From Real News on Russian interests in Syria:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10708

Posted by: ben | Sep 13 2013 16:29 utc | 3

A statement from way back in 1966. How prophetic is this statement?
““The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” —Prof. Caroll Quigley, Georgetown University, Tragedy and Hope (1966)”
The full article from 2013:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/making_the_world_safe_for_banksters_syria_in_the_cross-hairs_20130905/

Posted by: ben | Sep 13 2013 17:01 utc | 5

PK @ 4: Good Madsen article, thanks.

Posted by: ben | Sep 13 2013 17:06 utc | 7

8) it is “unpatriotic” to agree with Putin.
The New Yorker calls it Propaganda and argues all the way back to Stalin
they mainly object to this bit:

No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack—this time against Israel—cannot be ignored.

though US congressmen like Alan Grayson say this

No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack—this time against Israel—cannot be ignored.

A lot of people see themselves back in the times of the cold war.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 13 2013 17:27 utc | 9

Two excellent analyses from the Asia Times Online
“China stitches up the (SCO) Silk Rd”
“Putin eyes Obama’s Iran file”

Posted by: Crone | Sep 13 2013 17:31 utc | 11

@ 11: Thanks Crone, this “Silk Rd” thing probably scares the hell out of Western Capitalists. No doubt part of the rush to secure the resources of the Mid-East.

Posted by: ben | Sep 13 2013 18:27 utc | 13

If you have the stomach to ingest a load of bile, which though aggravating to read is nonetheless a clear statement of the Western foreign policy elite, check out Roger Cohen’s “An Anchorless World.”
Cohen rages against Obama for not launching a unilateral strike against Syria. He villifies “Assad, who traffics in deception and slaughter.” He heaps scorn on an isolationist public. And of course no fine bit of bellicose rhetoric is complete without an invocation of the horrors of Nazism about to be revisited on us unless we heed the call to remove the butcher (–insert here: Saddam, Gaddafi, Milosevic, oh, yes! Assad).
Cohen pines for the mythic days of peace and freedom that Uncle Sam selflessly bestowed on the planet following Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
I think elites are frothing at the mouth because they’re starting to figure out that there might be some natural limits not only to their neoliberal market magic but also to their ever-ready war machine.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Sep 13 2013 19:00 utc | 15

Rebellion under the radar

To counter the Maoist propaganda, national broadcaster All India Radio will play jingles urging villagers and tribals to distance themselves from Naxal groups and instead join the mainstream.

Posted by: ruralito | Sep 13 2013 19:55 utc | 17

Crazy CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour want war.. NOW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDnKdEem8FA

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 13 2013 20:13 utc | 19

@12
Wasn’t there a connection between the Jamestown Foundation and the elder of the brothers who perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombing?

Posted by: lysias | Sep 13 2013 21:39 utc | 21

@9 it is “unpatriotic” to get your head out of your ass too apparently..
@18 thanks for that..

Posted by: james | Sep 13 2013 22:04 utc | 23

That was probably bullshit too. Hate to say that my entire life has been bullshit. Yeah, I hate it.
Sorry, this is the best I can do.

Posted by: tsisageya | Sep 13 2013 22:20 utc | 25

Beyond another motherfucking commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOGnVKWbwc

Posted by: tsisageya | Sep 13 2013 22:34 utc | 27

Oh sir, may I please have another?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3SjqGfe-yM

Posted by: tsisageya | Sep 13 2013 22:41 utc | 29

Also, thank you Crone for bearing with me in my disgust. You’re very kind.

Posted by: tsisageya | Sep 13 2013 22:53 utc | 31

@tsisageya…
Please condense your posts. This is not twitter. Otherwise, fine, and welcome!

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Sep 13 2013 23:14 utc | 33

Dr. Wellington Yueh, thanks for the heads up but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I sure do appreciate your concern though.
Going to bed now.

