The Larger Context of the Al Qaeda Attack on Aleppo

Great new post from Global Research about what’s going on in Syria these days. The scoop is that the US and its allies have just finished rebranding Al Qaeda as “moderate rebels,” Al Qaeda is armed mostly with US weapons Wonder where those came from? Kerry has been desperately trying to protect al Qaeda from being attacked by Russian and Syrian forces. The US wants al Qaeda included as “moderate rebels” who are subject to the fake truce the US and Russia hammered out in March. Now that the war has turned decisively in favor of the Syrian government and the rebels are looking to be in rather bad shape, the US is getting desperate. The focus of all of this excitement is Aleppo. Currently the government occupies the west half of the city, and the rebels have the eastern half. However, the government has the rebels completely surrounded on the east side of the city. That is a desperate situation for the US, as their al Qaeda buddies are now surrounded, and the government may conquer one of Syria’s largest cities. If al Qaeda is defeated in Aleppo, that will be a huge victory for the government. So al Qaeda is now attacking government-held Southwestern Aleppo with a huge force of 5-10,000 men. It is a serious situation. The Syrian government is seriously short on manpower and the jihadis are often suicidal fanatics. The US and Israel are panicking due to the desperate situation for its al Qaeda allies. The Jewish Lobby is advocating that the US wage military attacks on the Syrian government. You can see these articles authored by Jews out of WINEP (AIPAC). Hopefully this will not happen, but there is risk. There are elements in the CIA, State Department and Pentagon who want to wage war on the Syrian government. They are mostly being held at bay right now by Obama. The US is also responding to the failure of its regime change plans by advocating splitting Syria up into more than one country. Of course this is a longstanding Israeli goal as documented in the Yinon Plan from 1980. All the states in the region oppose breaking up Syria, so it probably won’t happen, but there is always a risk with sociopaths like Kerry running the show. Russia is at a crossroads and must make the tough decision of whether to pull out of Syria or escalate. Iran may also now be ready to escalate its involvement. Iran says that the nuclear agreement with the US is worthless because the lifting of the sanctions and access to international banks that the US promised never materialized. We are still holding $300 billion of Iranian funds in our banks. We have basically stolen this money from Iran. It’s highway robbery. The money was supposed to be released after the deal, but the US never did it. Iran was supposed to have access to international banks again after the deal, but the US is not allowing this to happen and is threatening any bank that tries to do business with Iran. Everything you read below is 10

The Larger Context of the Al Qaeda Attack on Aleppo

By Moon of Alabama Global Research, August 2, 2016 Moon of Alabama August 1, 2016

