about power and pipelines than people.Now the whole of Europe is awash with refugees with the real possibility of thousands of potential violent religious militants in their midst which I think is far too convenient not to be planned.
    There is a perfect storm brewing.

  • peter6218

    Remember how Obama and Dave were going to establish an army to liberate Syria from Assad. Two years later the liberators trained by the west have sold the Land Rovers and are on their way to Germany to live .

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34368073

    • Weaver

      Well, if there were any moderates to back, they are dead or gone now.

    • Cyril Sneer

      Apparently there are just 5 or 6 democratic freedom fighters left from a group of 60. The others in the group are either dead, legged it or joined AQ. Billions of dollars and all they’ve done is rearm Al; Qaeda.

      Another Obama clusterf ck of a failure that he will get away with.

      It’s amazing how he can be responsible for so many failures and yet remain unmolested in his position.

  • freddiethegreat

    Part of the problem – maybe the whole thing – is that the countries of the West no longer have a soul, while Russia is just rediscovering hers.

    • Clive

      Each individual in the West has a soul.

      Russia’s collective soul is imposed on each of its inhabitants.

      • Cyril Sneer

        “Russia’s collective soul is imposed on each of its inhabitants.”

        Ah this is where you know better than all Russians like you know whats best for Syria on behalf of all Syrians, just like Mr Cameron.

        I guess the concept of sovereignty means sweet fa to you?

  • Clive

    The so-called secular rebels were in fact vicious Islamists in disguise.

    The Free Syrian Army is allied with the Syriac (sic) Military Council (a Christian militia) which is allied with the YPG. So the Free Syrian Army is allied with Christians and Kurds. These are Islamists ?

    Jihadists of various affiliations, who are now unequivocally the only opposition

    Except for all of these groups http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/25/world/meast/us-syria-rebel-agreement/
    More than 20 Syrian rebel commanders, including members of Christian opposition groups, have signed off on what they called a historic agreement to unite in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. These are the groups the West has been trying to help. The YPG – one of these groups – were the people who saved Kobane with the aid of allied airstrikes.

    So the long-time Syrian ally Russia called Washington’s bluff by establishing military bases in the regime stronghold Latakia. In a flash its tanks, fighter jets, military advisers, warships and even its most modern anti-aircraft missile system were in place. Its engineers constructed an airport landing strip almost overnight, as its navy conducted menacing drills in the nearby (Russian-leased) Syrian port of Tartus.

    The port of Tartus – which is Russia’s major concern since it is their only major naval base in the region – has been established since 1971. It is undoubtedly beefing up its military presence in the area to defend this base and try to keep Assad in power but this is hardly a new facility.

    This was the most brazen overseas military deployment by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

    Apart from Abkhazia/South Ossetia; Georgia; Ukraine and especially the annexation of Crimea. They are major deployments with much more far-reaching consequences for Russia and NATO.

    the Pentagon has instead focused on doctoring intelligence briefings to sex up its limited successes.

    The ‘sexed up’ expression. You might as well just say ‘This piece is a pack of lies’ – like the last famous piece which contained that expression.

    Assad’s forces, long thought to be on the verge of collapse, meanwhile celebrated the bolstering of their military arsenal by bombing Islamic State targets in the north. Wave after wave of airstrikes hit their targets with previously unimaginable precision.

    You mean the previously unimaginable precision that the allied air strikes have been achieving for almost exactly a year, since 22nd Sept 2014. There are no more easy targets to hit, that work has already largely been done.

    A recent poll found that 80 per cent of Syrians believe we created the Islamic State — a common belief, incidentally, throughout the Middle East (and not entirely inaccurate).

    It is also a common belief throughout the Middle East that 9/11 was instigated by some combination of the CIA and Mossad. That is if this poll has any meaning. An opinion poll in Syria ? Who did it ? Suicide Polling Ltd ?

    And Russia has its navy, as well as its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system, on the edge of Europe. Since the Islamic State has no navy or air force, these are warnings to the West.

    Not sure what you are suggesting here. That Putin intends to put his navy at the disposal of Islamic State ? The base at Tartus has been there since 1971 so this facility has been at the ‘edge of Europe’ since then.

    For Iran joined the Russians in deploying elite Republican Guards to Syria, bolstering ties with a Hezbollah that is already leading Shiite militias fighting alongside Assad’s forces.

    It is not news that Iran is allied with Assad nor that Hezbollah is supplied through the Assad regime. Of course Iran is trying – along with this piece – to keep Assad in power.

    For the entrenched regime, if it survives, will not only have the full military backing of Russia, but will also be a political tool of the Iranians.

    It already is a political tool of the Iranians and has been for a number of years. It was already a Russian military client state and had been for years.

    The Syrian conflict is complicated and full of potential dangers for us, no question about it.

    This piece is one of those dangers. For instance, it entirely ignores the fact that Assad has cooperated with Islamic State in the past. This from The Guardian, June 2015

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/syria-isis-advance-on-aleppo-aided-by-assad-regime-air-strikes-us-says
    The US has accused the Syrian government of providing air support to an advance by Islamic State militants against opposition groups north of Aleppo.

    Fighters opposing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have made the same claims since Sunday, when Isis began advancing towards the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.

    The seizure of Azaz, 20 miles north-west of Aleppo, would imperil the main opposition supply line into Syria’s biggest city, the rebel-held east of which has been besieged by government forces for more than two years.

    A post to a Twitter account used by the US embassy in Syria said late on Monday: “Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of [Isis’s] advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population.

    “We have long seen that the regime avoids Isis lines, in complete contradiction to the regime’s claims to be fighting Isis,” the embassy said in a separate tweet.

    In fact, if anyone helped create Islamic State, it was Assad – this from Al Jazeera, March 2014
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/al-assad-fatal-strategic-mistak-201432910353132476.html
    In attempting to quell the opposition in 2011, Assad opened prison doors, letting out jihadists who later became the founders of ISIS, a radical group that has been terrorising the Syrian population, and in doing so, confirming the regime’s narrative that it is engaged in a fight against Islamist extremism. Reports from Syria show that the regime has been cooperating with ISIS both directly and indirectly, allowing ISIS access into certain towns, refraining from bombing areas under ISIS control, and even buying petrol from oil wells run by ISIS in the north.

    • Weaver

      Yeah, in trying to make a few sensible points, the article veers well off-piste. Its amazing one can write “4 books on the middle east” and still make basic errors of fact.

  • paulus

    Well this was obvious from the very beginning. The reality of the situation were the facts on the ground. Hit and hope and wishful thinking has driven our policy.

  • Neil S

    Interesting article, it’s a shame that instead of discussing it some of the discussion threads have gone off in a puerile Zionist vs anti-Zionist name calling direction. The idea of a NATO/Russian alliance against IS is an interesting on but would of course require an agreement to keep Assad in place.

