© Sputnik/ Mikhail Alayeddin
The aftermath of a mortar shelling in west Aleppo.
The period from mid to late October must be hibernation time for US Secretary of State John Kerry. How else are we to explain comments he made on Monday which clearly show he's ignorant of well-publicised events unfolding on the Aleppo battlefield?
Speaking at Chatham House in London on Monday,
Kerry said:
If Russia were to test the stated willingness of Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia and the United states to try to separate Nusra from the opposition, and if they would test it by standing back and not bombing for a period of time, and give the legitimate opposition the opportunity to adhere to the ceasefire, but separate from the true terrorists, then we could begin to get some perhaps cooperative breathing space where we might have an opportunity to be able to really put in place a ceasefire.
In the salubrious surrounds of Chatham House
we can be sure US idolaters did not dare raise a point of protest or dissent. "I say, can I correct you there, old chap," is hardly likely to have been uttered as the participants, grateful to hear Kerry's honeyed words, treated themselves to a hearty helping of tea and scones. In the real world, a chap Kerry may have heard of, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, announced that both
Syrian and Russian air strikes would be halted over two weeks ago, on Tuesday 18 October, two days ahead of a humanitarian pause that would allow civilians and opposition rebels safe passage out of east Aleppo through humanitarian corridors, as well as to organise the evacuation of the ill and wounded.
It was yet another—many would say unwarranted—extending of the olive branch on the part of Moscow and Damascus, who continue to strive to find a negotiated end to the bloodshed in Aleppo.
True to their word, the airstrikes were halted. The halt has not been reversed, reaffirmed a few days ago by Vladimir Putin, who said it would be
inappropriate to resume airstrikes during the humanitarian pause. The extended pause gives further opportunity to evacuate the wounded and the US-backed terrorists who wish to leave Aleppo, and, crucially, yet another chance for the U.S. to finally fulfill its pledge to separate moderate from terrorist groups. Kerry, in a deep slumber, or perhaps otherwise distracted, seems not to have noticed that announcement either.
The US-backed jihadists, led by Al-Nusra, newly rebranded as Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, thumbed their noses at the airstrike halt and humanitarian pause, showing their true contempt for the value and dignity of human life. Lying like a fox in wait,
the jihadists relentlessly pounded the humanitarian corridors on 20 October, the intended day of much-needed relief and safety for the terrorised civilians of east Aleppo. By their actions, JFS and their allies showed they have no qualms in holding the civilian population as human shields, as they desperately wait to see if their Saudi/Qatari/U.S. sponsors can find a way for them to escape this ever-tightening siege.
As the Syrian-led alliance extended the airstrike halt and continues to offer safe passage through humanitarian corridors,
the jihadists launched a vicious full-scale counter offensive, commencing on 28 October. In a horrendous week, the JFS-led alliance of US-backed terrorists
killed at least 127 people and injured 254 in west Aleppo. They are also accused of resorting to their
weapon of choice, toxic chemicals, leaving two Syrian soldiers dead and at least 37 civilians injured.
Reports from SANA News Agency said the injured are suffering from vomiting, shortness of breath, mydriasis, numbness in the limbs and muscle spasms. Indications are that this is another
chlorine gas attack. True to form, Western media is reporting that both sides are
accusing each other of using chemical weapons. This is a pretty standard media technique of muddying the waters, thus obfuscating the reality of events on the ground. It becomes tiresome to see this "he said, she said" recycled on cue, but we must grin and bear the death of journalistic standards in groupthinkistan media. Amnesty International has heavily criticised the rebels, accusing them of breaking "international humanitarian law by bombarding civilian neighborhoods in government-held areas without distinction," of having "a shocking disregard for civilian lives," and of "indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas."
Amnesty also pointed to the use by Washington's rebels of notoriously imprecise mortars and Katyusha rockets in high-density civilian areas. Add to this the infamous
Hell Cannon, surely one of the most wildly inaccurate weapons devised in recent memory. Hell cannons are crude weapons, basically a barrel mounted to two wheels. Cooking gas cylinders are packed with explosives, usually ammonium nitrate, and filled with shrapnel. Line it up, aim, and hope for the best.