Al-Qaeda in Syria and associated forces are currently driving a large scale attack from the south-west into Aleppo city. Their aim is to create a new corridor between the Idlib/Aleppo rural areas they occupy and the besieged al-Qaeda controlled areas in east-Aleppo. Between 5,000 and 10,000 al-Qaeda fighters, using U.S. supplied equipment, are taking part in the battle. Formally some of the fighters are “moderates,” but in reality all these groups are by now committed to implement Sharia law and to thereby suppress all minorities. They made some initial progress against government forces but are under fierce attack from the Syrian and Russian air forces. The Russian General Staff has warned since April that al-Qaeda in Syria (aka Jabhat al-Nusra aka Fateh al Sham) and the various attached jihadi groups were planing a large scale attack on Aleppo. An al-Qaeda commander confirmed such long term planning in a pep-talk to his fighters before the current attack. This shines a new light on the protracted talks Secretary of State Kerry has had for month with his Russian colleague. The U.S. tried to exempt al-Qaeda from Russian and Syrian attacks even as UN Security Council Resolutions demanded that al-Qaeda and ISIS areas be eradicated. Then the U.S. tried to make an “offer” to Russia to collectively fight al-Qaeda should Russia put its own and Syrian forces under U.S. control. We called this offer deceptive nonsense. All this, it now seems, was delaying talk to allow al-Qaeda to prepare for the now launched attack. Another step in the delaying, though a failed one, was the re-branding of Jabhat al-Nusra as Fateh al-Sham. Some “Western” media called that a split from al-Qaeda, but in reality it was a merging of al-Qaeda Central and Nusra/al-Qaeda in Syria under a disguising new label. Al-Qaeda’s Qatari sponsors had demanded the re-branding so al-Qaeda in Syria could publicly be sold to “Western” governments and their public as “moderate rebels.” But the sham failed. It was too obvious a fake to be taken seriously. The “Western” support for al-Qaeda will have to continue secretly and in limited form. The current attack on Aleppo is serious. The Syrian army lacks ground forces. Significant professional ground forces from Iran were promised but never arrived. Iran was still dreaming of an accord with the U.S. and therefore holding back on its engagement in Syria. The Afghan farmer battalions Iran recruited are not an alternative for professional troops. Defending against an enemy that is using lots of suicide vehicle bombs to breach fortifications and death-seeking jihadis to storm field positions is difficult. It demands diligent preparation and excellent command and control. If this attack can be defeated, the huge losses al-Qaeda will have to take might end its open military-style war. If al-Qaeda succeeds with the attack, the Syrian army will need very significant additional ground forces to regain the initiative. But no matter how that battle goes, strategically the U.S. is sniffing defeat in its regime change endeavor. It is now proposing to split Syria. Syria and all its neighbors are against this. It will, in the end, not happen, but the damage Washington will create until it acknowledges that fact could be serious. Russia can and should prevent such U.S. attempts of large scale social engineering. Russia on the other side has now to decide if it wants to escalate enough to create more than the current stalemate. Over time, a stalemate becomes expansive, and it may at any time suddenly turn into defeat. The U.S. negotiation positions so far were obviously not serious. The U.S. delayed to allow for further large attacks on the Syrian government. The alternative for Russia is to either leave Syria completely or to escalate enough to decisively defeat the jihadis. That is not an easy decision. Today some jihadis shot down another Russian helicopter over Syria. The bloody body of the dead pilot was dragged through the mud by some local nuts and the video thereof proudly presented. If the Russian government needs some public pretext to go back into Syria, it now has it. Also today the Islamic State threatened to attack Russia within its borders. Another good reason to return to Syria in force. Of note is that Russia is already extremely pissed over the unreasonable hostile climate towards it in Washington DC. It will have consequences. The Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei today acknowledged that the nuclear agreement with the U.S. is a failure. The U.S. did not deliver on its end. Iranian money is still blocked in U.S.-controlled accounts, and no international bank wants to do business with Iran because the U.S. is threatening to penalize them. The conclusion, Khamenei says, is that no deal with U.S. over any local issue in the Middle East is possible and that all negotiations with it are a waste of time. This new public position may finally free the limits the Rouhani government of Iran had put on Iranian deployments to Syria. Why bother with any self-limitation if the U.S. won’t honor it? How the situation in Syria will develop from here on depends to a large part on Turkey. Turkey is changing its foreign policy and turning towards Russia, Iran and China. But how far that turn away from the “West” will go and if it will also include a complete turnaround on Syria is not yet clear. Should Turkey really block its borders and all supplies to the jihadis, the war on Syria could be over within a year or two. Should (secret) supplies continue, the war may continue for many more years. In both cases, more allied troops and support for the Syrian government would significantly cut the time (and damage) the war will still take. That alone would be well worth additional efforts by Syria’s allies. Will Tehran and Moscow agree with that conclusion? The original source of this article is Moon of Alabama Copyright © Moon of Alabama, 2016

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2 thoughts on “The Larger Context of the Al Qaeda Attack on Aleppo”

  1. WOOHOO!!!! Just got back from Kashmir! Wonder if the US gov’t will send me a free M2HB Browning to mount on the back of my Toyota Hilux? Tell ’em I’m going deer hunting. Moderately. Yep, that’s it.

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