Posted by: tsisageya | Sep 13 2013 23:21 utc | 35

@hmm #12
The Jamestown Foundation publishes a lot of useful information about the North Caucasus terrorist. It should however be evident to everyone that their real mission is to serve as a propagandist and front organization for these same terrorists. (Here I am not referring to the Boston Bombing incident, this goes way back.)
The connection between Kavkaz Center and Jamestown Foundation may be that Kavkaz Center gets its funding from NED and the US State department. The Kavkaz Center office in Helsinki also happen to host a number of support and front organizations that get their funding from the National Endowment for Democracy. The most important of these is the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (FINROSFORUM) founded by Mikael Storsjö and Heidi Hautala, currently the Finnish minister for Minister for International Development at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Kavkaz Center operation would not be possible without the support of the highest levels of the Finnish government.
In the Fatima Tlisova presentation on the NED site you see an “Adam Tumsoev” described as the web administrator of Kavkaz Center. His real name is Islam Matsiev. The photo in this article at strategic-culture.org (mirror) shows him sitting next to Mikael Storsjö and Minister Heidi Hautala. He is the younger brother or cousin of Beslan massacre coordinator Yunus Matziev. Both lived in their grandfather’s house at Central Street 49 in Staraya Atagi. The compound also housed the bunker headquarters of al-Khattab and Shamil Basayev.
***
@lysias #18
Re: “Your link for the Madsen article no longer works.”
Originally I tried to post the link to the 4th Media version, but that site was down at the time. (Now back on-line.)

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 13 2013 23:27 utc | 37

Kenneth Roth: Human Rights for…war
You have to see the campaign for war that Kenneth Roth is waging on Twitter. This is an amazing opportunity to expose once for all the true war mongering and non-peaceful motives and aims of some Western human rights organizations, like HRW. This organization which parcels out its words and minimizes at every occasion the crimes of the Israeli regime, and which never ever called for international accountability for its crimes and massacres now sees its true role as agent of empire. The true colors, at last. It is funny though, if you think about it, if we are not talking about wars that kill innocent people. A western human rights organization sees its role as agitating for war (against non-Western people, of course). More later.
http://angryarab.blogspot.ca/2013/09/kenneth-roth-human-rights-forwar.html

Posted by: brian | Sep 14 2013 0:19 utc | 39

A lot of people see themselves back in the times of the cold war.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 13, 2013 1:27:54 PM | 9
the good old dayz when men waz men and russians were commmies….nice and uncomplicated

Posted by: brian | Sep 14 2013 0:37 utc | 41

Jackass due in Israel to discuss Syria with Netanyahu
DEBKAfile, Sep 13 2013
Jackass Kerry will be coming to Israel next Sunday with words of reassurance for Netanyahu. Israel is deeply concerned by a sense that the Obama administration has sold out the Syrian rebels and saved Assad in a deal with Moscow. No one in Jerusalem trusts Assad’s pledge to give up his CW, certain he will surrender no more than a portion to international control and conceal the rest.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 3:23 utc | 43

Rowan,

No one in Jerusalem trusts Assad’s pledge to give up his CW, certain he will surrender no more than a portion to international control and conceal the rest.

I don’t think Assad has given any pledge-trusted or otherwise. He’s made clear that any decommissioning of Syria’s strategic deterrent is contingent on a guarantee of non-aggression from the US and an end to arming the Al Qaeda invaders. Putin has largely said the same. Neither of those conditions will be met and so therefore, The Syrian government’s chemical weapons are staying right where they belong. Note that this face saving gesture handed to Obama was just that and ONLY that. Obama got a rope to climb out of his rhetorical hole. There will be no tangible gains.
It is actually delicious irony. The Russians and Syrians are playing the US 1990s Iraq game of demanding concessions, knowing they can’t be granted. The difference being that Syria’s demands of not attacking and not arming Al Qaeda are entirely reasonable.

