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GE2024Out of the dog houseBY MOST METRICS, this has been an election the Labour Party will be very pleased with.
At the time of writing, the party has won eight seats and is guaranteed to win two more with an eleventh looking very possible.
The party will see six (or seven) new TDs enter Dáil Éireann this time around, almost doubling its six seats won in 2020.
So what does this say about the Labour Party’s brand – have they officially been detoxified?
This is a question that never fails to split an audience – Labour members and supporters hate it and will vehemently argue that the days of a radioactive Labour Party are long gone.
When asked by The Journal recently if her party has lost its traditional labour base, party leader Ivana Bacik was having none of it.
“I absolutely refute that.
“That line has been trotted out in every election… I remember that line being used against the party in the 1980s,” Bacik responded.
But for significant swaths of the public, the memory of austerity is still raw and the effects of it, and the crash that came before, are still very much felt. Rightly or wrongly, the Labour Party continues to be associated with this.
Baby steps
The results of this election show that the party is continuing to take small steps further out of the country’s bad books but they are still a long, long way from their previous highs.
A large part of why the party has had three decent elections this year (remember the locals and Europeans?) is probably down to two related things: the passage of time and the party’s crop of fresh faces.
The party ran 32 candidates in this election and received 4.7% of first preference votes, very similar to the Social Democrats’ 4.8% and significantly above that of the other smaller parties.
Although its percentage increase in first preference vote share compared to 2020 was just marginally up (with an increase of 0.3%), it still managed to add five (possibly six) TDs.
It’s significant however, that almost ten years on from Labour’s disastrous election of 2016, when the party received a battering from the electorate after its stint in government and returned only seven of its 37 TDs, the party has not managed to massively increase its vote share or number of TDs.
No poll toppers
It’s worth noting that not one Labour TD managed to top the polls in this election. Even in 2016 when the party was decimated, the party’s Brendan Howlin, who went on to become its leader, managed to top the poll in Wexford.
By comparison, other smaller parties did manage to have some poll toppers this time around.
Take the Social Democrats for example, Deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan topped the poll in Dublin Bay North. Or Independent Ireland, where both Michael Fitzmaurice in Roscommon-Galway and Michael Collins in Cork South-West had the highest number of first preference votes in their constituencies.
The most popular of all Labour’s candidates this time around was Rob O’Donoghue in Dublin Fingal West who secured 16.7% of first preference votes – above party leader Ivana Bacik who secured 14.3% in Dublin Bay South and former leader Alan Kelly who secured 15.5% in Tipperary North.
Across the board, O’Donoghue, Bacik and Kelly were the only three of Labour’s 32 candidates to receive the second-highest number of votes in their constituencies.
Others also placed high however, with Louth’s Ged Nash and Fingal East’s Duncan Smith both placing third.
Dublin South-West’s Ciarán Ahern, Kildare South’s Mark Wall and Wexford’s George Lawlor each received the fourth highest amount of first preference votes in their constituencies.
All of this indicates the party’s strong popularity in these areas and shows they were well in contention for the seats early on, without heavily having to rely on transfers.
That said, the party was still notably transfer-friendly this time, more than it was in 2020.
Take Limerick City’s Conor Sheehan who secured the constituency’s fourth seat despite placing 7th in first preference votes.
And the more obvious example is Marie Sherlock, who successfully won the fourth seat in the hotly contested battleground of Dublin Central despite receiving 633 fewer first preference votes than Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
With a new generation of Labour TDs entering the arena, the party looks poised to continue to build back its strength, but one thing remains indisputable: the electorate has been very slow to forgive.
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Russia would not even be involved in this conflict if the US and Saudi Arabia were not arming the terrorists
@Cal Mooney:
The US supports non-Islamist rebels and it wouldn’t be involved if Assad’s henchmen hadn’t shot peaceful pro-democracy protesters.
There are no ‘non Islamist rebels’, they are all head hacking Jihadists… https://youtu.be/OJZRvp6w4wc
It’s such a mess, it’s hard to tell who the bad guys are anymore.
People seriously still believe the US entered on humanitarian grounds and/or to bring “democracy”?
@Conor O’Donoghue:
What evidence is there to the contrary? The Arab Spring started because of drought and Arab government corruption.
It’s all to turn Syria into a ‘Client’ state that they have control over, just as they did with Iraq and Libya
@Cal Mooney: Syria – The U.S. Propaganda Shams Now Openly Fail
September 30, 2016 “Information Clearing House” –– The Obama administration, and especially the CIA and the State Department, seem to be in trouble. They shout everything they can against Russia and allege that the cleansing of east-Aleppo of al-Qaeda terrorist is genocidal. Meanwhile no mention is ever made of the famine of the Houthis in Yemen which the U.S. and Saudi bombing and their blockade directly causes.
But more and more major news accounts support the Russian allegation that the “moderate rebels” the U.S. is coddling in Syria are actually in cahoots with al-Qaeda if not al-Qaeda itself.
Reuters reports (though only at the end of a longer story):
In Aleppo, rebels in the Free Syrian Army are sharing operational planning with Jaish al-Fatah, an alliance of Islamist groups that includes the former Syrian wing of al Qaeda.
Meanwhile, in nearby Hama province, FSA groups armed with U.S.-made anti-tank missiles are taking part in a major offensive with the al Qaeda-inspired Jund al-Aqsa group.
The Wall Street Journal is more direct and headlining: Syria Rebels Draw Closer to al Qaeda-Linked Group
Read more :
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45586.htm
America and the Saudi etc have been giving an ass kicking on this one. They should not have supported the child killing head hackers . Russia kicking Isis back into oblivion.
The US wanted a ceasefire ? Nothing could be further from the truth:
Leaked recording proves John Kerry pushed for massive war in Syria, while Saudi Arabia and Turkey funded Al Qaeda
Closed-door comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the US’s deep involvement in the Syrian crisis.
Ciaran…the US supports, arms and funds Nour al din al Zenki…remember them?
@Peter fechter: maybe he conviently forgot that. Here remind him.
Widespread outrage after Syrian rebel group beheads 12-year-old child.
The boy was decapitated by members of the Nureddin al-Zenki rebel group on the back of a pick-up truck on a public road in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled Al-Mashhad neighbourhood.
