Last week during the Syria truce and ceasefire brokered by Syria, the US and Russia, the US used two jets loaded with bombs to take out 62 Syrian military members and injure an additional 100. The UK has now announced that they were complicit in the ‘cleansing’. The claim is that it was a mistake, however no other targets were identified or hit. No ISIS members were hit.
While this was not the only airstrike conducted during the ceasefire, Kerry has the balls to come out and defend the strikes claiming that “Assad has done it too…” sounding much like an 8 year complaining to mommy about his big brother. So where is integrity and honor? Have we become the playground bully who spits, “na-na-na-na…?” Shouldn’t we be held to a higher definition of respecting the rules? Why were F-16’s dispatched during a ceasefire anyway? And why wasn’t there communication between the coalition and the Syrian government?
It stinks because it stinks.
To add mud to the slingshot, Kerry now wants to know why Assad has declared that the ceasefire is no longer viable or valid. Kerry is demanding that Russia explain. Well, I don’t know but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the US, Australia, the Dutch and UK all admittedly collaborated to take out government military forces in absolute violation of the ceasefire. I’d venture that was a good reason to say – enough. I’d call it a violation of international law.
Imagine if it had been reversed and Assad took out 62 Special Forces on the ground – and called it a ‘oops’ – sorry.
Given that US Special Forces and UK Special Forces are on the ground in northern Syria, it is a safe assessment that knowledge of government forces being on the hillside overlooking the city of Deir ez-Zur was a given. In fact, six days ago a news agency in the Middle East, Almasdarnews, reported that the Syrian military had gained control of the strategic mountaintop from ISIS. So how did our Intelligencia – miss this fact?
An Israeli scholar at the Begin-Sadat Center has stated that ISIS is a useful tool and they should be allowed to conclude their ethnic cleansing of Shiite and Christians because those that are being cleansed are not nearly as bad as ISIS… and that they serve a purpose that would not be otherwise allowed under international law. He believes fighting ISIS is a folly on the part of the coalition and that ISIS serves a valuable benefit that would not occur without their being allowed their respective massacres.
While a UN aid convoy sat for seven days, unable to proceed due to continued fighting among the rebels and ISIS on the roadway, someone gave them the greenlight to go and they were attacked. Twelve people were killed and 18 of the 31 trucks were destroyed.
The media is going ballistic printing conclusions and blame before the print is dry. The UN has not made any statement and is still investigating what went wrong given that the road had been under seige of constant fighting for the past week – before the ‘truce/ceasefire’ ended.
But given new information from inside the Middle East, the UN aid convoy was actually a Syrian Aid Convoy – the Syrian Red Crescent Society. And despite the media claiming Assad has not allowed ANY humanitarian aid to enter, the Syrian Red Crescent says differently according to their Twitter Feed: September 10 – 3 convoys, September 18 – 10 trucks, September 19 – 2nd stage of convoys reach Homs.
The problem is the obtuse fact that there are now eleven countries conducting airstrikes in Syria: US, UK, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Jordan, UAE, France, – and Russia. Coordinating the strikes is either purposeful or out of control. In addition, most of the planes used to conduct the strikes were either manufactured in the US… or Russia, so designating the source becomes a particularly difficult quest.
For now – it is easy to see that Syria would not feel that the truce was handled with any delicacy, honor or respect, and that they would be vehemently opposed to allowing further annihilations of their people by airstrikes from – anyone. Because a ceasefire that allows airstrikes is not a ceasefire at all. It is a setup.
And lives, real people, fathers and sons – are the victims.