Posted by: Lysander | Sep 14 2013 4:03 utc | 45

A week ago, a US Air Force cargo plane left Charleston Air Force Base, home of Colonel Lindsey Graham, also “Senator” Lindsey Graham, one of the most powerful advocates for war against Syria (and Russia).
It landed in Tbilisi Airport, in the Republic of Georgia. There, it was loaded with what local sources indicate to be “ammunition from the Lugar Lab.”
Every aspect of this operation was observed, from South Carolina to Tbilisi.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/09/13/us-caught-in-sarin-terror-plot/

Posted by: Rodger | Sep 14 2013 5:09 utc | 47

muricun multitaking from a to z,
http://www.4thmedia.org/2013/09/10/survey-reveals-deeper-penetration-of-africom-on-the-continent/

Posted by: denk | Sep 14 2013 5:43 utc | 49

this one is voluntary…kinda, sorta
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/05/please-america-be-gentle-its-my-first-time/
this is another forced penetration
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36222.htm

Posted by: denk | Sep 14 2013 6:39 utc | 51

A week ago, a USAF cargo plane left Charleston AFB… Veterans Today. Posted by: Rodger | Sep 14, 2013 1:09:13 AM | 43

Veterans today is absolutely full of shit. I would never believe anything I saw there.

Rowan, “No one in Jerusalem trusts Assad’s pledge to give up his CW, certain he will surrender no more than a portion to international control and conceal the rest.” I don’t think Assad has given any pledge-trusted or otherwise. He’s made clear that any decommissioning of Syria’s strategic deterrent is contingent on a guarantee of non-aggression from the US and an end to arming the Al Qaeda invaders. Putin has largely said the same. Neither of those conditions will be met and so therefore, The Syrian government’s chemical weapons are staying right where they belong. Posted by: Lysander | Sep 14, 2013 12:03:51 AM | 41

On this, you have to watch — and I’m serious, this is unforgettable — Syrian Girl Partisan goes absolutely ballistic at the thought of Syria giving up its CW: link: “This is what this war is about! This is what our soldiers bled for. Only so we can give up our strategic defence? Why should #Syria not demand that #Israel give up its chemical weapons? From Our Cold Dead Hands!”

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 7:25 utc | 53

3- A gas that spares women
TM : In these documents is explained that most of the victims are children.
Indeed, you can see in the videos that many children are in agony. They are all about the same age. There are also adults. But all the adults are men. And generally, are at the age where they can fight.
There are no woman. Aside from two exceptions, there were no women in the officially announced victims. On the 1 429 official victims, only 2 are women.
It would be the first time that a gas would discriminate individuals according to their gender.
4- The victims are prisoners of the jihadists
TM : When these images had been broadcasted, the first thing that jumps to eye is that none of these children are accompanied.
This is very shocking, because in Near-Eastern culture, you never leave a body unaccompanied, even more so when they are children.
But these children are without parents.
Then, we can see them in the hands of people that are presented as medical staff, trying to save them. But it is hard to deduce what exactly the staff is doing.
In fact, their is a simple reason : these children are not victims of a chemical attack.
These are children that were kidnapped two weeks previous, in the beginning of August, in the Latakia region, 200 km away from the Ghouta.
They were taken while a jihadist attack on pro-Assas alaouit villagers. Most of the families were killed. Some survived. In the improvised cemeteries around Latakia were found over a thousand dead.
These children, of whom no one has heard about for two weeks, actually resurfaced on these videos.
Those of which the families were still alive recognized them, and these families pressed charges for assassination. If we don’t understand what kind of care is given to these children on these videos, it’s simply because they are not being treated.
They are being injected poison by intravenous, and being killed in front of the cameras.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article180221.html

Posted by: brian | Sep 14 2013 8:23 utc | 55

Russians open up for ch. 7 (intervention) if this deal isnt working. Syria got ditched big time.

