Hope for Rojava

Zenaan Harkness zen@freedbms.net
Wed Feb 24 18:18:24 PST 2016


USA and the world's coalition of the dodgy opportunists, capitulate in
20 weeks in Syria.

If it happens, a Kurdish "Rojava" mini state would be the best thing
to happen for a real exploration or experiment in political 'anarchy'.
My fingers and toes are all crossed in hope.

---
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/week-20-russias-syria-campaign-ceasefire-deal-huge-victory-russia/ri13027

Week 20 of Russia's Syria Campaign: The Ceasefire Deal Is a Huge
Victory for Russia

With it Russia has forced every single rebel faction to make a stark
decision on whether it wants Al Nusra ties or not

The Saker
(The Unz Review)

Diplomatic victory brought on by military victories
Originally appeared at The Unz Review

The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing,
it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great
deal of caution about its future implementation.  And yet, this is a
huge victory for Russia.  While it is too early to say that “the
Russians won in Syria”, I think that it is now fair to say that the
Russian position on Syria has won.  Here is why:

First: nobody is suggesting anymore that Assad will be ousted or
Damascus taken.  That, in turn, means that everybody has now
recognized that Syrian Arab Republic, backed by Russia, has
successfully repelled the aggression of the huge coalition the
AngloZionists built to overthrow Assad.

Second: Russia has forced the UNSC and the USA to admit that the vast
majority of those who fight Assad today are terrorists.  Of course,
this is not how this was declared, but if you look at the
organizations which the UNSC has already declared as ‘terrorists’ then
you already have an absolute majority of the anti-Assad forces.  This
means that the moral and legal legitimacy of the anti-Assad forces
lies in tatters.

Third: regardless of what Erdogan does actually try to do next, there
are now clear signs that neither NATO, nor the EU nor even the Turkish
high military command want a war with Russia. And that means that
Erdogan’s gamble has not paid off and that his entire Syria policy is
now comprehensively dead. Keep in mind that following the treacherous
attack on the Russian Su-24 the Kremlin made it a policy goal to
“Saakashvilize” Erdogan.  This goal is now almost reached and
Erdogan’s future looks very, very bleak: everybody ( except maybe the
Saudis) is sick and tired of this maniac.  The best thing which could
happen to Turkey now would for the military to get rid of Erdogan and
to replace him with somebody willing to repair all the damage he did.

Fourth: all the threats to impose a no-fly zone or to occupy Syria
have now been invalidated by an agreement which basically declares
that anybody not respecting the cease-fire is a legitimate target for
engagement and destruction.

Fifth: the USA had to accept the humiliation of having to agree to all
of the Russian terms for the current ceasefire.  Yes, of course, the
USA can, and probably will, try renege on part, or all, of this
agreement, but the precedent has been set and it will be very hard, if
not impossible, for the USA to openly return to the pre-2016 policies.

Sixth: does anybody still remember the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton
about Syria and Russia?  Her position was crystal clear: Assad must go
and those who support him “punished”.  Even after the Russian military
offensive began, the US refused to tell the Russians where the “good
terrorists” were and where the “bad terrorists” were.  No exchange of
information with Russians was acceptable.  Now the Americans had to
agree to work with the Russians on a map of Syria designating where
the participants of the ceasefire and where those who were not
included in the ceasefire were deployed. In other words,the US will
now have to share with Russia all the info it previously refused to
share and work with the Russians on a daily basis.

Seventh: Russia has basically co-opted the so-called “Free Syrian
Army”.  How?  By basically forcing every single faction in Syria to
chose between one of two possible statuses: being a ‘terrorist’ (and a
fair target for destruction) or being a participant in a political
process entirely designed by Russia. The Russians are now even opening
a “Truce Center” at the Khmeimin airbase (
https://www.rt.com/news/333381-syria-reconciliation-russia-hotline/ )
near Latakia which will now “render assistance” to all the parties to
the ceasefire.


This, for the time being, is mainly a diplomatic victory, of course,
but a Russian diplomatic victory made possible by a Russian military
victory. A tiny Russian military contingent has basically completely
neutralized the plans of an entire worldwide Empire. That, in itself,
is an amazing achievement.

The other big winner here are, in my opinion, the Kurds who, according
to British officials (
http://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/02/2016/56cc4b5f9a7947b06c6fff7b ),
appear to be coordinating their military operations with the Syrian
army and the Russian Aerospace Forces and who now might well even
achieve their dreams of joining the Iraqi and Syria regions of
Kurdistan.  Which is just about the worst nightmare for the Turks come
true, hence the still remaining risk of a Turkish military operation
ostensibly to create a ‘buffer zone’ but really to save face.  That
kind of intervention will remain a possibility for as long as the
Turks can continue to hope to commit aggression against their
neighbors under the protection of NATO and the USA. And that ain’t
gonna change anytime in the future.

And then there are the Saudis.  They are very, very angry.  They are
angry to the point of making not so subtle threats about using nuclear
weapons to deal with their adversaries.  See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXuJkVPRjNI

Actually, since Pakistan got The Bomb, I would not dismiss any Saudi
claims of having a number of nuclear devices.  But what does that
really mean?

Absolutely nothing.

It is quite possible that the Saudis have the know how for a nuclear
device.  And it is quite possible that they even got their hands on
enough nuclear materials for a few bombs. They might even have
succeeded in purchasing a few nuclear devices from the Pakistanis or
Israelis.  But even if that is true, the reality is that the Saudis
don’t even have the military capability to deal with the poorest Arab
country on the planet (Yemen) and that they most definitely don’t have
the military capability to engage their nuclear devices in a way which
would allow them to achieve any kind of military advantage. After all,
what are we talking about here? Using nuclear weapons against the
Syrian military? Against Iran? Against Russia? This is absolutely
ridiculous. The reality is that whatever nuclear capabilities the
Saudis might or might not have, the fact that they would make nuclear
threats is just a sign of weakness and fear, not a sign of strength.
This is why nobody is impressed by these statements, least of all the
intended targets of such threats.

While it is quite true that the latest agreement between the USA and
Russia does not mark the end of the war in Syria, it is a turning
point, a kind of a Minsk-2 Agreement which nobody really wants to
comply with, but which seals the defeat of the AngloZionist plans in
Syria as much as Minsk-2 meant the defeat of the Ukronazi dream.

Time is now on the Russian/Syrian side.  With each passing day the
Russian task force in Syria will become more powerful, as will the
Syrian Armed Forces.  That, by itself, will not be enough to defeat
Daesh, and we can expect a stiff resistance from the Takfiri crazies,
but the writing is on the wall for all to see: the more the Russians
and the Americans become directly and jointly involved, the less
Turkey and Saudi Arabia will be able to determine the outcome of the
war.  In other words, while this is far from being the end of Daesh,
it is the beginning of the end for Daesh in Syria.

Yet again the nay-sayers and Putin-haters have been proven wrong.  To
be honest, so have I:  I would never have guessed that the Russians
could have achieved so much with so little and yet they did pull off
this extremely dangerous gamble and they won.  Only an extremely
skillful combination of military, economic, diplomatic and political
means could have yielded such a remarkable result but Putin,
apparently, found this perfect mix.  The path ahead remains extremely
dangerous, for sure, but the outcome of the 20 week long Russian
military intervention in Syria is nothing short of remarkable.



More information about the cypherpunks mailing list