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Friday, September 30, 2016

Russia's war against Syria one year on

One year ago today, Russia entered the civil war in Syria with direct air strikes. Since at least late 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the one essential financial and diplomatic backer of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Without Russian support he would have been long gone by now. Then Assad was on his back heels and opposition strength had grown to the point that only direct military intervention would save him. The New York Times reported:
Why So Many Children Are Being Killed in Aleppo
A man crying over the body of his child after she was pulled from the rubble of a building following government airstrikes Tuesday on a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo. CreditKaram Al-Masri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Rick Gladstone
27 September 2016
They cannot play, sleep or attend school. Increasingly, they cannot eat. Injury or illness could be fatal. Many just huddle with their parents in windowless underground shelters — which offer no protection from the powerful bombs that have turned east Aleppo into a kill zone.

Among the roughly 250,000 people trapped in the insurgent redoubt of the divided northern Syrian city are 100,000 children, the most vulnerable victims of intensified bombings by Syrian forces and their Russian allies.

Though the world is jolted periodically by the suffering of children in the Syria conflict — the photographs of Alan Kurdi’s drowned body and Omran Daqneesh’s bloodied face are prime examples — dead and traumatized children are increasingly common.

The routine in east Aleppo, where shellshocked children are exhumed from rubble and left writhing in bloody clothes on dirty hospital gurneys, is a confluence of Syria’s young population, failed diplomacy and the reality of a war that appears to be worsening after more than five years. More...
As the Syrian death told climbed toward half a million, Putin gave the "Home of the Brave" Left a new argument for letting the slaughter continue, fear of Russian military power.
Jill Stein told Truthdig:
Americans can’t afford a presidency under Clinton, either. By “expanding a no-fly zone” in Syria, Stein said, Clinton has provoked a potential nuclear war against Russia.
What I find amazing about the position of these two is that they don't take the stand of the die-hard Assadists and claim that no civilians are being harmed. They know that children are being slaughtered in great numbers and the principle reason they give for the United States standing by and not interfering is because of what these killers might do to us. And these are also people who stand on principle when it comes to voting regardless of the consequence, even if it means we have to suffer a Trump presidency. Go figure. Why would black people follow them? When push comes to shove, we already know how they will react. Reuters reported:
Russia said to send more warplanes to Syria, diplomacy 'on life support'

By Dmitry Solovyov and Ellen Francis | MOSCOW/BEIRUT
30 September 2016
Russia is sending more warplanes to Syria to ramp up its air campaign, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday, as the United States said diplomacy to halt the violence was "on life support" but not dead yet.

Fighting continued to intensify a week into a new Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to capture rebel-held eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.

Moscow and Assad spurned a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire agreed to this month and launched attacks on rebel-held areas in Aleppo in potentially the most decisive battle in the Syrian civil war. More...
See also: Russia now "carpet bombing" Syria from bases in Iran

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

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