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 14 2013 11:10 utc | 57

Big Oil retreating too

Exxon Mobil’s second-quarter results showed that the company, like other oil producers, is having difficulty overcoming the lack of large and easily accessible oil deposits, as well as competition from state-run oil companies. This problem holds true in Iraq, home to the largest oil fields open to foreign investment in the Middle East.
Just over a week ago, sources told The Wall Street Journal that the Exxon Mobil asked Iraq if it could sell less than half of its 60 percent stake in one of the country’s largest oil fields — West Qurna-1, which is located about 31 miles northwest of the southern oil hub of Basra — to state-owned PetroChina
…
Changes in the oil- and gas-producing industry provide some economic context for Exxon Mobil’s decisions. The United States’s domestic oil and gas boom, which has transformed energy markets on a global level, has largely benefited smaller and midsize companies, not Exxon.
“For many companies across the marketplace, balance sheets are improving, but with the majors, they’re deficit spending,” Tudor Pickering Holt’s co-president, Dan Pickering, told the Financial Times. Oil majors currently appear to be caught in a downward cycle of spending more to find and produce less oil, and capital expenditures have therefore increased while earnings have decreased.
So in addition to reporting the first decline in profit in four years, Exxon Mobil said that daily oil and gas production fell by approximately 1.9 percent in the second quarter, falling to 4 million barrels. The quarter was the eighth straight period of year-over-year production declines.
The narrowing price gap between cheaper, domestically produced crude and more expensive foreign crude seems to have hurt margins more than expected, Edward Jones analyst Brian Youngberg told The Wall Street Journal. “You’re just seeing these operating costs accelerating across the board,” he said. “It’s a challenging time for them.”

Posted by: somebody | Sep 14 2013 11:37 utc | 59

After three days of joint talks between Russia and the US, a deal is reached. John Kerry has now stated that the ‘Assad regime’ must live up to its new commitments, with

“the goal to establish the removal [of chemical weapons] by halfway through next year”.

For sure, the rhetoric will continue and the usual suspects will be scrambling around for tough guy sound bites to remind us that “nothing is off the table” and “there can be no room for games”.
But make no mistake – the Russians are running the show. They’ve guaranteed that the ‘Assad regime’ will be around for a while longer yet, so that they can “live up to their commitments”.
Non-compliance from the Syrian Government is a non-starter so the use of force is a moot point, no matter how much the BBC and other pro-rebel outlets cling to this as hope that intervention is still just around the corner.
Assad must go! Erm, Assad must stay! At least until the middle of next year..
In fact, the “goal” is mid-2014, but who knows how long the process will take? What if only 60% has been removed this time next year? Bombed for not being fast enough, despite a clear demonstration of their willingness to cooperate? I hardly think so.
And in the meantime? Storage facilities remain in Government control, so don’t expect the progress of the Syrian army to be hindered in other areas by the presence of UN inspectors on the ground. I don’t buy the notion that by giving these weapons up, Syria is giving up its deterrence against attack. Russia has assumed this role. The losers are the opposition who will have seen the red line for US intervention erased.
However, let’s hope that the removal of chemical weapons doesn’t replace a red line with a green light. The threat of jihadists getting their hands on these stockpiles seems to have held back their personal supply of conventional weapons somewhat. No chemicals, no problem..

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Sep 14 2013 13:31 utc | 61

Rowan @ 49,
Yes, I had seen that video at your website and her strong conviction is persuasive. It is also a sign that such a deal would demoralize the government’s hard core supporters. And in light of the Kerry-Lavrov deal, I have to revise the optimism of my earlier comment.
Chemical weapons don’t seem to be very efficient tactically and the political costs to using them are enormous, so I don’t think they were ever a deterrent in that sense, BUT…I do recall Dempsey mentioning how it would take 75,000 ground troops to secure Syria’s chemical weapons. So simply by existing, the chemical weapons were an obstacle to intervention, even if the SAA could never use them.
I also do not like the principle behind it, that Israel and the west can have all the WMD they want, but Arab/Muslim countries can’t have even the simplest of them. I would not call this deal a disaster quite yet, but unless the US was forced to make some very concrete undisclosed concessions on arming the rebels, I’m not happy about it.

Posted by: Lysander | Sep 14 2013 14:01 utc | 63

‘An American friend who knows Washington well recently told us that “everybody” there knows that, as far as the drive to war with Syria is concerned, it is Israel that directs U.S. policy. Why then, we replied, don’t opponents of war say it out loud, since, if the American public knew that, support for the war would collapse? Of course, we knew the answer to that question. They are afraid to say all they know, because if you blame the pro-Israel lobby, you are branded an anti-Semite in the media and your career is destroyed.’
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/09/no-more-war-for-israel/

Posted by: brian | Sep 14 2013 14:09 utc | 65

@40 “the china friendly nepalese monarchy has been toppled by a maoists government ……made in new delhi !”
Where is this coming from? It’s not at globalresearch.

