Tag Archives: Syria

The beginning of the end of the Syrian civil war

The surrender of Daraa by Syrian rebels to Syrian government forces marks the beginning of the end of the Syrian civil war. Although the rebel forces remain concentrated in the north and east of the country, the Assad regime will now be able to concentrate its forces and those of its allies to defeat remaining […]

Turkey moves further away from the West

The election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey’s new executive president marks a significant step towards Turkey becoming an autocracy, and further separates Turkey from the West as a strategic partner. Turkey has been an important member of NATO, but it is increasingly doubtful whether it would now act in concert with its alliance partners […]

Syrian government backs separatist Kurds

In what might be seen to be an odd move, Syrian government forces appear to be moving to push Turkish soldiers out of the north-western Afrin canton in a bid to assist the separatist Kurdish forces. The Turkish army invaded northern Syria last month to extinguish the creation of a 30,000 strong, Kurdish-dominated “border security […]

Israel’s dangerous game with attacks on Iran in Syria

Israel has entered a dangerous new stage with its attacks on military targets in Syria following th e downing of an Israeli F-16 jet on the weekend. It has been more than 50 years since Israel has lost a jet in combat, but the continued attacks reflect more than just revenge for the jet’s loss. […]

Turkey set to invade northern Syria to stop Kurd military

It has been a long time coming, but Turkey was never going to tolerate an independent Kurdish military on its border. As a result of the United States helping the Syrian Kurdish Self-Protection Units (YPG) establish a 30,000 strong anti-Islamic State ‘border security force’ in northern Syria, Turkey has massed forces along the northern Syrian […]

Asymetric diplomacy and regime change in Syria

Within 24 hours of the US air strike on an air base in Syria last week, the US claimed it was not pursuing regime change. That was a ‘kiss of death’. Four days later, as he landed on Russian soil, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Syria’s President Bashar al Assad must go. […]

One Euro

The Athens suburb of Koukaki is pleasant, it’s once working class roughness having long since given way to gentrification. Athens’ middle class might be doing it tough in these times of austerity and near economic collapse, but there’s not a lot of that to be seen here. That is probably why it attracts the under-employed […]

Islamic State child soldiers

I post these attachments without comment other than the idea that there are Indonesian and probably Malaysian child soldiers being training by IS in Syria is deeply disturbing for many reasons. My purpose is to disseminate this information, and its origins: http://www.shoutussalam.com/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ab4XLefjBqBMJ%3Ash… The text is in Indonesian, which can be machine translated at http://www.toggletext.com/