Category Archives: Middle East

UPDATED III (9/13): Lindsey Grahamnesty Lies About Putin, Syria & The Alawite Alliance

Foreign Policy, Islam, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Russia

NEW COLUMN IS “Lindsey Grahamnesty Lies About Putin, Syria & The Alawite Alliance.” It’s now on WND.com and the Unz Review.

An excerpt:

On just about every issue, in 2016, candidate Trump ran in opposition to Sen. Lindsey Graham. Donald Trump won the presidency; Lindsey Graham quit the race with a near-zero popularity, as reflected in the polls.

The People certainly loathe the senator from South Carolina. A poll conducted subsequently found that Graham was among least popular senators.

No wonder. Graham is reliably wrong about most things.

But being both misguided and despised have done nothing to diminish Sen. Graham’s popularity with Big Media, left and right. Thus were his pronouncements accorded the customary reverence, during a July 10 segment, on Fox News’ “The Story.”

Which is when he told anchor Martha MacCallum that, “Putin is not doing anything good in Syria.”

Then again, Lindsey is being consistent. The revival of “one of the world’s oldest Christian communities,” in Syria, is not something the senator we’ve come to know and loathe would celebrate.

It’s true. “A new Syria is emerging from the rubble of war,” reports The Economist, a magazine which is every bit as liberal and Russophobic as Graham and his political soul mate, John McCain, but whose correspondents on the ground—in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs—have a far greater fidelity to the truth than the terrible two.

“In Homs, … the Christian quarter is reviving. Churches have been lavishly restored; a large crucifix hangs over the main street.” ‘Groom of Heaven,’ proclaims a billboard featuring a photo of a Christian soldier killed in the seven-year conflict. And, in their sermons, Orthodox patriarchs praise Mr. Assad for saving … the Christian communities.”

Don’t tell the ailing McCain. It’ll only make him miserable, but thanks to Putin, Assad “now controls Syria’s spine, from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south—what French colonists once called la Syrie utile (useful Syria). The rebels are confined to pockets along the southern and northern borders.”

“Homs, like all of the cities recaptured by the government, now belongs mostly to Syria’s victorious minorities: Christians, Shias and Alawites (an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam from which Mr. Assad hails). These groups banded together against the rebels, who are nearly all Sunni, and chased them out of the cities.” (“How a victorious Bashar al-Assad is changing Syria,” The Economist, June 28, 2018.)

A Christian teacher in Homs rejoices, for she no longer must live alongside neighbors “who overnight called you a kafir (infidel).”

The teacher’s venom is directed at John McCain’s beloved “rebels.” Internet selfies abound of McCain mixing it up with leading Sunni “rebels,” against whom Putin and Bashar al-Assad were doing battle. Who knows? McCain may even have taken a pic with the infamous “rebel” who decapitated Syrian Franciscan monk Father Francois Murad.

Ignoramuses McCain and Graham had both urged the US to send weapons to the “rebels”—even as it transpired that the lovelies with whom McCain was cavorting on his sojourns in Syria liked to feast on … the lungs of their pro-Assad enemies. A devotee of multiculturalism, Lindsey could probably explain the idiosyncratic cultural symbolism of such savagery.

Infested as it is by globalist ideologues, the permanent establishment of American foreign policy refuses to consider regional, religious, local, even tribal, dynamics in the Middle East. In particular, that the “good” guys in Syria—a relative term—are not the Islamist “rebels,” with whom the senior Republican senator from Arizona was forever frolicking; but the secular Alawites.

You likely didn’t know that Alawites like al-Assad also “flinch at Shia evangelizing. ‘We don’t pray, don’t fast [during Ramadan] and drink alcohol,’ says one.” …

… READ THE REST. NEW COLUMNS, “Lindsey Grahamnesty Lies About Putin, Syria & The Alawite Alliance,” is now on WND.com and the Unz Review.

UPDATE I (7/14): Some readers get it:

—–Original Message—–
From:  Don
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2018 9:22 AM
To: ilana@ilanamercer.com
Subject: Re: “Lindsey Grahamnesty Lies About Putin, Syria And The Alawite Alliance”

Ilana, I salute you.  Maybe the most important article you have written in some time.

Further, the obvious black op of chemical weapon use to frame Assad is so significant.  Sadly Trump fell for it.  While the ‘rebels’ (ISIS) were torturing and decapitating purging Christians Assad was protecting them.

Can’t have that now can we?  The ‘songbird of Hanoi’ may be one of the most evil men alive today.

Keep up your most excellent work.

Yours,

Don

UPDATE II (7/15):

Rich says:
July 14, 2018 at 4:00 pm GMT

Excellent column. It’s amazing that this information is blocked throughout the mainstream media. How, in Heaven’s name, did any Westerner, or American, think supporting these insane rebels was a good idea?