Posted by: ruralito | Sep 14 2013 14:14 utc | 67

P.S.- For that matter, how about a GLOBAL ban on these weapons? Oh, I forgot, only the US and its allies are allowed to have them.

Posted by: ben | Sep 14 2013 14:33 utc | 69

As for the recently reported distribution of Syria’s chemical weapons to 50 cities, well, this seems to be the first source: Jerusalem Online I think this was taken and fixed to discredit Assad’s statement regarding the CWC. Posted by: g_h | Sep 14, 2013 9:18:18 AM | 56

Sep 9 dateline on that. There were other stories in the english-language Israeli sites about the Ely Karmon 12-page ‘report’, but none of them picked out this ‘Unit 450’ business. Everyone refers to the ‘report’, but I cannot find it.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 14:58 utc | 71

Further on that 12-page Ely Karmon ‘report’, I find I had an article from the same day, Sep 9, on it from Ynet. It says:

By the 1980s, the report stated, the Syrian regime had begun storing chemical stockpiles in 50 different towns throughout the country.

So already we see that this is not a matter of claiming that ‘Assad is dispersing them now to avoid detection’, as it is being spun. As for ‘Unit 450’, Ynet doesn’t mention it, but they do mention the parent organisation, the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus, which they say predictably is ‘under Assad’s personal control’. At least they don’t say it’s entirely staffed by Alawis. God, I’m sick of this. Ynet’s story anyway is here.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 15:05 utc | 73

Google News is absolutely lousy with content from Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. This is pure US government propaganda. And this was common from well before the recent revisions to the laws now allowing these organizations to propagandize American citizens.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 14 2013 15:08 utc | 75

Anonymous i wont waste my time with your imaginary assumptions that you can offer no reasoning for. You have in the past made statements supporting every kind of racist goon who just happens to support the American Empire. Including those with plans to destroy Syria. You are a fan of Navalny and of Morsi and the empire and as such of course your only interest is in concocting sham arguments against anything the forces fighting the empire might do no matter how principled or decent.
In fact, if i knew which israeli embassy you were currently in I would head down there and slap the ambassadors cock right out of your mouth.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 14 2013 15:19 utc | 77

Wondering if the Real reason US has backed off war mongering, is a Russian threat to bomb Saudi Arabia if US attacks Syria.

Posted by: Andoheb | Sep 14 2013 15:29 utc | 79

@75,
The link gives me a trojan warning. Be careful.

Posted by: biklett | Sep 14 2013 15:37 utc | 81

guest77
Thats because you know so little about the issues we are dealing with here, then you become mad and direct that hate against me or anyone who take a different position from yourself. “SyrianGirl” understood this – this wasnt good for Syria, she admit this, you cant.

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 14 2013 15:45 utc | 83

@79 you? Haha. Right. So you who we all watched support evey personality who would have Syria destroyed are suddenly a huge supporter of its survival? Piece of shit doesnt even begin to describe you or your ham handed attempts to cloak your real intentions.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 14 2013 16:03 utc | 85

On second thoughts: it’s yom kippur there, so even ICT Herzliya might have been plastered with something and not react at once. I wouldn’t see it if it’s a Windows trojan, because I use Ubuntu, not Windows.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 16:14 utc | 87

@ Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14, 2013 12:03:50 PM | 82

I hardly think ICT Herzliya would let itself be hijacked by a trojan. In any case I have opened the link again and it’s fine for me.

and then you go on to say @ Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14, 2013 12:14:19 PM | 83

I wouldn’t see it if it’s a Windows trojan, because I use Ubuntu, not Windows.

Biklett deserves thanks for warning us rather than knee-jerk condescension from somebody who runs a non-standard O/S. Moreover Biklett is correct – every page on that site generates a warning from several malware detection packages.
Incidentally “I hardly think ICT Herzliya would let itself be hijacked by a trojan” is an example of ‘appeal to authority‘ rather than a valid argument.
Dubhaltach

Posted by: Dubhaltach | Sep 14 2013 16:39 utc | 89

I was just listening to some so called experts who claim it was Bashars plan all along to let the extremists take over the opposition. I wonder, was it Bashar that brought alqueda to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Sinai?