Nureddin al-Zenki is an Islamist rebel group largely based in Aleppo province that at one point received US-made anti-tank missiles,
In Washington, the State Department said it was aware of reports of the “appalling” incident and that involvement with the group could be reviewed.
“We’re seeking more information,” spokesman Mark Toner said at Tuesday’s daily briefing.
We’ll look at, frankly, any affiliation or cooperation with this group we may have going forward,
http://www.thejournal.ie/syria-boy-beheaded-2886850-Jul2016/#comments
Journey To Aleppo Part II: The Syria Civil Defense & Aleppo Medical Association Are Real Syrians Helping Real Syrians
This runs counter to the NATO-aligned media and humanitarian NGO complex narrative, which gives the impression that there are at least ten hospitals in eastern Aleppo without differentiating between the facilities or the services they provide and to whom. Western media infers that those being targeted are civilians, not members of the Nusra Front and other foreign-funded terrorist brigades, and that all these “civilians” are being mercilessly bombed by Russian and Syrian air strikes.
All three main hospitals are fully occupied by the various armed insurgencies led by the Nusra Front, according to Dr. Hayak, who said they use the top floors as sniper towers. Terrorists–the various groups of so-called “moderate rebels” and “opposition forces” backed by the United States, NATO member states, their Gulf State allies and Israel–take priority over civilians, and only surgical intervention is now carried out in the three hospitals in eastern Aleppo. The armed insurgents refuse to allow U.N. agencies inside these facilities, according to Dr. Hayak.
In addition to the three main hospitals, there are seven other, less well-equipped private health clinics also under terrorist control, according to Dr. Hayak.
https://goo.gl/xESbka
@LITTLEONE:
The Americans made a mistake. The Nureddin group is not supported by the Americans anymore.
LITTLEONE…al Zenki are one of the numerous wahabbi headhacker mobs that simply delight in publicising their “brand” via their “device” (flag) draped on or nearby their US supplied ATGM71 wire guided missile launcher as they destroy SAA soldiers/vehicles….their US sponsors totally love to see their gifts in action via their proxies…the cute little flags keep the US sponsorship coming….
Evil Bear? Maybe it should be Evil Hegemony Unkle Sam
The war in Syria has stretched for five long years, and who knows, if the U.S and Allies had not continually refreshed Jihadists, sorry, ‘Moderate Rebels,’ it would possibly have been over many moons ago. The hypocrisy of the US war machine knows no bounds. While Yemen is bombed into the ground, by US and UK hardware. Russia is branded the worst kind of terror, with trying to bring an end to terrorism in Syria by Jihadists, sorry, ‘Moderate Rebels.’
http://www.tworoundcorners.com/evil-bear-maybe-evil-hegemony-unkle-sam/
Ciaran…al Zenki changed their name..thus qualifying for continuing funding and modern weaponry…you know thats how it goes down..al Queda – al Nusra – al Sham..next week who knows what their “brand” will be….Allahuaakbar!!!!!
Availability Heuristic Bias ‘Evil Russia’ with the constant reinforcement that Russia is bad America is good, it allows for any story they wish to spin to hold a higher belief in people’s minds. They also do this with former USSR states. Reinforcing how bad the USSR was, regardless if that is indeed the direction of a reformed Russia. Playing on fears and existing memories and strengthening those very memories, allows America to spin a story and so many just believe.
Subconscious Bias is the issue; nearly everything takes place in the subconscious mind. “America accidently bombed a Hospital “the fog of war.” You believe it was an accident, as America is always portrayed as the good guy. When Russia is accused of bombing something, you also believe it, as they are always painted as the bad guy. Evil Russia, of course, they attacked the Aid Convoy.
@Ciarán Masterson: if you believe that , more fool you. It’s your favourite saying
America made a mistake .
Grow up ciaran. It’s becoming boring now.
Maybe then America should stop all together interfering in other countries because they obviously are in the stone age and their technology keeps failing them. Because they keep making mistakes.
What an a##
For the US, the total destruction of their ISIS/ Al-Nursa mercenaries who are to 70% foreigners and not Syrians, dug in, in East Allepo is a disaster. They , Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have heavily invested in training and arming these head hackers.
One of the leaders of Syria’s Hmeimim internal opposition group Tarek Ahmad stated onTuesday.
“Because of the Russian campaign we were able to maintain our state’s structure and institutions and our ethnic diversity. By looking at the current situation in Iraq, where the United States were operating for years, we can imagine what could have been in Syria without Russia’s interference. It is fare to say that Russian actions have prevented Syria from going down the path of Iraq, Libya, Yemen,” Ahmad said.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160929/1045821350/russia-syria-state-hmeimim.html
In that conflict, there aren’t any. Just all on a head hacking spectrum.
@Margie Murph: The only people that are not head hackers are fighting with or on the side of Assad
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill: Simple question Padraig, who’s killed the most civilians in Syria the past 5 years? And who’s father killed tens of thousands of Syrians before him to keep power?
@Andrew Eager:
How to build a dictator
Building a dictator is not difficult when you have the right tools. First, you need some historical pretence to form the foundation. Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad born to a peasant family, climbed his way to power through the military. Syria was besieged with coups, gaining independence from France in 1946. Hafez al-Assad was credited with bringing peace and prosperity to an unruly land. He was known for his incredible patience on the negotiation table; many leaders accredited him as a master of diplomacy.
TIME Magazine: JUNE 19, 2000
“He never worried about the clock ticking. He was legendary for his marathon negotiating sessions and infuriating intransigence. He left–as so many negotiators have over the years–reminded that Assad’s 30 years in power had made him one of the world’s sharpest and most patient negotiators.”
On the 13 November 1970 General Hafez al-Assad led a bloodless coup d’état. Earlier in 1966 a power struggle saw a violent takeover and the removing of the of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party. Hafez al-Assad had joined the Syrian wing Ba’ath Party in 1946 as a student activist. In 1952 he entered the Ḥimṣ Military Academy, graduating three years later as an air force pilot.
A long-standing advocate against Ṣaddām Ḥussein he supported the Iran war against Iraq in 1980-88. When the U.S led the attack against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War 1990-91, Assad was there again in support. His support for the Persian Gulf War gained him more acceptance by the Western powers.