UPDATE III (9/13): There they go again. 

Lindsey Graham Lies About The ‘New Syria,’ Which Is Now Safe For Christians & Way More Secular

Christianity, Islam, Jihad, Middle East, Propaganda, Russia

On just about every issue he ran on, candidate Trump was in opposition to Sen. Lindsey Graham. Including Russia. Now Graham, whose popularity as a presidential candidate in 2016 was around 0%, is advising President Trump.

Forty eight seconds in to his July 10 segment on Fox News’ The Story, Graham says, “Putin is not doing anything good in Syria.”

You lie, Lindsey.

The Economist is a superb news magazine—its reporters do old fashioned shoe-leather reporting, rather than rely solely on what the Anglo-American Deep State dishes. Which is how Lindsey gets his news.

More fundamentally, the Economist is liberal and vehemently anti-Trump. Under an ostensibly dim headline, the magazine relays some very promising news about the new Syria, what with the Alawites and their allies having consolidated power, once again.

Remember, “The country has been led by Alawites since 1966, but Sunnis held senior positions in government, the armed forces and business. Even today many Sunnis prefer Mr Assad’s secular rule to that of Islamist rebels.”

“How a Victorious Bashar al-Assad is Changing Syria: Sunnis have been pushed out by the war. The new Syria is smaller, in ruins and more sectarian”:

… the Christian quarter is reviving. Churches have been lavishly restored; a large crucifix hangs over the main street. “Groom of Heaven”, proclaims a billboard featuring a photo of a Christian soldier killed in the seven-year conflict. In their sermons, Orthodox patriarchs praise Mr Assad for saving one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

Homs, like all of the cities recaptured by the government, now belongs mostly to Syria’s victorious minorities: Christians, Shias and Alawites (an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam from which Mr Assad hails). These groups banded together against the rebels, who are nearly all Sunni, and chased them out of the cities. Sunni civilians, once a large majority, followed. More than half of the country’s population of 22m has been displaced—6.5m inside Syria and over 6m abroad. Most are Sunnis. …

“We lived so well before,” says a Christian teacher in Homs. “But how can you live with a neighbour who overnight called you a kafir (infidel)?”

For the warring factions, this is a regional conflict . The local powers want “the Iranian-backed Shia militias” to go back whence they came. Russia, seemingly, is urging the same.

Mr Assad’s men captured the last rebel strongholds around Damascus in May. He now controls Syria’s spine, from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south—what French colonisers once called la Syrie utile (useful Syria). The rebels are confined to pockets along the southern and northern borders (see map). Lately the government has attacked them in the south-western province of Deraa.

Government departments are functioning. In areas that remained under Mr Assad’s control, electricity and water supplies are more reliable than in much of the Middle East. Officials predict that next year’s natural-gas production will surpass pre-war levels. The National Museum in Damascus, which locked up its prized antiquities for protection, is preparing to reopen to the public. The railway from Damascus to Aleppo might resume operations this summer. …

… Syrians are experienced construction workers. When Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990, they helped rebuild Beirut. But no such workforce is available today. In Damascus University’s civil-engineering department, two-thirds of the lecturers have fled. “The best were first to go,” says one who stayed behind. Students followed them. Those that remain have taken to speaking Araglish, a hotch-potch of Arabic and English, as many plan futures abroad.

Sunni states, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, should also give up on the John McCain-Lindsey Graham style Sunni regime change.

Early on, minorities lowered their profile to avoid being targeted. Women donned headscarves. Non-Muslim businessmen bowed to demands from Sunni employees for prayer rooms. But as the war swung their way, minorities regained their confidence. Alawite soldiers now flex arms tattooed with Imam Ali, whom they consider the first imam after the Prophet Muhammad (Sunnis see things differently). Christian women in Aleppo show their cleavage. “We would never ask about someone’s religion,” says an official in Damascus. “Sorry to say, we now do.”

The country’s chief mufti is a Sunni, but there are fewer Sunnis serving in top posts since the revolution. Last summer Mr Assad replaced the Sunni speaker of parliament with a Christian. In January he broke with tradition by appointing an Alawite, instead of a Sunni, as defence minister. …

… A decade ago Mr Assad toyed with infitah (liberalisation), only for Sunni extremists to build huge mosques from which to spout their hate-speech, say his advisers. He is loth to repeat the mistake.

Now, “Mr Assad sees no reason to make concessions.” But “UN mediators and his Russian allies,” whom Graham maligns, have been pushing for inclusive solutions.

Is this ideal? Of course not. But it’s better than the alternative promoted by the diabolical duo, McCain and Graham and the rest of the Anglo-American foreign-policy establishment: rule by fundamentalist rebels.