Posted by: hilmi hakim | Sep 14 2013 17:09 utc | 91

Veterans today is absolutely full of shit. I would never believe anything I saw there.
Don’t know, the part about Eric Harroun seems pretty plausible.

Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 14 2013 17:29 utc | 93

Syrian Girl is arguing against the compromise from an honest position. She wants best for her country and hates to see even the slightest bending. This is to be expected in any debate among partisans over any compromise. This is honest disagreement, but even Syrian Girl must certainly admit that it is the Syrian government who risks their lives like every other Syrian, who has weighed the options and found this to be the least worst of the available ones.
Then there are those like Anonymous, long arguing for the destruction of Syria, who now argues against the compromise from a dishonest position. Like a cockroach seeking to poke its diseased body into any crevice it can find, he would argue against any move whatsoever so long as the argument serves to break trust between partners in the struggle against imperialism. It is the lowest form of dishonesty to pretend to pose as the ally of someone making an honest argument when your purpose is in fact their final destruction. This is a move completely devoid of any principle or humanity. This is what we have come to expect of Anonymous in his support for those who would tear Russia, Syria and Egypt to pieces along sectarian lines all to the final benefit of the USA and Israel.
We know two things about the Egypt coup and the compromise in Syria. In the first case, we do not see large numbers of poor Egyptians now headed towards Syria with sectarian slaughter as their aim under the auspices of the Egyptian government. In the second we do not see American bombs falling on Syria. Past this, we know little. We can pretend to see into the future – that Syria will be weaker for losing its chemicals, that Egypt will never again move towards popular government, but these are simple guesses. All such guesses are generated in the mind with a certain slant based on the authors desires and drives and those desires and drives must be accounted for when examining such predictions. Anonymous’ motives for seeing this bold compromise as the seeds of Syria’s destruction are, to say the least, highly suspect. If we take his word it would be to take it as someone who has repeatedly showered the empires puppets with praise over those who have sacrificed for Syria with their own blood. We take it over those who have carried the weight of two years of war on their shoulders. That would be to take the word of a dishonest idiot over the word of genuine heroes. Who would do this?
The way I see it – from far away – is that for the Syrians not to have followed the Russians in this would have risked a massive bombing campaign by the United States. It is fine to say now, like Anonymous does, that the Congress may have said “no” and Obama would have gone quietly into the night… but have you ever known this brutal empire to do that? Would you bet your life and the life of your country on the good will, morality, and commitment to democracy of the United States Congress? Fat chance.
So then the bombing comes. Even under the strongest retaliation, even with the outbreak of World War 3 for the sake of Syria, we’d have seen more Syrians dead and more of the country destroyed. In the worst case, we’d even have seen the rebels continue their reign of terror from the President’s office in Damascus. This, we know for certain as of this moment, has not happened. Just like those who believe that a Syria of Christians, Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds fighting together is stronger than a country fragmented into pieces, so we now have to trust that the combination of Russia, China, Syria, and Iran is more powerful than Syria fighting alone. What else is there to do when faced with destruction except rely on friends, fight like hell, and hope for the best? Not much.

Posted by: guest77 | Sep 14 2013 17:39 utc | 95

It’s going to be very entertaining watching the rebels attacking the OPCW teams and blaming the government army for it.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Sep 14 2013 18:40 utc | 97

@92
Depends which “maoists” you’re talking about.

Last Updated: Thursday, May 30, 2013, 17:32
Kathmandu: “Shocked” by the recent Naxal attack in Chattisgarh, Maoist chief Prachanda and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala have sent condolence messages to Sonia Gandhi over the ambush in which 27 people, including senior Congress leaders, were killed.
“Our party UCPN-Maoist is deeply shocked and saddened by the demise of leaders and workers of the Indian National Congress in the recent attack in Chattisgarh of India unleashed by Indian Maoists,” UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda said in a statement.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/prachanda-koirala-express-grief-over-naxal-attack_851827.html

Posted by: ruralito | Sep 14 2013 18:46 utc | 99