However, Hafez al-Assad was not all peace and love with the help of the USSR he built a formidable army, and he did not tolerate any dissenting opinion in his country. Having an extensive secret police service, he ruled in a Stasi kind of spying context. Political opposition was met with arrest, imprisonment often without trial, torture and executions were not uncommon. In 1982 the “Muslim Brotherhood” staged a rebellion in Hamāh. Assad quashed the uprising with excessive force; some 20,000 people died, and he almost destroyed the city of Hamāh.
Media reaction to Assad’s death
“Hafez al-Assad was such a man because the Syria he leaves behind bears so little resemblance to the one that he grew up in”.
If you think about Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan in today’s context rampant with brutal Wahhabist ideology that is the Syria Hafez al-Assad took control of. He turned Syria into the safest country in the Middle East, where Christians and Muslims lived in peace. Yes, he was brutal at times, and the people of Syria were given no party apart from the Ba’ath Party. However, when you look at Saudi Arabia today still hacking the heads off of women in the town square and exporting Wahhabism throughout the Middle East, maybe Hafez al-Assad was not that bad.
It is easy for Western Powers to create a picture of an ‘Evil Dictator’ and then pass that context on to Bashar al-Assad. The doctor educated in England and never thought he would be President of Syria. As Western people, the culture and realities of life are so far removed we cannot understand the minds of what America call ‘Dictators.’ If we look at Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya, they are far worse now than they ever were under the rule of the “Dictators, that just “had to go.”
Syria had thirty years of rule under Hafez al-Assad, despite the fact he did transform the country into a peaceful country, where face-covering veils are banned in Universities, where 97% of the people attended school. Where Western people could go on holiday, without fear of being kidnapped or blown up. Granted he ruled with what some may call a ‘Russian Iron Fist of old.’ Now, with a country power structure used to governing a country a certain way, a reformist Bashar al-Assad cannot perform radical transformations overnight. That it exacerbated when the country has been at war for five years now, and that war was greatly incubated by the USA and without a doubt prolonged by the USA and allies.
The picture America and Western Media have formed of Bashar al-Assad is not only propaganda fueled, but it also verges on being morally and ethically bankrupt.
http://www.tworoundcorners.com/evil-bear-maybe-evil-hegemony-unkle-sam/
@LITTLEONE:
You mean that America should just let mass-murdering dictators do as they please. Honest mistakes happen in war. America owned up to the Deir ez-Zor tragedy. But the Russians won’t own up to the attack on that aid convoy – they say it may have just caught fire – typical dog-ate-my-homework explanation.
Bashar al-Assad: The Shy Young Doctor at Syria’s Helm
Bashar al-Assad, the soft-spoken younger brother, an ophthalmologist by training, kept out of the limelight. He was a gangly bachelor and computer buff whose personal blueprint for life appeared to include nothing more public than running a quiet medical practice. https://goo.gl/xgqdla
A Rose in the Desert: Asma Al-Assad, Lady Diana of the Middle East
When Angelina Jolie came with Brad Pitt for the United Nations in 2009, she was impressed by the first lady’s efforts to encourage empowerment among Iraqi and Palestinian refugees but alarmed by the Assads’ idea of safety. https://goo.gl/yzxQWV
@Ciarán Masterson: oh dear lord , you really have it bad. Time to say enough is enough. You my sir are a lost cause and I bid you on your merry way.
Ciaran you can’t even read something right. Further down people are talking about Fallujah 2004 and you post about Obama and Malik and blame Malik. Considering neither were in government in 2004 . Enough said
The war in syria like that in iraq and yemen is all part of destabilising the entire region by the us in support of a widely known plan for greater isreal to come to fruition. The plan basically calls for perpetual war in surrounding arab countries to divide and keep them under a tight manageable leash so they will never be a danger to the existence of the state of isreal. Its easier to keep multiple small ethnically divided arab states who dont trust eachother in check than to have large states such as pakistan or iran who have considerable military capabilities. Jordan and egypt should watch out in the next few decades that they too are not targeted for destabilisation by proxy groups supported by western powers
@Conor O’Donoghue: unfortunately they seriously do and they will never learn.
Padraig….love the way you have the facts at your fingertips…
@Peter fechter: It all comes from the article I wrote the other day, so I am sort of cheating
http://www.tworoundcorners.com/evil-bear-maybe-evil-hegemony-unkle-sam/
Ciaran…what LITTLEONE said….this is all just a game to you…
Imperial America please leave Syria
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill: That’s not what you were asked though, was it? Of course not. Ideologues don’t answer straight questions with straight answers. Evade, avoid, obfuscate. You’ll criticise the US when they support evil regimes, and say nothing when the Russians do the exact same thing. We have a word for that in the dictionary. Hypocrite.
So again, and without the Wally Mooney-esque crap, who has killed the most civilians in Syria. I’ll make it multiple choice for you to make it easier:
a) Assad
b) Assad
c) Assad
d) Assad
e) Assad
And as a minor antidote to all the agitprop being churned out here, for those that care:
Forget it Andrew, the likes of PR and others on this forum live in an echo chamber, they view the geopolitical situation with a facile perspective “America is the font of all evil” and will latch themselves on to some of the most egregious causes. Their moral compasses are messed up, a blind eye can be turned to civilians and children being pulverized in Aleppo because “what about” evil America?
@Andrew Eager: Simple answers are for simple people, are you a simple person?
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill: I’ll happily be simple if being a purported sophisticated cognoscenti means having to come out with the nonsense you perpetuate here.
It’s funny how the Russians succeeded where the American coalition failed miserably, initially on going in the Russians took out the oil fields that were in the hands of Isis, something the Americans failed to do, the Russian impact on the destabilisation of Isis cannot be ignored, and the fact that they were the only country invited in by the existing Assad led government!
@Kate Flaherty:
The Americans take greater care to reduce the risk of civilian fatalities in air strikes. The Americans, unlike the Russians, don’t drop thermobaric bombs and bunker-busters in areas that are full of civilians.
Ciaran the Americans killed nearly 100 Syrian soldiers a few days into the ceasefire when nobody else was dropping bombs..