Knowingly using such inaccurate deadly weapons in civilian areas, forewarned of inevitable civilian deaths, is indisputably a case of premeditated murder by the US' terrorists in Syria. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura weighed in with
justified criticism of the horrors perpetrated by Western and Gulf State-backed terrorists, saying he was
"appalled and shocked by the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched by armed opposition groups." Kerry in his statement in London professes to still hold a willingness to separate moderate rebels from terrorists. Russia has again bent over backwards to accommodate the void between rhetoric and truth in the Orwellian world of U.S. diplomacy, knowing its goodwill gesture is likely to melt into thin air.
Nevertheless, it retains faith in the diplomatic process, negotiation with its U.S. "partner" and in the emerging multipolar world order. Kerry has responded with a vacuous statement, belying the fact
the U.S. won't admit it can't separate the terrorists from more moderate rebels because there are no moderate rebels. To come clean on the dirty truth at this point would be like cyanide for crooked Hillary Clinton seven days before the presidential election in the US. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled the growing impatience of Moscow with the inability of the U.S. - since February - to separate moderates from terrorists.
He said:I really hope that after almost two weeks, during which our air forces did not carry any air strikes, as well as the Syrian air force had not to respond, I think this time was enough for such separation. If that separation has not taken place, we will have to adjust our earlier estimates. We used to say that probably the United States and other allies are either unable or unwilling to separate the moderate opposition from al-Nusra. But now we have to say that they really are unwilling to do that.
Implicit in this comment is that Lavrov is ready to support a resumption of airstrikes, and there may be a message here to Vladimir Putin, who denied requests from Russian General Staff to resume the airstrikes in favour of extending the humanitarian pause. Alexander Mercouris, writing for The Duran, believes that the Russian General Staff, by going public,
sought to place public pressure on Putin to agree to resume airstrikes in Aleppo. Putin refused the request, but has allowed latitude for resumption if rebel forces threaten to break the siege.
He has therefore authorised Russian generals to make an operational decision to resume airstrikes in response to changing battle conditions. The ongoing humanitarian pause gives more time for the US-backed terrorists to release their human hostages in east Aleppo and for the U.S. to either separate the terrorists from moderates or finally admit that there are no moderates. Neither event is likely to happen, further undermining the reputation of the U.S. and drawing into even-stronger contrast its loss of control over its geopolitical objectives in Syria.
Looming in the background is a date that should fill us all with apprehension and foreboding: 20 January 2017. This is the date we have all been told that Hillary Clinton will assume the mantle of President of the USA. Increasingly however, it looks like Donald Trump will get there first, courtesy of the unbridled corruption, cheating, collusion and dirty tricks of Clinton and her army of "do anything, say anything" bandits,
and the fact that powerful players in the USA seem to want Trump as the next POTUS. Clinton is obsessed with her pet project, the no-fly zone in Syria, and says she will use "leverage" to convince Russia to accept it. One wonders if she has internalized this delusional thinking, or if she really is determined to confront Russian "aggression" head on.
Clinton will be more amenable than Barack Obama to the proposal to flood Syria with MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles, an idea long advocated by Saudi Arabia and QATAR. Whether they are a game changer is debatable. However, in the context of pouring in even more weapons and fighters via Jordan and Turkey, the weight of such reinforcements may allow the jihadists to break the siege of east Aleppo, a scenario that could quickly transform into a siege of west Aleppo, a catastrophic state of affairs for the Syrian-led coalition, the only group in Syria or Iraq that is fighting international terrorism.
If ISIS is able to retreat from Mosul to Raqqa, or even mount assaults on Deir ez-Zor or Palmyra, and if the U.S. promise to mount an imminent campaign to capture Raqqa (it has to be asked who will the fighters on the ground be), that will only further complicate problems for Syria and makes the urgency of Aleppo liberation even more pressing.
Some of the latest outpourings from the Pentagon, such as the ill-conceived Raqqa liberation, make more sense when understood as political ploys to get the stuttering, corruption-riddled Clinton over the line on 8 November. All going well, in a couple of months John Kerry can sleep to his heart's content, his malfeasance in Syria a dreamy event from his fabled past.