    • Clive

      Which, from the Russian side, is the point of it.

      This piece simply supports a Russian diplomatic move to keep Assad in power. We tend to forget that Iran had a long border with the USSR and still borders Russia.

      Iran and Russia are the two nations that want to keep Assad in power.

      I don’t particularly care about Assad – it’s the regime which is the problem. It is a typical totalitarian regime of the kind we should support only in dire circumstances and only ever temporarily.

      History shows that there are many more people oppressed by totalitarian regimes than there are in the regime. Those people will eventually rise up and bite our backsides – like the USA is finding in South/Central America with Fidel Castro; Hugo Chavez; Evo Morales, etc.

      • Cyril Sneer

        What do Syrians want Clive?

        “History shows that there are many more people oppressed by totalitarian regimes than there are in the regime.”

        Meaningless tripe.

  • Fenman

    Having live for years in the ME,the best thing we can do is keep the hell out of it and let the locals sort it out. This will mean Iran And KSA fighting their proxy war keeping them occupied and weakening them both. The fefugee process shd be solved by building bigger and better camps on Srias borders run by the useless UN, while the EU in accordance with international law shd build adequately resourced detention camps to process all immigrants,with non refugees sent back pronto.

  • KilowattTyler

    Hmmm. We are all supposed to loathe Putin and love the US and EU. Although I’m no fan of Putin, increasingly I find find him the ‘least worst’ when I have to rank him alongside the likes of Jean-Claude Juncker or Barack Obama.
    The US government, with its kid brother the UK, has destabilised the Middle East by failing to see that ‘bad’ (Assad, Gaddafi) can be replaced by ‘worse’ (ISIL).
    As for the EU, the destabilisation of the Middle East combined with the stupidity of Merkel and the arrogance of Juncker means that west European countries are dead men walking. In 100 years’ time the descendants of people now living in the EU will fall into one of the following three categories (1) Not living in Europe; (2) Living in Russia (and possibly other eastern European countries if they resist unrestricted immigration); (3) Muslim.
    In the Soviet era there was a crystal-clear difference between the state of civil liberties in the West and in the East. Now things are not so clear. The US has resorted to torture and detention without trial in the last few decades. The UK now has endemic snooping and strict controls over what may be said. Russia is hardly a beacon of civil rights but the difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’ is not that great.

    • Clive

      The same Russia which murders its opponents – mostly journalists but the odd politician, even in London – and which has its own Hitler Youth, the Nashi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashi_(youth_movement) which reveres Putin as a kind of God.
      Peter Oborne did a documentary on the Nashi in which they harassed a bunch of ex-soldiers who were trying to set up businesses because something they were doing conflicted with Putin’s Judo partner

      I’ll take the torture in the USA, ta.

      • KilowattTyler

        Yes, Putin is a complete *rsehole, I hate his regime, but my dilemma is whether on balance he does more harm to Europe than the ‘nicer’ David Cameron, Barack Obama or Jean-Claude Juncker. I’m not so sure.

        • Weaver

          Fair enough. Don’t like any of them, But much as I loathe the EU, I don’t let my antipathy blind myself to greater evils. I’d rather live in any EU state than Russia.

          Which isn’t to say that Assad might now be the best of a very bad bunch.

          • KilowattTyler

            Under present circumstances, I would much rather live in the UK (or EU) than Russia. I’m worried that the EU countries will be so b*ggered up by the present generation of politicians, so that there will come a time in the future when the (Hobson’s) choice is not so clear.

          • WTF

            I hope you can still say that when its under Sharia law !

  • Cobbett

    Nothing bizarre about it at all. The US position on Syria has been a balls up from the beginning. Interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria have been an unmitigated disaster. Not that anyone’s learnt anything…the opposite in fact. What’s the definition of stupidity again?

  • de^mol

    Migrants to Europe has been orchestrated from within the EU: https://themolesite.wordpress.com/en-migrants-to-europe-is-a-setup/

  • Roger Hudson

    The idea of ISIS getting onto the Golan should worry everybody, Israel will crush them ( and their backers) without mercy.

  • Roger Hudson

    If you can study the Sunni – Shia schism without laughing or screaming at stupidity you must be deeply theocratic.

  • Roger Hudson

    Nothing like a Jew/Zionist/Arab/Persian/Muslim story to get all the trolls out in force.
    The idea that Assad was opposed by iPad wielding democrats was always pathetic, Ba’athism was always a bogeyman, but better than alternatives.
    I also don’t buy the anti-Putin line, the idea he wants to turn the UK into a neo-Soviet state is silly, he is no commie.

    • Weaver

      No, he’s not a direct threat to us. He’s probably a medium sized threat to our friends and acquaintances in the east. I guess we can choose who we like more.

  • Augustus

    And now al-Nusra, the Syrian terrorist branch of al-Qaida, has received war materials given to it by the so-called moderate rebels which the Americans trained and armed. ‘Moderate rebels’, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. Arabs simply can’t be trusted, they’ll cheat and tell the unbelievers what they want to hear because the Koran says they can.

  • Clothcap

    I expect Putin stepped in to avoid the establishment of a safe zone for terrorists, a defacto no-fly zone, the intention was probably to have another Turkish administered occupied area of Syria similar to Golan.
    The Russians were fooled into abstaining at the UNSC vote on Libya where the country was decimated by a full scale war of aggression committed by NATO countries under the pretext of a humanitarian intervention based on lies with the objective to change the popular government for a regime favouring Western corporations and of course the plunder, gold, the central bank and the deposits in German, UK and US banks plus the freedom for terrorists formerly held in check by the Libyan forces to expand their activities guided by NATO and the CIA. Human traffickers were released very early in the terrorist actions in Benghazi, even before the allied axis of evil had an official presence in Libya.
    Billions are still held, and kept secret by the private central and investment banks.
    Action in Syria by the UK, US and NATO is not UN sanctioned and is illegal.
    As Putin observed, it is good that the West acknowledges the existence of international law, unsaid – even though the West ignores it.

    The Iran deal is only safe until the next presidential election when Netanyahu will regain control of the US regime. Gaddafi, a civilian advisor to the Libyan gov was taken in by European, UK and US camaraderie and trade, and his being admitted to the inner circle. There was also his documented proof of crooked deals with Sarkozy that must have given some sense of security.

    I doubt either the Iranians or the Russians have been taken in by the latest easing of trade barriers.

  • enriqueferro

    EVERYBODY SHOULD REAAD THIS ITEM!

    • Clive

      …and laugh

  • patriot1407

    Way to go Mr Putin…Destroy these western/zionist backed sociopaths. You all have figured that out by now…right.

  • patriot1407

    Anyone who supports israhell is either ignorant or a sociopath

    • Cyril Sneer

      So did you get your jew hatred from religious scripture or was it from something else?

