Now that Eastern Aleppo has been finally retaken by Syrian government troops and their allies after 4 years of war there, we see a curious phenomenon in the Western press. Rather than applauding the return to peace for the millions of civilians in Western Aleppo and a potential return to some normalcy for the few remaining in Eastern Alleppo, we are instead treated to ongoing accusations from ‘rebel’ sources of massacres; statements that cannot be verified in any way because the reporters are not on the ground in Syria, and statements which are intended to undermine the Assad victory. We are also told in each of these mainstream reports that ‘the war will go on regardless’- one might be forgiven for thinking that those journalists and media outlets are actually wanting the war to continue?
We know that Western governments and the Gulf State dictatorships have poured millions of dollars, not only into arming and training the ‘rebels’ of any affiliation in Syria over the past five years- but also poured millions into a huge propaganda network designed to convince the Western public that Al Qaeda in Syria is in fact moderate and cuddly and that only the Syrian government forces do terrible things.
This is a brutal war without question. Both sides have committed atrocities and enormous devastation: to pretend otherwise is to be blind to the costs of war.
But it is absolutely clear that without the ongoing Western government resourcing of salafist extremists in Syria this war would have been long over.
This war was not inevitable; it was a deliberate decision by Western governments to overthrow Assad; firstly , because the Syrian government opposes the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights heights and secondly because their allies; the Gulf dictatorships of Saudi Arabia , Qatar and UAE see a secular Syria under Assad as a threat to their support for the Wahhabist sunni extremist doctrine espoused by Al Qaeda and ISIS, and thereby alters their power play against shi-ite Iran.
I for one, hope that peace will prevail over the dogs of war.
Postscript
As of 15th December, mainstream media are now reporting that Chinese green buses are now transporting some of the remaining East Aleppo rebels and their families to Idlib province and possibly Turkey. This is going to make the ongoing reporting of massacres and pictures of carefully cement dust covered babies, that much harder for Western PR agencies to make plausible for the western public. The ruthless evil dictator Assad granting amnesty to the poor defenceless rebels?- that doesnt quite add up…? hmmm
New Antarctica 