@Cosmo Kramer:
By mistake. The air strikes in Deir ez Zour were meant to hit ISIS.
@Ciarán Masterson: no they use white phosphorus and atom bombs a la Fallujah and Hiroshima.
“By mistake” Are you really that nieve?
@Ciaran, America should take “better care” of whom they are arming in the first instance!
@Veron Skvortsova:
According to the Chemical Weapons Convention, white phosphorous is incendiary, not chemical, and is legal if used only against enemy combatants.
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to defeat Imperial Japan. The death toll in an Allied invasion of Imperial Japan would have been much higher. Furthermore, US soldiers in World War Two, unlike their Japanese counterparts, didn’t go around bayoneting, raping and burying alive, i.e. the rape of Nanking, the Princess Alexandra Hospital massacre, the bridge over the River Kwai.
Civilian fatalities, which were much fewer in Fallujah in November 2004 than in Aleppo now, caued in US operations were unintentional.
@Crimson:
Not at all. It was a mistake that was a consequence of what Clausewitz called “the fog of war”.
Go and Google to look up who Clausewitz was if you don’t already know.
@Kate Flaherty:
The Americans armed the Free Syrian Army, which is not a jihadist organisation.
@Ciarán Masterson: Fallujah.
@ Ciaran, it took the Russians to go in and bomb the oil fields that were being held in Isis control thus helping to fund their cause, a lucrative earner, by all accounts, it was an obvious move that the American led coalition chose to ignore, the question being Why??
@Ciarán Masterson: lovely those non-chemical weapons. Theyd make so called barrell bombs look like christmas crackers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yalyCk4kK-8
@Jamie McCormack:
US attacks in Fallujah in November 2004 were aimed only at insurgents and white phosphorous was used only against insurgents.
@Ciarán Masterson: wow, while I was posting my reply to you, you were actually citing Fallujah as an example of America “being better” so to speak. They used white phosphorous in a city containing militants and civilians. They didn’t care for their collateral damage. They never have. Either have the Russians. You can’t pretend one side are blameless. You can’t defend killing civilians.
In short, the FSA is just an umbrella for groups of uncontrolled thug and Jihadist, each group follow the financing foreign intelligence agency from regional and international countries each trying to serve its interests in Syria by causing all this carnage against the Syrian people and their country.
Fog of War? There was a ceasefire in place that the US broke.
@Jamie: You don’t have to defend the killing of civilians, you just have to accept the casualties of war.
@Ciarán Masterson: sure ciaran. Nonsense again.
the United States has conducted two major sieges against Fallujah, a city in Iraq. The first attempted siege of Fallujah (a city of 300,000 people) resulted in a defeat for Coalition forces. As a result, the United States gave the citizens of Fallujah two choices prior to the second siege: leave the city or risk dying as enemy insurgents.
The people had nowhere to flee and ended up as refugees. Many families were forced to survive in fields, vacant lots, and abandoned buildings without access to shelter, water, electricity, food or medical care. The 50,000 citizens who either chose to remain in the city or who were unable to leave were trapped by Coalition forces and were cut off from food, water and medical supplies. The United States military claimed that there were a few thousand enemy insurgents remaining among those who stayed in the city and conducted the invasion as if all the people remaining were enemy combatants.
Americans did not have interpreters with them, so they entered houses and killed people because they didn’t speak English.
Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white clothes over their head to show they are not fighters, they were all shot.” Furthermore, “even the wound[ed] people were killed. The Americans made announcements for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, and even the people who went there carrying white flags were killed.” Former residents of Fallujah recall other tragic methods of killing the wounded. “I watched them [U.S. Forces] roll over wounded people in the street with tanks… …This happened so many times.”
Preliminary estimates as of December of 2004 revealed that at least 6,000 Iraqi citizens in Fallujah had been killed, and one-third of the city had been destroyed.
The International Committee for the Red Cross reported on December 23, 2004 that three of the city’s water purification plants had been destroyed and the fourth badly damaged. Civilians are running short on food and are unable to receive help from those who are willing to make a positive difference. Aid organizations have been repeatedly denied access to the city, hospitals, and refugee populations in the surrounding areas.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour voiced a deep concern for the civilians caught up in the fighting. Louise Arbour emphasized that all those guilty of violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws must be brought to justice. Arbour claimed that all violations of these laws should be investigated, including “the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the killing of injured persons and the use of human shields.”
Marjorie Cohn, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists, has noted that the U.S. invasion of Fallujah is a violation of international law that the U.S. had specifically ratified: “They [U.S. Forces] stormed and occupied the Fallujah General Hospital, and have not agreed to allow doctors and ambulances to go inside the main part of the city to help the wounded, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.”
@Ciarán Masterson: Just for you : Finally proof that the US are dropping weapons to ISIS. Caught live on camera.
https://www.facebook.com/100011798493636/videos/237380399998575/
Fallujah: US Marines — Further Allegations of War Crimes Surface.
The IRC estimates that at least 60% of the people killed in the assault of Fallujah are women, children and elderly.
US military destroyed 36,000 homes, 9,000 shops, 65 mosques, 60 schools, both train stations, one of the two bridges, two power stations, three water treatment plants and the city’s entire sanitation and telephone systems.
Guardian, 7th January 2014) now, another previously unreported US war crime of the myriad heaped on the city in 2004, also returns to haunt them.
The Americans invaded, chillingly:
“house to house, room to room”, raining death and destruction on the proud, ancient “City of Mosques.”
One correspondent wrote:
“There has been nothing like the attack on Fallujah since the Nazi invasion and occupation of much of the European continent — the shelling and bombing of Warsaw in September 1939, the terror bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940.”
Further:
“ …the ‘battle for Fallujah’ was entirely one-sided. US military and technical superiority over the Iraqi resistance (was) as great, if not greater, than the American army’s advantage over their Indian opponents in the 1870s and 1880s.”
Seventy percent of houses and shops were reported destroyed, with those still standing damaged. Iraqi doctor, Ali Fadhil, described a city:
“ … completely devastated, destruction everywhere. It looked like a city of ghosts. Falluja used to be a modern city; now there was nothing. We spent the day going through the rubble that had been the centre of the city; I didn’t see a single building that was functioning.”