      • patriot1407

        !0 years of study, critical thinking skills and a 160 IQ

  • liberalinlosangeles

    Anyone got that HRC reset button do-hickey? That might work, no?

  • Ivan Ewan

    Why are all the online news outlets with comment sections now Stormfront whenever anything even very remotely related to Israel or the Jewish turns up?

    Is it just that brainless Islamists have recently been issued a fatwa that use of the Internet is halal as long as they remember to use their RIGHT hand to hail Hitler and their LEFT hand for the other thing? Is it that leftists have been coming to the conclusion that although Hitler was a wicked, wicked, evil, nasty man, it was just because he liked his country and everything else he was right about? Is it that a few Stormfronters are suddenly running dozens of fake accounts and sock-puppeting the entire discourse?

    I want an answer, and what I don’t want is for deranged idiots, their minds beaten into a pulp and then held up on strings by sixty-year-old sociology professors, to blindly, insensibly turn my reasonably nice country into Nazi Germany V2.

    • patriot1407

      There is likely a reason Jews have been kicked out of some 80 countries…perhaps people are just catching on??

      • Ivan Ewan

        Every conspiracy about the Jews feeds on the effects of the previous one. Anti-Zionists of today feed off Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf fed off the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Protocols fed off stories woven in the Holy Roman Empire. And so on, back it went. The Koran played a part, but was certainly not the beginning of collective, pseudo-intellectual Jew hatred.

        • patriot1407

          I could go back to BC but just modern history tells the tale..unfortunately. Who took over Russia during the revolution? Who financed them! Who was responsible for then killing 10s of millions of poor white christians? Who helped set up communism in China which killed 10s of millions more poor people? Who is responsible for communism? Sorry I could go on but for a people making up less than 1% of the worlds population they have killed a hell of a lot of people….oh yea who owns the banks and started usury

          • Ivan Ewan

            Russia: the Bolsheviks, financed or at least supported by Russia’s geopolitical enemies, including Britain at the time. Mao’s mob were opportunists, taking advantage of the collapsing Chinese empire and the global cry of socialist revolution that attracted intellectuals and psychopaths. Engels and Marx are responsible for many of the ideas behind communism, but whereas Marx thought of it as a logical and inevitable end state of society, it was Lenin who was most responsible for the idea of forcing it on people via socialism.

            “Sorry I could go on” Well, you could keep going on with random questions to which the answers are all entirely unrelated to your heinous insinuations, but I’m not your bl##dy history teacher. Go and get a life, you dangerously ignorant twerp.

          • patriot1407

            sounds a bit whiny…wouldn’t happen to be jewish would ya…do you bathe? vile human garbage…can’t wait till that little stolen country evaporates the world will be better off

          • Cyril Sneer

            Ah the quintessential anti-semite, that’s it blame those evil jooooos you f cking Islamo sympathising retarded ape, sieg heil and all that jazz.

          • patriot1407

            Spastic retard you should have been aborted fukin kike

          • patriot1407

            fok off skank

          • patriot1407

            not to bright are ya…check your nose and try bathing

          • patriot1407

            fuck you dickhead and this bullshit rag of a website

          • Ivan Ewan

            I take it you’ll now be writing in to the high quality publication “der Sturmer” to continue your scholarly insights, then. Or perhaps Electronic Intifada, which is sort of the modern equivalent. In any case, goodbye and good riddance.

          • Cyril Sneer

            Wow you sound intelligent.

            So you’re not just an anti-semite, you’re also as dumb as f ck.

          • patriot1407

            twat GFY

        • patriot1407

          And who is behind Mass immigration of 3rd worlders to destroy white civilization?
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53A5AJoRxF0

          • Ivan Ewan

            Answer is: the radical left wing. Tony Blair, the so-called centrist, is probably the man most responsible for opening the floodgates and “rubbing the right’s noses in diversity”. Did they intend to destroy the country in so doing? It’s possible that it was only a policy forced on the people out of spite, but that hardly makes it better than a deliberate attack.

            As for your YouTube video, I don’t waste time on what is usually a sluggishly paced voice reading a series of half-truths and fabrications over spooky music. Put up a transcript and prepare to defend it, or forget about it.

          • patriot1407

            da nile aint just a river in Egypt. I envy you good luck

            http://henrymakow.com/frankfurt-school-satanic-judaism-in-action.html

          • Cyril Sneer

            Liberalism, the left wing, the bleeding hearts brigade who have infected every institution we have from schools to the army.

  • Jacobi

    “I was an almost unique voice in the British media deploring the push to depose the secular dictator President Bashar al-Assad,”

    You were right.
    Assad is now clearly seen as a man with a strong local following who has local minorities and their militias, including Christians, stoutly fighting for him against the Isolamist terrorists.

    The Russians grasped this some time back. Russia and Putin are not our enemy here or elsewhere.

    Yes the Russians back Iran. Yes, we now have an agreement with the Iranians they will not produce a bomb, just hold all the components in a side room ready to
    be constructed any time – just as, lets not kid ourselves, the Saudis are doing with American knowledge and maybe even a bit of help.

    What we must do, the Russians and the West alike, is ensure that Isael is not attacked either by the Saudis or by Iran. This can be done.

    And of course we must ensure that Assad wins his particular battle against the Islamists

    • Augustus

      One can certainly blame Assad for the unacceptable brutal treatment of opponents, but he is also an important power factor in the region and really the only guarantee of safety for the Alawite and Christian minorities who fear a radical seizure of power by Sunnis. Russia could well play an important role towards peace, but America should not interfere, other than perhaps get those sources of funding from the Gulf and Turkey to radical armed Islamists stopped. There have been too many sheepish Western political interests keeping this war going, now it’s Putin’s turn to show who’s the wolf.

      • Cyril Sneer

        Is Assad any worse than the current Iraqi government in how it may treat certain citizens?

    • Clive

      The Christians are opposed to Assad

      http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09…
      More than 20 Syrian rebel commanders, including members of Christian opposition groups, have signed off on what they called a historic agreement to unite in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

      These are the groups the West has been trying to help. The YPG – one of these groups – were the people who saved Kobane with the aid of allied airstrikes.

      Assad has also cooperated with the Islamists and helped to create IS

      From The Guardian June 2015:
      http://www.theguardian.com/wor…
      The US has accused the Syrian government of providing air support to an advance by Islamic State militants against opposition groups north of Aleppo.

      Fighters opposing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have made the same claims since Sunday, when Isis began advancing towards the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.

      The seizure of Azaz, 20 miles north-west of Aleppo, would imperil the main opposition supply line into Syria’s biggest city, the rebel-held east of which has been besieged by government forces for more than two years.

      A post to a Twitter account used by the US embassy in Syria said late on Monday: “Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of [Isis’s] advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population.

