Saturday, 14 January 2017

Greatest Blunders on Syrian War Propaganda




I would like to outline some of the greatest blunders by those reporting on the Syrian Civil War.


1) the Syrian Civil War was a war about western democracy

The Syrian Civil War was never about democracy coming to Syria. From the beginning, weapons were sent by America, with the funding of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to Turkey for anyone who was prepared to fight Bashar Al-Assad - even then Islamic State of Iraq, who was operating in Syria under the guise of Jabhat An-Nusra. Since Bashar Al-Assad maintained high popularity with urban Sunnis, Christians, Druze and Alawites, the only ones who were willing to fight Assad were largely Sunnis from the countryside, funded with extreme ideology of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

2) Bashar Al-Assad's overthrow benefits Israel

Unlike the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad does not benefit Israel in the slightest. The Israeli-Syrian border is one of Israel's quietest borders - had ISIS and Al-Qaeda been able to overthrow the Assad government, their extremist Sunni forces would have turned on Israel and caused the Syrian-Israeli border to become even worse than the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Hezbollah regularly spar with Israel.

Since the death of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, most of Sunni attention has been directed against Shi'ites and Iranian influence and not against Israel. What is perhaps even worse for Israel is that, if Bashar Al-Assad were overthrown, a Sunni power would again be against Israel, putting to sleep the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict in the Middle-East and refocusing the Arabs on Israel.

3) Al-Qaeda's Syrian Affiliate is the future of Al-Qaeda

The puff pieces by the mainstream media about Al-Qaeda in Syria are pathetic. Al-Qaeda in Syria, now Jabhat Fateh Ash-Sham, is still only the second most influential rebel group in Syria - ISIS remains the most influential rebel group. Though controlling much of the countryside rather than urban centres, ISIS monopolize on the Syrian oil and have control of extensive regions in Homs, putting them closer geographically to Damascus than Al-Qaeda.

More to the fact, in Syria, Al-Qaeda is suffering a string of defeats even worse than those inflicted on ISIS. This is especially true in Eastern Aleppo.

4) Obama wants to degrade, defeat and destroy ISIS in Syria

While wanting to degrade, defeat and destroy ISIS in Iraq, Obama's war on ISIS policy in Syria has been about moving ISIS away from Iraq, northern and eastern Syria and into territory held by the Syrian government - this is why Obama has not allied with the Syrian Government against ISIS. Obama has been using ISIS in Syria like a hammer to chip away at the Syrian Government - he did not want it defeated but rather used it to try and overthrow the Assad Government.

Had Obama caused ISIS capitulation, Assad would have benefitted, as he is the only one prepared to fight ISIS in the Arab regions of Syria. But in hitting ISIS away from Iraq and leaving the door open for them to regroup in western Syria, such as in Palmyra, Obama was able to put pressure on the Syrian government to further his policy.

Such use of a terrorist organisation more extreme than Al-Qaeda for political gain is very disappointing. Even worse is that the mainstream media does not pick up on this.

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