A US Marine Sergeant had told Channel 4 News:
“We’ll unleash the dogs of hell, we’ll unleash ‘em… They don’t even know what’s coming — hell is coming! If there are civilians in there, they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Now ciaran. That’s the real news. Not the nonsense you spout
@LITTLEONE: Iraqi Birth Defects Worse than Hiroshima
“Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions, has led to an Iraqi health crisis of epic proportions. “[C]hildren being born with two heads, children born with only one eye, multiple tumours, disfiguring facial and body deformities, and complex nervous system problems,” are just some of the congenital birth defects being linked to military-related pollution.
In certain Iraqi cities, (Fallujah,)the health consequences are significantly worse than those seen in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of WWII.”
(warning: graphic images)
http://authenticenlightenment.com/2013/04/10/iraqi-birth-defects-worse-than-hiroshima/
Jamie – Hue, Vietnam…”We had to destroy the city to save it”.
Pat, brilliant lol
Sorry for the long posts. That ciaran really annoys me with his nonsense constantly.
@Pat O’Dwyer:
LOL
@LITTLEONE:
That marine was just a sergeant. The targets are decided by senior officers who make assessments on the basis of intelligence to reduce the risk of civilian fatalities.
@Ciarán Masterson: ah dear lord. Ciaran that’s your argument out of all the article. Your something else. A FIRST CLASS ####
So you just what ignore the rest from The International Committee for the Red Cross .
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Guardian, 7th January 2014) now, another previously unreported US war crime of the myriad heaped on the city in 2004, also returns to haunt them.
Your favourite independent news channel 4.
It shows ciaran. Your selective and one sided . Only comment what suits you and you conviently ignore something that you try and ignore. Sad way buy obviously it’s your way. Now goodnight
But
Von Clausewitz never anticipated a mob like the extremist wahabbi headhacker FSA….
LITTLEONE….precisely.
@Crimson:
Ceasefire doesn’t mean that the war is over. Air strikes against ISIS and al-Nusra were exempted. The air strike hit the Syrian army by mistake.
@LITTLEONE:
I found that article.
That bloodshed was Maliki’s doing, not the Americans’. The Americans didn’t know that Maliki was going to launch attacks on Sunni Muslim civilians. It’s Maliki’s fault, not the Americans’.
@Ciarán Masterson: @Ciarán Masterson: @Ciarán Masterson: ah goodnight. It’s always someone else’s fault or a mistake in your head.
Ciaran. Have a good look you posted a story about Obama and Maliki. Considering Obama wasn’t in power in 2004 then how the hell is that related to what I posted above. Seriously deluded you are.
Here good read for you.
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/10/iraq-fallujah-destruction-alqaida-maliki&ved=0ahUKEwjK9oiY1L_PAhVMJcAKHZbIBgcQFggdMAA&usg=AFQjCNHLSjlzyfNuhcaJnf4piPVmD83FLQ&sig2=XYMWBafDLQUl6BDg3r-8bQ
Ciaran your obviously bit slow there that you didn’t understand what you read . Here let me explain. The guardian in 2014 wrote this
Guardian, 7th January 2014) now, another previously unreported US war crime of the myriad heaped on the city in 2004, also returns to haunt them.
See the part about 2004 . Words haunt them .
They are talking about something that happened in 2004
@LITTLEONE:
Still no evidence of malice or negligence on the part of the Americans in Fallujah in 2004. The article that you linked referred to violence against Sunnis in 2014.
Have you forgotten about what Saddam did to Shia Muslims?
Try these books out –
The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia – Lutz Kleveman
Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq – Greg Muttitt
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East – Robert Fisk
@LITTLEONE:
Your allegations against the Americans in Fallujah in 2004 are hearsay.
@LITTLEONE;
The following is from the BBC article about Fallujah that I linked below:
‘The Americans argued that the city was largely empty – and indeed we saw very few civilians as we travelled around Falluja.’
The war would be over in a week were jihadi terrorists not kept supplied by the west and its assorted dictatorships.
@Veron Skvortsova:
The West supports the Free Syrian Army, which is not a jihadi organisation.
@Ciarán Masterson: lol keep believing that. That there exists a moderate opposition has long been dispelled. Irrespective, if this free syrian army terror outfit were not supplied the war would end.
@Veron Skvortsova:
Haven’t you heard of the Syrian National Coalition?
Just bomb Assad s palace it might bring the destruction home to him and cause him to realise the terrible suffering all this will bring for years
@john g mcgrath:
Too risky.
The Russians would retaliate.
Besides, Assad’s children have done nothing wrong.
@Crimson:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4440000/newsid_4441700/4441798.stm
‘Programme editors decided, rightly, that such second and third hand accounts were simply not convincing enough for the BBC to start running the story. The Rome bureau did however file a piece to reflect the impact on public opinion in Italy of the Rai documentary, at a time when Italy is considering whether to withdraw its troops from Iraq. In that way, the allegations did get exposure on our output.
Introducing the topic of white phosphorus, the Rai documentary said: “A chemical agent was used in a massive and indiscriminate way against districts of Falluja.” Rai’s evidence for this was an interview with a former US Marine, Jeff Englehart.
But while he did hear orders being given over the radio to fire white phosphorus, he was not in a position to see where it fell. In other words, he could not say if civilians were killed, or if purely military targets were hit as the Pentagon maintains, or even if the white phosphorus was being fired for smoke effects, the use that Washington has always acknowledged.
Rai also showed pictures of blackened bodies. The problem was to know what these pictures meant. Was this evidence of chemical effects, or just what happens to bodies when you leave them out in the sun?”
“The Americans argued that the city was largely empty – and indeed we saw very few civilians as we travelled around Falluja.’
WP depends on “thermic effect” – it spontaneously combusts at a few degrees above ambient temperature and burns with an intense heat. It is therefore usually described as an incendiary.
‘It is a terrifying weapon and for that reason is referred to by Field Artillery as having “potent psychological effects”. But it is not a banned weapon – that is one which is illegal under any treaty signed by the United States. ‘
@Ciarán Masterson: if the FSA terror outfit were not supplied the war would end.