      “We have long seen that the regime avoids Isis lines, in complete contradiction to the regime’s claims to be fighting Isis,” the embassy said in a separate tweet.

      Al Jazeera, March 2014
      http://www.aljazeera.com/indep…
      In attempting to quell the opposition in 2011, Assad opened prison doors, letting out jihadists who later became the founders of ISIS, a radical group that has been terrorising the Syrian population, and in doing so, confirming the regime’s narrative that it is engaged in a fight against Islamist extremism. Reports from Syria show that the regime has been cooperating with ISIS both directly and indirectly, allowing ISIS access into certain towns, refraining from bombing areas under ISIS control, and even buying petrol from oil wells run by ISIS in the north.

      • Jacobi

        Have tried both references. Neither come up.
        The meaning of the first in in any case unclear.
        I would, at this stage treat any statement by a twitter account concerning hat the US Government has said with some reservation. Confusion as so often in these situations, reigns.
        What we do know is that Assad and ISIS, because of their different brands of Islam, are fundamentally incompatible and that Kurdish, Alawite, Druze and Christian militias continue to fight with Assad. (Ref 13th June 2015).

        ps As for Aljazeera, you do know the are Muslims of Sunni persuasion whose approach is to tell us all that all Muslim factions are actually quite pally and like each other??

        • Cyril Sneer

          Yes Clive seems to be parroting US sources and those affiliated with the Gulf States, like Al Jazeera.

          I’ve seen thousands of Syrian war videos, seen numerous maps of the ISIS advance etc etc I’ve got a pretty good grip on the situation down there and nothing says to me ‘ Assad supports ISIS’.

          Clive, I think your post is naive. “The YPG – one of these groups – were the people who saved Kobane with the aid of allied airstrikes.”

          Yes they’re Kurds and you will also note no fighting between the Kurds and the SAA.

          • Clive

            See my comment just above and I note that you still offer no evidence beyond your assertions

            The Kurds took Kobane from Islamic State and held it from them with the help of allied airstrikes

        • Clive

          Those references still come up fine for me. There’s none so blind…

          Three Al Jazeera journalists are in prison in Egypt – a Sunni muslim country

          Here is the Torygraph on the subject:

          http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11051566/How-Assad-helped-the-rise-of-his-foe-Isil.html
          …Logic would suggest that Mr Assad and Isil are out to destroy one another. But logic works in curious ways in the Middle East. As he wages a ruthless struggle to hold power, the evidence suggests that Mr Assad has quietly cooperated with his supposed enemies and actively helped their rise.

          The thinking behind this apparently perverse strategy is simple. Mr Assad wants to force his own people and the West to make an unpalatable choice: either he stays in place, or Syria falls into the hands of Isil’s fanatics. When push comes to shove, Mr Assad thinks that most Syrians and the Western powers will back him over the fundamentalists.

          But this plan will only work if Isil is the most powerful rebel force. The signs are that Mr Assad has done his best to make this come true.

          As recently as 2012, Isil was a marginalised movement confined to a small area of Iraq. Then Mr Assad emptied Sednaya jail near Damascus of some of its most dangerous jihadist prisoners. If he hoped that these men would join Isil and strengthen its leadership, then that aspiration was certainly fulfilled. A number of figures in the movement’s hierarchy are believed to be former inmates of Syrian prisons, carefully released by the regime.

          By 2013, Isil had managed to capture oilfields in eastern Syria. But to profit from these assets, they needed to find a customer for the oil. Mr Assad’s regime stepped in and began buying oil from Isil, thereby helping to fund the movement, according to Western and Middle Eastern governments.

          Having provided Isil with talented commanders, courtesy of his prison amnesties, and filled its coffers with oil money, Mr Assad then chose to focus his military campaign on the non-Islamist rebels…

          • Jacobi

            “according to Western and Middle Eastern governments.”

            And there you have it. August 2014. More than a year ago. The sayings of and the understanding of Assad have changed somewhat in the last year. Even Sunni/backing Obama now admits this – reluctantly.

            The old Russkis got it right all along!

            We just have to ensure that Israel,, our only ally in the region, is taken care off and the Russkis have no intention of endangering them!

            By the way, faculties are going at my age, but reactions and above all eyesight, are as sharp as ever – and if anything utilised more than ever.

            So no crap about those who will not see – please!

  • Patrick Linggard

    To Those Concerned,
    After the USA state department stated that it would not be directly financially supporting Israel, any longer, other NATO allies, like Canada’s Stephen Harper visited there, and, afterwards said, the Canadian government would provide almost unlimited additional support to ensure Israel’s security etc.
    And to the inbred, stereotyping morons, who, after my blog, trying to explain how the Nationalist Socialist party came to power, (thereby implying for every outrageous thing done to another country/being — unfair reparation demands of the victors after WW1 even more calculated, outrageous circumstances can happen, like the eventual horrors of the death camps, via the Third Reich’s “Aryan Race” mythological propaganda), and, that it is unfair to constantly relive the German-based Nazi era, (70 years, ago),which just reinforces that modern-day Germans, in some manner, are still guilty of past crimes against humanity, when there are numerous, much more relevant, contemporary heinous predatory militarily-based actions, to consider … but, no, the hate-filled, stereotyping responder delusionally implied, firstly, that I am a Neo-Nazi, and that all of you in dreamland Canada, live idealistic lives, so, shut up … Just another example of a low-level of intelligence, full of delusional, hatefully presented bigotry. … Ideal candidates for new SS troops.

    • WTF

      If I understand you correctly, I agree that the left today is bringing about the very fascism and rise of extreme nationalism that they mistakenly believed they were trying to stop. Moderate nationalism brings about a cohesive society but what the left have managed to accomplish in 3 decades is divide countries along ethnic grounds, fire up extreme forms of nationalism and set us on the road to a 1930’s Germany.

      Merkel & Junker aided by left wing liberati across Europe and Obama in the USA have opened the wests doors to Islam and its a recipe for the next crusade. It will be WW III and its not a matter of if but when !

  • Gettingby

    Sorry…leaving now. Will leave those with stronger constitutions and more patience
    to battle the usefull idiots and outright morons posting here.

  • WTF

    “Bizarrely, he sounds as though he is making more sense than anyone else.”

    He’s been helped by the fact that Russia hasn’t suffered from the cancer of multiculturalism, political correctness and liberal fascism that our ruling elite in the west have embraced so eagerly. Until we see a purge of this social disease they have visited on us nothing significant will change. This disease is far worse than the usual ones like AIDS as it has caused far more deaths, divisiveness and fragmentation of society than even world wars 1 & 2 caused.

    • Abie Vee

      Do the pubs close early round your way?

      • WTF

        No there still open over here, cheers !

      • Cyril Sneer

        He’s right though.

  • Velo

    Bravo, Sir! Finally, some common sense comment about Syria in the news: Thank you.

