Shimshon wrote:
> Who is providing arms and training to the rebels (many of whom are
> not even Syrian)? Is it the Russians? Whoever is aiding them is
> (are) the one responsible for actually fomenting the war,
> regardless of who started it. No arms and training, no rebellion,
> period. It is eminently clear that US policymakers wanted a war,
> promoted it, and nurtured it, long before it even got
> started. Leaked cables on the matter are indisputable.
Sorry, none of this is "eminently clear." Read my last response.
Shimshon wrote:
> Regardless of whether you sympathize with the rebels (which you
> openly and unabashedly do, over and over) or Assad (which I do
> NOT, and never said I did). I also never mentioned Hezbollah or
> Iran in my comments. Stop putting words in my mouth. It is
> disingenuous and dishonest. Please either respond to my statements
> (my ACTUAL statements) or tell me to go away.
No, you're wrong. I do not sympathize with "the rebels." I
sympathize with the millions of women and children who are being
targeted by al-Assad's barrel bombs, chemical weapons (chlorine gas),
phosphorous bombs, cluster bombs and bunker bombs.
In my opinion, it's "eminently clear" that al-Assad wants to
exterminate an entire race, not just rebels, and that what he's doing
is not much different from the actions of Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong,
Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Ratko Mladic, Robert Mugabe, and others.
That's my response to your statements.
Shimshon wrote:
> This is a war, and there are no good sides (even the US). Constant
> editorializing by using terms like "genocidal," "pathological,"
> and so forth when reporting is ridiculously one-sided and gets
> tiresome. Is Assad a psychopath? Maybe, but based on what? What is
> it if he is? Are you on the CIA's payroll? Because rather than
> interesting reporting, it reads as US propaganda with the endless
> diatribes directed against Putin and Assad (I note a
> much-attenuated animus directed at the US). We all know they're
> acting in their own interests, and doing so rather ruthlessly. To
> compare them to the Nazis and their organized program of
> extermination of entire peoples (and not just the Jews), which you
> are doing by imposing an editorial slant on what is otherwise
> interesting observations on what is happening, is absurd.
If you're a long-time reader, then you know that I've been covering
the Syria war on an almost daily basis since 2011. I've written
thousands of articles, based on reading and archiving tens of
thousands of media reports. I do not reach my opinions lightly. You
can disagree if you like, and you can make moronic accusations like
"CIA's payroll" and "US propaganda", but you're not going to make one
ideological comment and expect that to cancel tens of thousands of
hours of research and work.
I report on the atrocities of "rebels" all the time. Today's article
is about "rebels" in Kashmir. I've written about "rebels" and
al-Nusra and ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, and jihadists in Iraq, Yemen,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, the West Bank, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Nigeria,
Algeria, Mali, and elsewhere thousands of times. Each of those
"rebel" or jihadist atrocities is a tragedy. Unfortunately, jihadist
atrocities have become so commonplace that they no longer have much
effect on world events. Many of the jihadist atrocities aren't even
covered in the news any more, since they're as common as traffic
accidents.
But those atrocities are not nearly as important to our times as
al-Assad's atrocities. The geopolitical and humanitarian disasters
that he's created are almost beyond belief -- creating ISIS, creating
millions of refugees in the Mideast and Europe, and bringing the
entire Mideast to the brink of war along the Sunni/Shia fault line.
And the destruction of Aleppo would be an atrocity far exceeding all
the atrocities of ISIS and al-Nusra put together.
Al-Assad has accomplished in five years what al-Qaeda has been failing
to do for 30 years, and what ISIS is failing to do.
I get criticized by ideologues on all sides. So stay or leave, read
or stop reading as you wish, but don't expect me to abandon years of
work because of an ideological opinion.