@Ciaran What has that piece got to do with me, I never mentioned ‘White Phosphorus’ or ‘Fallujah’… I think you’re getting replies mixed up. But the FSA are head Islamist head hackers.
The west supports the beheaders of 11 year old Shia Palestinian child refugees…Nour al din al Zenki…
@Peter fechter:
Those beheaders are members of an organisation that had a tenuous affiliation with the FSA and constitute a small minority of members of the FSA.
Newly-Declassified U.S. Government Documents: The West Supported the Creation of ISIS
http://levantreport.com/2015/05/19/2012-defense-intelligence-agency-document-west-will-facilitate-rise-of-islamic-state-in-order-to-isolate-the-syrian-regime/
@Veron Skvortsova:
The FSA is not an extremist organisation. Assad’s henchmen killed peaceful protesters. Some Syrian soldiers were disgusted by this and so turned against him. They formed the FSA.
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
Forgery.
The US condemning Russia for defeating ISIS. Trump needs to be elected our WW3 is on the cards,Hillary is constantly attacking and blaming Russia without evidence. The war mongering democrats say that they have more nukes than Russia they gloat about it but the the reality is they can destroy the planet 300 times over while the Russians can only destroy it 100 times over. Great argument. The US intend to enact a no fly zone over Syria if this happens it Means War. Europe better declare neutrality.
@Alex Jones: You lost me at “Trump needs to be elected”…
@Alex Jones:
The US condemns Russia not for bombing ISIS but for using bunker-busters and thermobaric bombs on a relatively small area of Aleppo that is full of civilians and held by relatively lightly-armed rebels.
Blaming Russia without evidence?! I suppose you believe that the destruction of MH17 wasn’t caused by a Russian missile-launcher.
It’s Getting Scary… Russia Baiting and The Risk of Nuclear War
The propaganda war on Russia is spinning out of control with a biased investigation blaming Moscow for the MH-17 tragedy and angry exchanges over Syria, raising the risks of nuclear war, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
As U.S. and Russian officials trade barbed threats and as diplomacy on Syria is “on the verge” of extinction, it is tempting to view the ongoing propaganda exchange over who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014 as a side-show. That would be a huge mistake – easily made by President Obama’s wet-behind-the-ears sophomoric advisers who seem to know very little of the history of U.S.-Russia relations and appear smug in their ignorance. https://goo.gl/8AZ9xs
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
All the evidence points to a Russian-supplied missile launcher destroying MH-17.
No, it does not
James O’Neill, an Australian barrister and international lawyer commented on the issue:“It is a fundamental principle of any kind of criminal investigation that it is done independently of the people who may be said to be involved. And we have had here right at the outset the involvement the Ukrainian police and the security services when Ukraine is clearly one of the prime suspects for being responsible for shooting down the plane.” https://goo.gl/UzCP5j
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
Yes, it does.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37495067
International prosecutors say Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine in 2014 by a Buk missile that had come from Russia.
They also narrowed down the area it was fired from to a field in territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels.
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill:
Ukraine wasn’t a suspect – it had no motive to shoot down an uninvolved aircraft.
@Ciarán Masterson: You clearly, cannot see, past your nose.
@Ciarán Masterson: Paul Craig Roberts, “Only an idiot would believe” Dutch MH17 report. No black box, no air traffic control tapes, victims’ family barred from examining corpses
Latina Lover: Remember the Germanwings crash? It took less than 72 hours to release the cockpit recordings. Yet the F*cking Dutch can’t produce them after 15 months?? I’ll bet Putin has a copy of the black box recordings and is waiting for the right time to stick it to the USSA/EU/Dutch and Ukie stooges. cheech_wizard: I remember looking into the 3 planes that went down after the one in Ukraine. All their black boxes were recovered in days, if not weeks…(Only because one went down in a somewhat remote area in Africa.) So yes, it’s complete bullshit.
http://redpilltimes.com/paul-craig-roberts-only-an-idiot-would-believe-dutch-mh17-report-no-black-box-no-air-traffic-control-tapes-victims-family-barred-from-examining-corpses/
Military cooperation between America and Russia was always going to be short lived. Let’s just hope “their forces do not get in each other’s way”, or else it could really kick off.
Sounds great!
One guy and his gang. What about the poor feckers we are never going to here about. Plenty will take this guys place but what about the innocents/acceptable casualties
The US is strategically bankrupt…the Russians and Syrians refuse to be bullied by the malevolent former superpower.
@Peter fechter: Which poses an interesting conundrum: Who would you rather be the dominant super power on the planet, a US-led coalition or a Russo/Chinese one? My personal preference would be to have no super powers, but it’s gone too far now. If only the ordinary people could take control somehow, take the power away from the elitist few who profit on the misery.
Jamie…i grew up in a world where i/we were conditioned to believe that the US was the essential bulwark/counterfoil to the evil USSR….a world of MAD and the domino effect and ICBM’s….i can see clearly now!!!
The rain has gone?
Jihadism in Syria didn’t begin with the Arab Spring, drought, government repression and foreign interference. In 1973, Assad introduced a secular constitution. There was large scale rioting and demonstrations. It was quelled when he stipulated that the president would have to be Muslim.
In 1980, after a period of failed violent jihad, the Syrian Islamic Front was established which included the Muslim Brotherhood. Their programme included at point 8: Commitment to jihad – fighting in the cause of Allah – as a fixed obligation in Islam, to transform the present sectarian regime into an Islamic state.”
“We’re going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran” 4 star general Wesley Clarke. Post 9/11 this is the link to man actually telling us the plan in an interview. Please start researching media spin. These people don’t care about us or the planet. Russia has stepped in to stop America plan and now we may pay the price
No more excuses folks please educate yourselves before we end up conscripted into an elitist war.
Meanwhile IS supporters are busily working away in Morocco, the Sinai and Germany. They are the true globalists.
“Morocco has dismantled a suspected Islamic State militant cell and arrested 10 women believed to be planning attacks in the North African kingdom, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.
It was the latest in a series of militant cells Morocco says it has broken up, but it is the first time authorities have arrested a group of female suspects.”