  • Chamber Pot

    I trust Putin with our security way more than Dave or Obama who haven’t got a clue what they’re doing and have put all of us in grave danger ?

  • LyovMyshkin

    He has been talking sense on Western interventions in the Middle East for years now. Why ‘bizarrely’?

    • Clive

      Because it’s not at all obvious that Putin would talk any sense, given his rather fascist form of government. ‘Fascist’ means rule by the strongest. Hitler deployed it exactly, he liked his gauleiters to compete for his attention. Putin does something similar, with Lavrov currently doing quite well.

      Anyway, this whole piece is flawed and I have put a comment further up to detail that

      • LyovMyshkin

        Cool, I’ll read it. Also, fascist doesn’t mean ‘rule by the strongest’. As Orwell noted – in 1946!!! – the term itself is more a catchall for angst and derision. There were a miriad of differences between say Mussolini’s form of government and Hitler’s – and Franco while we’re at it. I don’t know what kind of society doesn’t have a degree of ‘rule by the strongest’. Transplant ‘ruled by the best’ – something we definitely DON’T have – and I’d say that’s the ideal system.

        Obviously strength and best aren’t entirely synonymous, but I’d wager there’s as much – maybe more – overlap between those two ideas as there is between the oligarchical, careerist and bland non-entities we have as ‘the best’.

        • Clive

          Orwell said this:
          http://orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc
          …almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come….

          I see ‘bully’ as a way of saying ‘rule by the strongest’ and it is not true to say that all systems are of that nature.

          The whole point of democracy was to replace any kind of feudalism – where the militarily strongest run a kind of protection racket over those who supply them with goods – with rule by those weaker.

      • knave27

        Fascist means anything Jew Cultural Marxists pushing gay agenda, feminist definition of women’s rights and replacing traditional morality with PC don’t like. He’s a “fascist” because he doesn’t want his country turned into a moral cesspool inhabited by degenerate feminized illiterate slobs like westerners, and insists on acting as a sovereign country with Russian interests as priority instead of following the dictates of the Jewish globalist-Zionist project, which undermines sovereignty under the facade of “human rights” and doesn’t tolerate traditional-religious oriented societies like the Russian one. That’s why US and Zionist Messianism converge with the same zealous hatred to anything that doesn’t conform to their standards and won’t capitulate to them.

      • Ron Chandler

        How’s about we defer to the guy who should know best what fascism is?
        “Fascism should be more appropriately be called CORPORATISM
        because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
        Benito Mussolini (1883 – 1945), Italian fascist leader.
        — Seems to me, given the West’s support for the Kiev Neo-Nazis, we can conclude the NATOists are advocating fascism’s resurgence. Anything to oppose Russia…

        • Clive

          Here is a piece from The Economist 2007 about the Russian government and who runs it and who has power

          http://www.economist.com/node/9682621
          …Those feelings of betrayal and humiliation were shared by 500,000 KGB operatives across Russia and beyond, including Vladimir Putin, whose resignation as a lieutenant-colonel in the service had been accepted only the day before. Eight years later, though, the KGB men seemed poised for revenge. Just before he became president, Mr Putin told his ex-colleagues at the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s successor, “A group of FSB operatives, dispatched under cover to work in the government of the Russian federation, is successfully fulfilling its task.” He was only half joking.

          Over the two terms of Mr Putin’s presidency, that “group of FSB operatives” has consolidated its political power and built a new sort of corporate state in the process. Men from the FSB and its sister organisations control the Kremlin, the government, the media and large parts of the economy—as well as the military and security forces. According to research by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, a quarter of the country’s senior bureaucrats are siloviki—a Russian word meaning, roughly, “power guys”, which includes members of the armed forces and other security services, not just the FSB. The proportion rises to three-quarters if people simply affiliated to the security services are included. These people represent a psychologically homogeneous group, loyal to roots that go back to the Bolsheviks’ first political police, the Cheka. As Mr Putin says repeatedly, “There is no such thing as a former Chekist.”

  • sebastian2

    This just about sums it up nicely. A very interesting piece indeed.

  • cartimandua

    Patrick Linngard
    If Germany had “got over” its past perhaps it would not have invited in millions of people with dangerous misogynistic cultures.
    No one “minds” Russia protecting its base in the region but what it means is Russia spending money on military things while Russian people mostly live in awful poverty.
    That’s why the West has backed off.
    Not only is one blamed the minute one sets foot in any Muslim area its all very expensive when debt needs to be reduced and infrastructure mended or built.

  • Clive

    The so-called secular rebels were in fact vicious Islamists in disguise.

    The Free Syrian Army is allied with the Syriac (sic) Military Council (a Christian militia) which is allied with the YPG. So the Free Syrian Army is allied with Christians and Kurds. These are Islamists ?

    Jihadists of various affiliations, who are now unequivocally the only opposition

    Except for all of these groups http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/25/world/meast/us-syria-rebel-agreement/

    More than 20 Syrian rebel commanders, including members of Christian opposition groups, have signed off on what they called a historic agreement to unite in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. These are the groups the West has been trying to help. The YPG – one of these groups – were the people who saved Kobane with the aid of allied airstrikes.

    So the long-time Syrian ally Russia called Washington’s bluff by establishing military bases in the regime stronghold Latakia. In a flash its tanks, fighter jets, military advisers, warships and even its most modern anti-aircraft missile system were in place. Its engineers constructed an airport landing strip almost overnight, as its navy conducted menacing drills in the nearby (Russian-leased) Syrian port of Tartus.

    The port of Tartus – which is Russia’s major concern since it is their only major naval base in the region – has been established since 1971. It is undoubtedly beefing up its military presence in the area to defend this base and try to keep Assad in power but this is hardly a new facility.

    This was the most brazen overseas military deployment by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

    Apart from Abkhazia/South Ossetia; Georgia; Ukraine and especially the annexation of Crimea. They are major deployments with much more far-reaching consequences for Russia and NATO.

    the Pentagon has instead focused on doctoring intelligence briefings to sex up its limited successes.

    The ‘sexed up’ expression. You might as well just say ‘This piece is a pack of lies’ – like the last famous piece which contained that expression.

    Assad’s forces, long thought to be on the verge of collapse, meanwhile celebrated the bolstering of their military arsenal by bombing Islamic State targets in the north. Wave after wave of airstrikes hit their targets with previously unimaginable precision.

    You mean the previously unimaginable precision that the allied air strikes have been achieving for almost exactly a year, since 22nd Sept 2014. There are no more easy targets to hit, that work has already largely been done.

    A recent poll found that 80 per cent of Syrians believe we created the Islamic State — a common belief, incidentally, throughout the Middle East (and not entirely inaccurate).