Russia has called on all “foreign forces to leave Syria,” including Iran, which has stationed “80,000 foreign Shia militiamen” in Syria.

Skirmishes between the [Iranian] militias and Syrian troops have resulted in scores of deaths, according to researchers at King’s College in London. Having defeated Sunni Islamists, army officers say they have no wish to succumb to Shia ones. Alawites, in particular, flinch at Shia evangelising. “We don’t pray, don’t fast [during Ramadan] and drink alcohol,” says one.

All share a wish for the Iranians to depart, but Turkey, Israel and America would also do well to stay out of Syria, too.

THE ARTICLE IS: “How a Victorious Bashar al-Assad is Changing Syria: Sunnis have been pushed out by the war. The new Syria is smaller, in ruins and more sectarian.”

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Secular Syrian Patriot Tells The Anglo-American-Saudi-Qatari Axis Of Evil TO GET OUT OF HIS COUNTRY.

Britain, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Neoconservatism, War, WMD

Thank heavens for some news channels who still cover hefty news, even if it’s news a la the imperialist, neoconservative, BBC News.

Instead of listening to dumb, young bimbos on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, squeak their “geopolitics” nonsensical insights like chipmunks, one can hear the brilliant Fares Shehabi, representative for Aleppo, Syria. On BBC News.

Shehabi smacks BBC’s Hardtalk anchor—beats him in every argument possible. It transpired that the venerated BBC News, just like America’s sub-intelligent news organizations, still considers a famous fraud—one 7-year-old Syrian girl named Bana al-Abed, with a managed Twitter account—to be a serious news source. Via the New Yorker:

Bana’s English video statements often have a scripted quality, as if she is being coached by her mother to communicate her thoughts in a language that she is only beginning to learn. Once, Fatemah posted a video of Bana traipsing through rubble; her guileless face and long pigtails, cinched with pink bows, presented a shocking, cinematic, and seemingly deliberate contrast to the devastation around her. Such moments have invited skeptics to question how, for example, Fatemah charges her phone to post videos when electricity lines so rarely function in her part of Aleppo.  …

MP Shehabi tells the Anglo-American-Saudi-Qatari axis of pure evil, and their UN white hats and Jihadi recruits the world over—the men John McCain takes pics with and calls “moderates”—TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HIS COUNTRY, reminding them what they visited on Iraq and Libya, and suggesting that if Assad is to face an international tribunal for war crimes; so must Tony Blair, George Bush (for Iraq) and Obama for Libya.

I would add that their Saudi friends should be in the dock for Yemen and much more. (This tot is feeling the love. Yemeni ports have been barricaded by the Saudis, to whom we’ve sold the weapons. A good deal for the military-industrial-complex, for sure.)

Brilliant.

AND Bravo.

LISTEN.

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UPDATED (4/5/018): THE GOOD NEWS: Islamic State Has Collapsed. Of Course, There’s Also Bad, But Predictable, News …

Ann Coulter, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military, Terrorism, War

America’s Saudi bosom buddies are displeased, and are objecting loudly to President Trump’s promise to withdraw from Syria. This, against the spectacular news that “Islamic State has collapsed.”

The Economist explains:

FOR a moment it looked as though Syria’s seven-year war, which has killed more than 400,000 people and contributed to the largest refugee crisis in recent history, might be winding down. As 2017 drew to a close, the so-called caliphate of Islamic State (IS) had disintegrated. The forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the rebels fighting to dethrone him had largely stopped killing each other. Russia, which had intervened to save Mr Assad, said its mission was “basically accomplished” and had promised to bring its troops home.

The bad news is that with “the collapse of IS,” a “scramble for territory [has] ensued” between competing powers:

Turkey has sent troops over its border to battle Kurdish forces. Americans have killed Russians. And long-standing tensions between Iran and Israel have flared.

The collapse of IS has also widened fissures among the foreign powers jostling for a say in Syria’s future. In January America’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said American troops would remain in Kurdish-held parts of Syria until IS no longer posed a threat, and a political solution to the war had been found. This infuriated Turkey, a NATO ally, which considers some of America’s Kurdish partners, the YPG, to be terrorists. Days after Mr Tillerson’s announcement, the Turkish army assaulted Afrin, a YPG-controlled pocket of territory in north-western Syria. There are no American forces in Afrin, but Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has threatened to march on Manbij, a town which does have them. This heightens the risk of direct clashes between two NATO powers and their proxies. America’s vow to stay in Syria has also angered Russia, which backed Turkey’s operation in Afrin. Seeking to test America’s commitment to its campaign, the Kremlin may have ordered Russian mercenaries to attack an American-supported base in the east—an attack that left scores of Russians dead.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave.”

MORE: “Why the war in Syria is hotting up.”

UPDATE (4/5/018):

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