“Suspected Islamic State militants in Egypt’s turbulent Sinai Peninsula ambushed a taxi in which off-duty policemen were traveling back to their units on Saturday, killing five of them before fleeing, according to security and medical officials.
Earlier on Saturday, a roadside bomb planted by suspected IS militants hit a police armored personnel carrier in northern Sinai, wounding nine inside, the local police headquarters said in a statement. One of the nine later died of his wounds in hospital.”
“A teenaged Syrian refugee has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of links to the self-styled “Islamic State” (IS) group. Authorities described the young man as a “serious threat” who had been planning a bomb attack.
The unnamed 16-year-old boy was detained by a special counterterrorism unit late Tuesday in the refugee shelter where he lived in the Porz district of Cologne.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-security-
http://www.timesofisrael.com/suspected-is-gunmen-kill-6-police-in-egypts-restless-sinai/
Did the Journal report any of these events events??
@Crimson: No not one. This kind of stuff is happening every day and almost none of it reaches Ireland. The Irish media reports very little of what’s actually happening in the world, especially if it’s first published in a foreign language – god forbid they’d have to translate something – or if it might ‘feed a far right narrative’.
That’s one of the reasons why so many Irish people are shocked at the rise of the nationalists across the continent. And therefore are sleepwalking into following exactly the same path into the same brick wall.
@Marlowemallow. Just at I thought, Bury the head in the sand comes to mind when it come to the Irish media. It will take something tragic to happen on their doorstep before they realise they were being fooled.
The best example of insidious propaganda i can remember – the descriptive term “barrel bomb” has been applied to every projectile dropped or fired by the Russians or SAA so frequently that now its the de facto term….though these IED’s have not been used for a year. Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth….
Syria Assad: Barrel Bomb Propaganda
Barrel Bombs ― When Russia entered the war turning the tide against the ‘moderate rebels’ also knows as Jihadist Terrorists, Assad stopped using Barrel Bombs as he now had access to Russian-made bombs. There have still been a few cases of the use of Barrel Bombs, although, very few and far between.
Nonetheless, let’s have a deeper look at these ‘despicable bombs.’ For my Irish readers, they would be quite familiar with the ‘Pipe Bomb,’ a crude yet effective method of killing people or blowing things up. However nowhere near as effective as the commercial hand grenade or a modern C4 explosive. The Barrel Bomb is a bigger version of the Pipe Bomb. Conventional explosives packed into a barrel; also they are often filled with shrapnel. In all reality, they are a poor, ineffective cousin, to a professionally manufactured bomb.
If you are unlucky enough to have a HellFire Missile land near you or a Barrel Bomb and thus find yourself ripped to pieces and dead. I somehow don’t think you would care too much how you just died. Similarly, if chunks of concrete or flying red-hot metal rips your arms and legs off, again, I don’t think you would be saying, gee I wish that had been a Hellfire Missile and not a Barrel Bomb.
http://www.tworoundcorners.com/syria-assad-barrel-bomb-propaganda/
As bad as Syria is..American jets should patrolling the sky’s of allepo to stop this horrible Syrian attacks
@will: Are you for real? Reality check! The US is arming ISIS, if they weren’t there none of this would be happening. The whole thing is one big proxy war.
@СIΔЯΔИ:
The US arming ISIS, which is an enemy of the US?
Have you taken leave of your senses?!
None of this would be happening if Assad’s henchmen hadn’t shot peaceful protesters.
Maybe you should do some research on the subject instead of getting your information on the 6 o’clock news. Try it!
@Ciarán Masterson: your ignorance is dangerous, shockingly so.
Why should US by patrolling Syrian Skies? They are breaking international law by being there are they not? Where as the Russians were invited in by the Syrian government.
@Crimson:
The Americans are only bombing ISIS in Syria. Did Assad not think about international law when his henchmen killed peaceful protesters. Don’t you know what his secret police did to children, e.g. Hamza al-Khateeb.
I hope your not under the leaba Ciaran with a tin foil hat on
@СIΔЯΔИ:
I’m well informed thanks to ITN (Independent Television News).
@Ciarán & will, Your’e both displaying a shockingly naive grasp on global geopolitics and US foreign policy if you think that!!!
@will:
Nothing the Americans can do to stop Russian attacks on civilians in Aleppo. We don’t want nuclear fallout.
@СIΔЯΔИ:
Didn’t you know that the Assad regime buys oil from ISIS?
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/fact-check-fund-reign-terror/21908
@Ciarán Masterson: Google it. Many reports available.
Israel is the Main Purchaser of ISIS Oil.
( Was. Since then the Russians have completely destroyed the hundreds of lorries entering Turkey daily)
Multiple reports claim that Israel is the top purchaser of smuggled ISIS oil
Citing multiple sources, the Israeli business press are now reporting that Israel is the main recipient of ISIS oil:
Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-is-the-main-purchaser-of-isis-oil/5493738
Al Nusra control the ‘rebel’ zone of Aleppo, headteachers that the Russians and Syrians want to eradicate from Syrian territory, but the US under Kerry wanted to protect Al Nusra.. In his own words “The legitimate opposition in that area, Al Nusra”. So the US protects Islamist head hackers Ciaran, explain that away?
*headhackers
Ciaran…i heard Assad sells weapons and soldiers to ISIS as well….hes capable of anything…even maintaining absolute loyalty from his people…one of the longest wartime leaders of modern history..comparable to Churchill in terms of longevity…a modern day legend.
@Pat O’Dwyer:
The original source of the Israel ISIS oil allegation is Russian Insider, which is a pro-Kremlin media outlet.
@Crimson:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37520793
US state department spokesman Mark Toner described Lavrov’s allegations as absurd and told journalists that the US had not targeted al-Nusra for months because they had become “intermingled” with other groups and civilians.
Toner said that the Russians of forcing moderate elements within the Syrian opposition into the hands of extremists with their attacks.
The non-extremist rebels formed a strategic alliance with al-Nusra only because Sunni civilians are being deliberately killed by the Russian air force and the Syrian government.
@Crimson:
Only some of the rebels in Aleppo are al-Nusra members.
Yeah, that some is the majority.
