Liberation of
Aleppo Represents US's Most Serious Setback in 15 Years
By Tim Anderson
December 27,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Khamenei"
-
In late 2016, at
the cost of many young lives, Syrian forces took back
the eastern part of the city of Aleppo, occupied by NATO
and Saudi backed terrorists for more than four years.
The
liberation of Aleppo, Syria’s second city and an ancient
marvel, represents the most serious setback for the
15-year long Washington-led aggression on the entire
region. An effective re-colonization of the region has
stretched from Afghanistan to Libya, under a range of
false pretexts. Invasions and proxy wars have been
backed by economic sanctions and wild propaganda.
But this great
war of aggression – called the creation of ‘New Middle
East’ by former US President George W. Bush – has hit a
rock in Syria. The massive proxy armies bought and
equipped by Washington and its regional allies the
Saudis, Turkey, Qatar and Israel, have been beaten back
by a powerful regional alliance which supports the
Syrian nation.
The endgame in
Aleppo involves a handful of foreign agents – US, Saudi,
Israeli and others – said to remain with the last
al-Qaeda groups in a tiny part of what was once their
stronghold. The US in particular is keen to secure their
release, because their presence is further evidence of
the foreign command of what was claimed to be a ‘civil
war’.
After a storm
of western government and media misinformation (claims
of massacres, mass executions and ‘civilians targeted’)
over the evacuation of around 100,000 civilians and many
thousands of terrorists, the UN Security Council
authorized some ‘independent observers’ to monitor the
process. However most of that evacuation is now over.
Resettlement and reconstruction is already underway, and
army reserves have been called up to defend the city.
Syrian,
Iranian, Russian and independent reporters (including
Maytham al Ashkar, Shadi Halwi, Asser Khatab, Khaled
Alkhateb, Ali Musawi, Lizzie Phelan, Murad Gazdiev,
Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett and the late Mohsen
Khazaei) have already told us quite a lot. What they
said bore little resemblance to the western apocalyptic
stories. For example, outgoing UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon, a close ally of Washington, claimed in his last
press conference that ‘Aleppo is now a synonym
for hell’. Those claims were based on stories from
NATO’s desperate fighters.
Reporters on
the ground told a different story. As Syrian forces
smashed the al Qaeda lines, the trapped civilians
streamed out. They published video of long lines of
people leaving east Aleppo and finding relief, food and
shelter with the Syrian Arab Army. Tired and relieved,
they told their stories to anyone who cared to listen.
Russia and Iran gave many tons of food, clothing,
blanket and shelter aid. By contrast, western countries
generally gave nothing and the terror groups rejected
all aid from the Syrian alliance.
Civilians were
prohibited from leaving the al-Qaeda enclave, many were
shot dead when they tried to do so. The armed gangs had
food reserves but kept it for their fighters. Arms
factories including toxic chemicals were found and were
being made safe. Some of the armed men were taken into
custody, but most were shipped out to Idlib, where
Damascus has been concentrating the foreign-backed
fighters.
When the hell
canons fell silent, and no more home-made gas cylinder
mortars landed in the heart of the city, there was
elation and dancing in the streets, shown widely on
social media. The US State Department spokesman claimed
he had not seen this.
Al Qaeda in
Aleppo was crushed. All the anti-Syrian government armed
groups in Aleppo were either the ‘official’ al Qaeda in
Syria (Jabhat al Nusra aka Jaysh Fateh al Sham) or
deeply embedded associates. When the US pretended to
suppress Jabhat al Nusra in 2012 and 2016, all the ‘Free
Syrian Army’ groups protested, saying ‘we are all Jabhat
al Nusra’. One might have thought that the US Government
– which once claimed to be engaged in a global war
against terrorism, in the name of 3,000 people murdered
in New York back in September 2001 – would be as elated
as those on the streets of Aleppo. They were not.
Much of the
western media, reflecting their governments, solemnly
reported on ‘the fall of Aleppo’. The Syrian victory
over the al Qaeda groups was a great tragedy, they said.
On the other hand, the near simultaneous recapture of
Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, by the eastern al Qaeda
group ISIS, was reported differently. That city was said
to have been ‘retaken’.
All this
underlines what should have been an obvious point,
admitted by many US officials, that every single armed
group in Syria (whether ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’) has
been armed and financed by the US and its allies, in an
attempt to overthrow the Syrian Government. All the talk
about ‘moderate rebels’, a ‘brutal regime’ and a ‘civil
war’ just tries to hide this.
The final
evacuations of Aleppo – which included an exchange of
civilians besieged for 20 months in the Idlib towns of
Faoua and Kafraya for remaining NATO-jihadists in
eastern Aleppo – were organized between Russia and
Turkey. There was some serious sabotage of these
agreements, but the understandings have so far stayed on
track. Now Iran is engaged with Russia and Turkey, in
three way talks. Practical matters are being discussed.
It is notable
that the Obama administration is playing no direct
constructive role in the endgame over Aleppo. Its
‘regime change’ proxy war on Syria is failing and, in
its place, the incoming Washington regime promises a new
approach. More importantly, a new regional alliance has
formed to reject any new aggression from the colonial
powers.
Many things
have changed during the war on Syria. The Syrian
alliance has beaten back powerful NATO-GCC forces. The
Muslim Brotherhood and its patrons in Egypt, Qatar and
Turkey have received another beating. Egypt and Iraq now
support Syria. The Saudis have joined with Israel again
Iran and Syria. Russia has built stronger bonds with
Syria and Iran. The Arab league, having backed the
destruction of two Arab states, seems all but dead. Will
the new, enhanced ‘Axis of Resistance’ take its place?
Professor
Tim Anderson is a distinguished author and senior
lecturer of political economy at the University of
Sydney, Australia. Author of the 'The Dirty War on
Syria', he has been largely published on various issues
particularly the Syrian crisis.
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
editorial policy. |