    It is also a common belief throughout the Middle East that 9/11 was instigated by some combination of the CIA and Mossad. That is if this poll has any meaning. An opinion poll in Syria ? Who did it ? Suicide Polling Ltd ?

    And Russia has its navy, as well as its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system, on the edge of Europe. Since the Islamic State has no navy or air force, these are warnings to the West.

    Not sure what you are suggesting here. That Putin intends to put his navy at the disposal of Islamic State ? The base at Tartus has been there since 1971 so this facility has been at the ‘edge of Europe’ since then.

    For Iran joined the Russians in deploying elite Republican Guards to Syria, bolstering ties with a Hezbollah that is already leading Shiite militias fighting alongside Assad’s forces.

    It is not news that Iran is allied with Assad nor that Hezbollah is supplied through the Assad regime. Of course Iran is trying – along with this piece – to keep Assad in power.

    For the entrenched regime, if it survives, will not only have the full military backing of Russia, but will also be a political tool of the Iranians.

    It already is a political tool of the Iranians and has been for a number of years. It was already a Russian military client state and had been for years.

    The Syrian conflict is complicated and full of potential dangers for us, no question about it. This piece is one of those dangers. For instance, it entirely ignores the fact that Assad has cooperated with Islamic State in the past.

    From The Guardian, June 2015
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/02/syria-isis-advance-on-aleppo-aided-by-assad-regime-air-strikes-us-says
    The US has accused the Syrian government of providing air support to an advance by Islamic State militants against opposition groups north of Aleppo.

    Fighters opposing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have made the same claims since Sunday, when Isis began advancing towards the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.

    The seizure of Azaz, 20 miles north-west of Aleppo, would imperil the main opposition supply line into Syria’s biggest city, the rebel-held east of which has been besieged by government forces for more than two years.

    A post to a Twitter account used by the US embassy in Syria said late on Monday: “Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of [Isis’s] advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population.

    “We have long seen that the regime avoids Isis lines, in complete contradiction to the regime’s claims to be fighting Isis,” the embassy said in a separate tweet.

    In fact, if anyone helped create Islamic State, it was Assad – this from Al Jazeera, March 2014

    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/al-assad-fatal-strategic-mistak-201432910353132476.html
    In attempting to quell the opposition in 2011, Assad opened prison doors, letting out jihadists who later became the founders of ISIS, a radical group that has been terrorising the Syrian population, and in doing so, confirming the regime’s narrative that it is engaged in a fight against Islamist extremism. Reports from Syria show that the regime has been cooperating with ISIS both directly and indirectly, allowing ISIS access into certain towns, refraining from bombing areas under ISIS control, and even buying petrol from oil wells run by ISIS in the north.

    • Cyril Sneer

      Only just the other day I watched combat videos of the SAA in operations against the Islamic State, in fact I’ve seen a number of videos of either the SAA or Islamic State attacking one another.

      I know how ISIS was formed and where it came from and it doesn’t involve Alawite Assad.

      Local cease fires and co-operation can and will happen, especially in a conflict with multiple sides. The FSA is allied with Al Nusra in a number of areas in Syria, there are videos showing joint operations between the two.

      Oh and Al Jazeera is not an impartial source. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/28/al-jazeera-banned-iraq-sectarian

      I’ve heard this ‘Assad supports ISIS’ garbage before, it simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and seems to have originated from the United States whom of course are devoid of any credibility.

      • Clive

        Assad sometimes does attack ISIS or the Russian public would not like it – but he also cooperates with them and has extensively in the past.

        You have offered virtually nothing to confirm your assertions.

        Nevertheless, to confront your typical sneering, how about the Torygraph which confirms everything I said about Assad and ISIS:

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11051566/How-Assad-helped-the-rise-of-his-foe-Isil.html
        …Logic would suggest that Mr Assad and Isil are out to destroy one another. But logic works in curious ways in the Middle East. As he wages a ruthless struggle to hold power, the evidence suggests that Mr Assad has quietly cooperated with his supposed enemies and actively helped their rise…

        As recently as 2012, Isil was a marginalised movement confined to a small area of Iraq. Then Mr Assad emptied Sednaya jail near Damascus of some of its most dangerous jihadist prisoners. If he hoped that these men would join Isil and strengthen its leadership, then that aspiration was certainly fulfilled. A number of figures in the movement’s hierarchy are believed to be former inmates of Syrian prisons, carefully released by the regime.

        By 2013, Isil had managed to capture oilfields in eastern Syria. But to profit from these assets, they needed to find a customer for the oil. Mr Assad’s regime stepped in and began buying oil from Isil, thereby helping to fund the movement, according to Western and Middle Eastern governments…

        ..and the story you pointed to in The Guardian is about Al Jazeera being banned in Iraq. Al Jazeera has 3 journalists in prison in Egypt as well. There are a lot of Middle Eastern regimes which do not like the spotlight.

  • Toy Pupanbai

    I see that that arrogant windbag, Cameron, has graciously conceded that Assad, the country’s President, might be allowed to stay temporarily, after civilised Westerners have sorted out his country’s problems!

    • Cyril Sneer

      Amazing isn’t it, I wonder what Syrians actually want… oh never mind.

  • MahmudH

    It’s for the best that Putin brings some stability to the region. The marauding islamists will destroy everything given the chance. And Russian air defences may reduce the risk of Israel launching more wars of aggression.

  • Putin isn’t Hitler. There may actually be parallels with Mussolini (although perhaps not in the potency of his armed forces). We actually had an alliance with Mussolini against Hitler (the Stresa Front) which broke down partly due to our appeasement of Hitler (the Anglo/German naval agreement) and, uncannily, our split with Mussolini over his invasion of Abyssinia. By pretending that Putin, possibly the only grown up in the room, is somehow beyond the pale, when we can’t even deal with the real enemies we’ve actually got, suggests we’ve learnt nothing from history

    • Clive

      Putin is more like Hitler than we generally think. Have you heard of the Nashi ? Peter Oborne did a documentary on them. They are a kind of Hitler Youth whose God is Putin.

      This is from 2007

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nashi-movement-russian-youth-and-the-putin-cult-a-514891.html
      With elections just around the corner, President Vladimir Putin’s popularity seems higher than ever — particularly among Russian youth. The right-tilting group Nashi practically worships their leader, and isn’t shy about letting the opposition know about it.

  • Oxford

    Letting Russia, Iran, and Assad attack IS targets with their military might sounds very desirable, and would indeed cause major problems for the IS group. However, to fully defeat them we must look at the root causes of people joining IS – it is no good destroying the group in Syria only for it to focus more on Iraq, or for an equally violent group with a different name to take its place.