Ciaran with all due respect, you have no credibility left whatsoever, go to 3mins 40sec of this link up to 4mins 20sec.. Kerry in his own words… https://youtu.be/OJZRvp6w4wc Now take that ingot of tin foil off your head. Goodnight.
That is what is called a stalling tactic Ciaran.
@Ciarán Masterson: ITN lol
@O’Callaghan Stephen:
ITN is credible – it’s full name is Independent Television News.
@Crimson:
It was necessary to separate the non-extremist rebels from al-Nusra because the non-extremist rebels are needed to defend innocent Sunni Muslim civilians from Syrian government attack.
State department spokesman Mark Toner (see BBC article I linked earlier on) said that the Russians are forcing moderate elements within the Syrian opposition into the hands of extremists with their attacks.
The non-extremist rebels formed a strategic alliance with al-Nusra only because Sunni civilians are being deliberately killed by the Russian air force and the Syrian government.
@Crimson:
Syrian Girl (whose video you linked) is a pro-Putin propagandist.
@Crimson:
No evidence that al-Nusra is the majority in Aleppo.
@СIΔЯΔИ: “The US is arming ISIS, if they weren’t there none of this would be happening. ” and “Maybe you should do some research on the subject instead of getting your information on the 6 o’clock news. Try it!”
Maybe you’re mixing up ISIS and the Syrian rebel opposition, some of whom the US arms?
ISIS is not armed or funded by the US. On the contrary, the US is leading a very successful campaign against ISIS, via CJTF Operation Inherent Resolve.
http://www.inherentresolve.mil/
As a result of CJTF Operation Inherent Resolve, ISIS has lost 45% of its territory in Syria and 20% of its territory in Iraq, since its peak of control in August 2014, due to US led coalition bombing combined with US backed Iraqi and Kurdish YPK / Arab SDF ground forces. Here’s a map showing the coalition’s progress against ISIS between Jan 2015 and September 2016.
https://i.imgur.com/ETM0ZHi.jpg
As for funding and arming ISIS…
ISIS doesn’t require any outside aid. They did at the start before they declared a Caliphate, but they are now a self sufficient Islamic State with a complete and profitable economy supported by a taxable civilian population of nearly 4 million.
What aid they got initially was given to them mostly by wealthy individual Saudi and Gulf Arab nationals, as ISIS like many Sunni Arab jihadists terrorists, are proficient at propaganda and online fundraising, a funding channel that was developed and honed during the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War.
ISIS, or Islamic State in Iraq as they were previously called, portrayed themselves as protectors of Iraqi Sunni Arabs against Iranian Shi’a expansion in Iraq. The war in Syria, propped up by Iran, played into their propaganda and allowed them to expand into Syria by sending Abu Mohammad al-Julani who set up Jabhat al Nusra. Al Nusra later broke away from Islamic State in Iraq when the latter declared itself Islamic State in July 2014, and IS inherited Syrian territory previously controlled by al Nusra.
ISIS have a (shrinking) oil economy, they trade in stolen antiques, they also make money from hostage taking as well as taxing imports and exports from their territory. They also impose a tax (Jizya) on non-muslims of up to $664 a year. It’s claimed they looted 100s millions in cash and god from the Banks of Mosul (later denied by the Central Bank of Iraq).
Many of their weapons, tanks and APCs, Humvees and 4×4 vehicles were looted from the Iraqi and Syrian army. They also take weapons and armour from defeated Syrian and Iraqi opposition militias. They apply Islamic laws that govern the distribution of this Ghanimah (weapons captured from the enemy).
It’s also likely they are buying / bartering oil for weapons on the black market. The FSA in northern Syria have intercepted oil trucks containing hidden compartment filled with weapons and ammo destined for ISIS; oil leaves, weapons return.
“FSA confiscates arms, s.o. wanted to smuggle via Azaz to ISIS in fuel truck”
Here’s a few articles on ISIS funding and arms supply:
Making a Killing: The 1.2 Billion Euro Arms Pipeline to Middle East – Balkan Insight
Jean-Charles, B., & Martinez, D., 2014. “Islamic state: The economy-based terrorist funding.” Thomson Reuters Accelus, 3.
The Camsole Group, 2016. Use of social media by terrorist fundraisers & financiers.
Hansen-Lewis, J.,, & Shapiro. J. N., 2015. Understanding the daesh economy. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4), .
Crane, K., 2015. The Role of Oil in ISIL Finances. RAND Corporation.
al-Tamimi, A., 2015. The evolution in Islamic State administration: The documentary evidence. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4).
@Ciarán Masterson: “No evidence that al-Nusra is the majority in Aleppo.”
While Nusra are not the numerical majority in Aleppo or neighbouring Idlib, they are highly influential due to their brutality and willingness to attack and kill moderate FSA groups.
The most recent clast was against Division 13 last March. Al Nusra attacked and ransacked the headquarters of Division 13, confiscated weapons and later kidnapped a Divison 13 commander. Al Nusra will attack whenever it feels an FSA group is getting too much help from the US or is too moderate. Their control over Idlib and subjugation of the FSA in Idlib and Aleppo was sealed in 2014 after they crushed the Hazzm Movement, killing 100 Hazzm fighters; a coalition of moderate FSA lined group supported by the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front%E2%80%93SRF/Hazzm_Movement_conflict
Most of the rebel militias left in Aleppo are Islamist to Jihadist, there are a few FSA groups there and one or two small Turkmen rebel groups, but they are small and subjugated by al Nusra.
Also, many FSA and Turkmen rebels gave up and left Aleppo, they are now fighting ISIS alongside Turkey north-east of Aleppo. Turkey seems to have succeeded, where he US failed, to separate the FSA from al Nusra.
@David Jordan:
I appreciate your analysis.
Why can’t the big powers call off all air attacks to reduce civilian casualties. If everyone agrees Isis must be destroyed then do this and next try to get a real peace agreement in place involving Iran, Turkey, The Kurds and Hussein.
@Winston Smith:
Hussein?
You mean Assad, right?
May he rest in pieces.
I just love the underline simplistic “John Wayne Western” type analysis contained in this story, that suggests American bombs kill the bad guys and Russian bombs kill the good guys. Bombs will kill anyone who happens to be in the area they fall in, good bad or indifferent .
have your say