    Poverty and joblessness in Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq, and sectarian mismanagement by both regimes, have contributed to a large pool of disenfranchised and disillusioned Sunnis attracted by the glory, purpose and pay that IS promises. Without working to combat these root causes we cannot stop people from joining radical militias of any guise. Read in more detail about the causes here https://youngeuropeansnetwork.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/what-caused-the-rise-of-is-part-ii/

    • sidor

      The root cause for IS, like for Taleban and Al Qaeda is the financial support from the Saudis. The wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the entire phenomenon of “Islamic terrorism” cost huge money. To stop these wars it is enough to eliminate the source of money. But the US will never do it.

      • Clive

        The GCC countries seem to have been the source of IS but now they have their own money since they took large urban areas and oil facilities which have money or can be sold for it.

    • Clive

      Yes, that’s true. Here’s another story:

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-offers-fighters-more-money-than-other-jobs-a-1041612.html
      A bricklayer got a $60 a month raise by trading his construction tools for a Kalashnikov and becoming a soldier for the Islamic State. Subsidies and other benefits appear to be part of the holy war’s allure for some.

  • Augustus

    “In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter,” Putin said in an excerpt of an interview with U.S. television networks CBS and PBS released by the Kremlin”
    -Reuters

    The West completely misread the Arab Spring, and too easily supported rebels with the result that ISIS took advantage and became such a deadly opposition to the Assad regime. Putin is wise to support Assad. If he succeeds militarily he will also be in a position to organize humanitarian help to the Syrians and the Syrian refugees will be able to return. Admittedly, Assad’s dictatorship would still be in place, but all the young men who should have been fighting for a democratic Syria have fled to Europe anyway.

  • Stevie Mac

    I don’t find it that bizarre.

  • Cyril Sneer

    Well who’d have thought it eh? Assad the secular dictator the only option for Syria the alternative is the democratic freedom fighters of the Levant aka Al Qaeda.

    This was obvious years ago.

    Now do you understand why I have zero faith in our western ‘leaders’ to make the right decision on just about anything.

    • Clive

      Well, no, that is not true at all.

      The best option is the one we have opted for – the FSA; the Kurds in the form of the Peshmerga, etc.

      Putin just wants to defend Tartus where the USSR had a base set up in 1971

  • Cyril Sneer

    So Nigel Farage was right.

  • CalUKGR

    My view is that NATO and the EU (and the UN) are all in the way of a solution to the problem of Islamic State. Russia are the only major military power with the cojones to go into Syria and kick the living daylights out of these barbarian savages. I really do hope Putin deploys the Russian Bear in all its ferocity against Islamic State.

    It can’t happen soon enough – and shame on the West. Cowards, all.

    • amicus

      Russia did so well in Afghanistan.

      • CalUKGR

        Touche, but Russia’s Afghan adventure was halfhearted at best. I suspect Putin’s mission against Islamic State is somewhat more enthusiastic. I hope so.

  • Chris

    Is the world a safer place with Bashar al-Assad running Syria or with ISIS running it?

    • Clive

      Better with neither, I would have thought ?

      • amicus

        We need to have a viable and credible alternative, though.

        • Clive

          We do and I mentioned in my other comment that all of these groups have come together. They do not get a lot of PR, though. This is from a year ago.

          http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/25/world/meast/us-syria-rebel-agreement/
          More than 20 Syrian rebel commanders, including members of Christian opposition groups, have signed off on what they called a historic agreement to unite in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

          The deal came out of a meeting Thursday in Turkey facilitated by staff from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Task Force. Two U.S. congressmen sat in on the final negotiations between the groups, just days after Congress signed off on President Barack Obama’s call to arm and train moderate rebels to fight ISIS.

          Under the agreement, moderate Muslim rebel groups fighting under the Supreme Military Council of Syria agreed to form an alliance with the predominantly Christian Syriac Military Council. It marks the first meeting between Syrian rebels and members of Congress since Obama announced the new policy.

  • amicus

    Assad is the best of a bad bunch.

    • Clive

      I don’t agree with that at all. Not least because he has gone down the Saddam Hussein route of trying to get nuclear weapons.

      This piece is from January this year

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/evidence-points-to-syria-still-working-on-a-nuclear-weapon-a-1012209.html
      For years, it was thought that Israel had destroyed Syria’s nuclear weapons capability with its 2007 raid on the Kibar complex. Not so. New intelligence suggests that Bashar al-Assad is still trying to built the bomb. And he may be getting help from North Korea and Iran

      We need to clear out all these old clans. The Alawites are a minority – as the Sunnis were in Iraq – and they are never likely to be trusted by the majority. As long as he is maintained in power, Syria will be unstable.

      • sidor

        Are you going to join ISIS in Syria to fight with the Alawites (and also Christians) who you regard as absolutely evil?

        • Clive

          One of the myths persistently spread in this thread is that the Assad govt help the Christians and other small groups. These groups are in fact allied together to oppose Assad.

          The Russian involvement is probably the reason for that. The Russian government contains large numbers of ex-KGB people and they are good at disseminating disinformation.

          The main Christian militia is the Syriac Military Council and it is in a group with many of the familiar opposition to Assad and to ISIS.

          This from 23/2/15
          http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11430961/Christian-militia-takes-the-war-to-Islamic-State-in-Syria.html
          …A number of fighters from the militia, the Syriac Military Council, were also said to be missing.
          The council, known by the initials MFS from its title in Aramaic, the ancient language of the Christian church, was founded in 2013 as jihadists began to dominate more of northern Syria.

          It is allied to the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia involved in the defence of the town of Kobane, and on Sunday joined it in a drive against Isil in the north-eastern province of Hassakeh.

          On Sunday night, it claimed to have driven the jihadists out of 22 villages, including a string of settlements occupied by the Assyrian Catholic minority between Hassakeh town and the Turkish border.

          The attack was backed by bombing raids from the US-led coalition against Isil, which said it had carried out 11 air strikes in Hassakeh on Sunday, hitting 10 Isil tactical units and destroying two Isil vehicles, a bunker and a “fighting position”.

          The coalition has been working closely with the YPG since the battle for Kobane, with YPG units phoning in combat positions to the jets, despite its being closely affiliated to the PKK, theTurkey-based Kurdish guerrilla group proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US and UN.

          This from 26/9/14
          http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/25/world/meast/us-syria-rebel-agreement/
          More than 20 Syrian rebel commanders, including members of Christian opposition groups, have signed off on what they called a historic agreement to unite in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

          The deal came out of a meeting Thursday in Turkey facilitated by staff from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Task Force. Two U.S. congressmen sat in on the final negotiations between the groups, just days after Congress signed off on President Barack Obama’s call to arm and train moderate rebels to fight ISIS.

          Under the agreement, moderate Muslim rebel groups fighting under the Supreme Military Council of Syria agreed to form an alliance with the predominantly Christian Syriac Military Council. It marks the first meeting between Syrian rebels and members of Congress since Obama announced the new policy.

    • Augustus

      But the funny thing about this development is that, with Russia’s help, Assad’s forces are now going after the al-Nusra Front rebel group who want to establish an Islamist state in Syria. But this group not only threatens Assad’s regime, but is also now a bitter enemy of the Islamic State and Hezbollah. So The Islamic State, with its large and increasing manpower might even benefit from Russia’s intervention. There are also, apparently, a number of Americans fighting for al-Nusra. But that won’t matter because in this, the mother of all proxy wars, there are no more good guys and bad guys.

      • amicus

        The more one looks at the situation the more of a mess it appears.

  • Ilya

    This comment thread’s turned into a perfect Retard Storm of Neo-Nazis, Islamists and leftists. It’s oddly mesmerizing. Like a zoo for crazed losers.

    • Augustus

      Yes, absolutely disgraceful. We even got “alleged Holocaust” and much more besides. But we all know that anti-Israelism has been a convenient surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism for some time. Shame on The Spectator for not weeding them out.

      • Ilya

        You can look at it as a shame but on the other hand, it’s a very clear demonstration of how crazy and pathetic a lot of these BDS types are. You and I already knew this but perhaps this open sewer of a thread will convince more people.

  • DRbilderburg

    obama the incompetent ,his Turkish idiot Erdoghan ,and backed up by 2 basket cases in Qatar And Saudi Arabia ..+ Israel UK France have wreaked untold misery on an industrial scale to Iraq. Iran. Libya. Syria All because these bad guys bombed their own people lol yeah sure So has Saudi Arabia Bahrain Israel so we’re waiting for the US moron to bomb them

  • willyvandamme

    Very nice story that goes to the heart of the truth. Here not the plain stupidity or propaganda of the main stream media. In fact this was an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda in Iraq (now ISIS) sponsored by the west. Syria faced the biggest war machine seen in history sending tens of thousands of murderers to the country and even after 4,5 years it still stands. It shows how strong and popular this government is.

  • Clive

    Many people making comments here seem to think that Putin is some kind of patriotic hero who just wants to correct the stupidities of the West.

    If you want an impression of what Putin’s regime is really like, try this made in 2011 by Peter Oborne. I cannot find a video of it, maybe it’s on YouTube or 4on demand or somewhere.

    http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/unreported-world-vlads-army-channel-4
    The Nashi have serious back-up. Most democratic countries have a handful of sinister extremist movements lurking in the closet; few are sanctioned by the state and tacitly endorsed by the leader. Set up by Russia’s Ministry of Youth, theNashi are Putin’s young disciples, enforcing his power base. They have over 100,000 members throughout Russia and their HQ is a swanky five-floor building in central Moscow worth over $20 million and funded by the state and a number of unnamed businessmen.

    From this base we saw them organising “actions”, extraordinarily charged flash mobs in which these young, brash, brightly dressed kids behaved like thuggish racketeers, intimidating their fellow Russians, ordinary men and women twice their age who looked frightened, furious and ashamed. The Nashi have official papers giving them the right to check documents and to make arrests. One environmentalist who tangled with the group compared them to the Hitler Youth. They have been accused of stalking political opponents and of badly beating up one anti-Putin journalist.

    • WTF

      No one really believes that Putin is a knight in shining armour as its the lib**tards that have fostered this myth that right minded people believe that. Its the usual spin from those bereft of ideas when called out over the serious threats from ISIS to muddy the water suggesting that Farage and others view Putin as their picture boy. Nothing could be further from the truth but at least he isn’t standing around with his thumb up his bum unsure what to do like most leaders in the west !

  • WTF

    I’m with Farage with regard to Putin, I don’t care for the man BUT he clearly knows who the real enemy is unlike Obama. All we’ve seen from the white house is platitudes and rhetoric with no specifics over how or what the west should do but at least Putin recognizes that ISIS is a far greater threat to the world than Assad. It takes dictators to crush the sort of extremist Islamic elements that are on the loose and the enemy of my enemy is a better friend.

  • warmingmyth

    If anyone is interested here is an article containing Putin’s UN speech delivered after this spectator article was written — very forthright although he spoils it a bit at the end by endorsing the global warming scam:
    http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/un-speech-putin-blasts-us-foreign-policy/ri10001

  • Patrick Roy

    Not bizarrely at all.

  • donhank

    Thank you for having the courage to admit you were wrong. With Assad ISIS will be defeated. Without him, Syria will become another Libya.

  • amicus

    It suits Putin to see Assad remain in power. He may be right and he may not, but there is little high minded and principled in his stance.

  • WarriorPrincess111111

    Putin does appear to be superior in every way! He seems to have far more intelligence than any of the EU or US leaders.
    However – it must be for the Middle East to deal with their own unrest, it is not for Westernised people to interfere. Not one of the Middle Eastern countries trusts ANY outside nation – it does not matter how much £billions are paid over to them!

  • david trant

    You weren’t the only one, those are my views exactly. The West has been using Islamic fundamentalism since the advent of Nasser to undermine the secular pro Soviet regimes in the ME. The West sowed the wind now we are reaping the whirlwind.

  • Resonant Frequency

    Dont look now you might see the truth that the emperors naked ass is the CIA and MOSSAD

  • Resonant Frequency

    Dont look now you might see the truth that the emperors naked ass is the CIA and MOSSAD

  • bengeo

    Determined to keep their Mediterranean Base huh?

    “The Russian naval facility in Tartus is a leased military installation of the Russian Navy located in the port of the city of Tartus, Syria. Russian official usage classifies the installation as a Material-Technical Support Point . Tartus is the Russian Navy’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment spot, sparing Russia’s warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through the Turkish Straits.”

  • Yeah and now we have John Mcinsane crying about the rebels AKA al-Nusra AKA al-Qaeda. And why does the name al-Qaeda sound familiar? Oh yes that’s how this all got started on 9-11-2001.

  • Paul

    He sure is.. watch this get moderated because it’s not CNN or FOX News..lol

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K_PzdUSXkdg&feature=youtu.be

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=74uFvyHh3HM

  • i Wee Wee

    81 pots for 81 days! #aiweiwei #iweewee #RoyalAcademy #Art #Putin #PutinAtWar #SyriaCrisis

  • A.Alexander

    The majority of Western politicians does not understand ME because of Jew-hatred: they were sure ,the Jewish Israel is the cause of turmoil there and must be put on its place(destroyed).Just like Hitler, who invented the convinient Jew-threat theory, and at last became its victim.Very simple: Putin is not anti-semite and thus can see clearly ME problems.It does not mean that he will decide ME problems,not his own.

  • Dracaveli

    The most profound result of this war is Syrian military being baptised by fire in war as well as Hezbollah….this is creating a formidable adversary that Israel will think twice to waged war on….they are not green troops but battled harden fighters years in war.

    The west has done more to alienate the mid east from their influence then they can imagine.

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