Thank b. With so little msm coverage, the US and others figure they can say whatever they want. Reporters like you and Eva Bartlett have helped turn this around.

Posted by: financial matters | Aug 30 2017 14:08 utc | 1

b-thank you! Will be interesting to hear what Russia has to say, although it is more likely R will communicate privately with the US on this. On a separate subject, things appear to be getting out of hand, again, between the US and NK. Could you provide an update when you have the time and motivation:)

Posted by: frances | Aug 30 2017 14:16 utc | 2

What a find finding your website via a link from Abel Danger recently!! A site you might want to look at is cheriberens.net, who is an American woman living in Cairo; married to an Egyptian. I have been following her at least since the election of Morsi & his overthrow. She has been one of the few, like Bartlett, who have reported the TRUTH from the middle east.

The actions in this article are infuriating, and will probably NOT be seen in MSM, of course. The lies about Syria and Assad, equally infuriating. As always, follow the money, in that case, the desired pipeline across Syria. Our 'nation building' in the ME, and elsewhere, is a disgrace too. It is sad when some of us trust the news coming out of Russia rather than our own. Thank you, thank you! Will share on social media too.

Posted by: mcclainra | Aug 30 2017 14:23 utc | 3

thanks b... the usa is one messed up actor on this world stage.. i guess the focus now is blaming lebanon and syria and convincing the usa supported leader in iraq to do it too.. don't pay any attention to the usa's actions with regard to isis - only listen to what they say!!!

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 14:40 utc | 4

@ Mcclainara

Re: "It is sad when some of us trust the news coming out of Russia rather than our own."

Would you please clarify that? What exactly is Russian news untrustworthy of, compared to "your own"?

Posted by: RayB | Aug 30 2017 14:50 utc | 5

The motive is simple. The recent meeting in Sochi was the last goodbye. A transcendence from conventional to nuclear confrontation was its result. Pissants need not apply. The blue haired dude likes his chances. Disguised delivery no doubt. Damascus will fall. It is written. Formulaic. Putin understands. Sadness fills the sky.

Posted by: Amanita Amanita | Aug 30 2017 14:55 utc | 6

Seems to me the Outlaw US Empire's officers cited are looking for promotion and are following the well trodden path of those that went before them like Colin Powell. My advice to them is that if they really want to kill so badly, then they ought to point their pistols at their own head and pull the trigger.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 15:02 utc | 7

from rt now - US-led forces launch airstrikes to stop ISIS reaching east Syria – coalition

A US-led coalition conducted airstrikes to block a convoy of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters and their families from reaching IS-held territory in eastern Syria from the Lebanese border under a truce deal, a coalition spokesman said on Wednesday. IS fighters had surrendered their enclave straddling the Lebanese-Syrian border and departed on Monday for eastern Syria under the deal with the Syrian army and Hezbollah. (Reuters)

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 15:05 utc | 8

The main reason the empire wanted to destroy Syria was to make a subsequent invasion of Lebanon much easier. The incredibly quick defeat of thousands of miscreants waiting to create a second front against Hezbollah has to be infuriating for them. I think they'll be having tantrums about this for a long time.

Posted by: Jesrad | Aug 30 2017 15:14 utc | 9

The US is the Empire of Hypocrisy.

Posted by: AriusArmenian | Aug 30 2017 15:17 utc | 10

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-us-strike-blocks-isil-buses-reaching-deir-ezzor/

"The U.S. Coalition has blocked the Islamic State (ISIL) buses that departed from the Lebanese border from reaching its targeted destination in Deir Ezzor, the AFP News Agency claimed this afternoon.

“To prevent the convoy from moving further east, we cratered the road and destroyed a small bridge,” Colonel Ryan Dillon informed the AFP.

IS is global threat. Relocating terrorists from one place to another for someone else to deal w/ is not lasting solution,” the Coalition added."

Just like the the "accidental" bombing of the SAA in Deir Ezzor which ended up helping IS eventually split the SAA grouping in two wasn't aiding them.

Posted by: Dean | Aug 30 2017 15:26 utc | 11

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/08/httpssouthfrontorgus-led-coalition-bombed-isis-convoy-heading-from-qalamoun-to-deir-ezzor-province-under-d.html Just desserts. No pun intended.

Posted by: MGS | Aug 30 2017 15:28 utc | 12

#5: What is he is saying is sad is that the news we get in the US is untrustworthy.

Posted by: WorldBLee | Aug 30 2017 15:29 utc | 13

Southfront also reports the convoy being bombed. However, in the comments it's reported that the planes targeted the main road and a bridge to impede its progress and didn't directly target the convoy, https://southfront.org/us-led-coalition-bombed-isis-convoy-heading-from-qalamoun-to-deir-ezzor-province-under-deal-with-lebanon-reports/

Obviously, the airstrike was made West of the Euphrates, an area Russia said was off limits to "Coalition" aircraft. So, it would seem that the supposed coordination between Syrian and Russian air defense systems was fake news, or that the Russian threat was just bluster. I'll be very interested to hear Russia's Ministry of Defense explain the reason for its inaction.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 15:31 utc | 14

This how the NYTimes is reporting the attack on the bus convoy:

“Earlier today, we did conduct strikes to crater the road, and we destroyed a small bridge to prevent that convoy from moving further east,” Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the American-led military coalition in Iraq and Syria, said.

Colonel Dillon said the coalition also bombed Islamic State vehicles and individuals who were seen heading toward the convoy from the east. “The convoy of buses and ambulances has not been struck, but there have been individual vehicles and individuals clearly identified as ISIS, and we did strike those. If we can strike ISIS where we’re able to do so without harming civilians, we will do that,” he said.

This doesn't make any sense at all. The US military operations in Syria and Iraq seem to be led by fools. It seems the most plausible explanation is that the US military leaders are upset that the R+6 forces are in the process of defeating ISIS without letting the US to join in the glory. I guess Russia will have to sit down with them, hold their hands for a bit and let them know that the US really, really is the most powerful military force in world history.

Posted by: ToivoS | Aug 30 2017 15:48 utc | 15

Bombing busses with family on put the US on the same level as Al nusra and ISIS and the rest

Posted by: James lake | Aug 30 2017 15:55 utc | 16

Abadi is talking out the side of his mouth, as ordered by the US - therefore it is inconsequential and means eff all to the big picture. The US striking the last terrorist convoy to leave Lebanese territory is a cheap PR stunt - no more and no less. Pathetic, amusing and utterly meaningless as far as 'facts on the ground' are concerned. Simply, the red-faced US is attempting to remain 'relevant' in the fight against terrorism in the Levant and Iraq, when really, nobody over there needs them to get the job done: all thanks to the SAA, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, the Iraqi Army and multiple Iraqi militias.

Let me take this opportunity here to congratulate the great-little Lebanon for defeating the terrorist headchoppers that struck terror in the heart of its citizens as well as in the hearts of the world. Lebanon has now cleansed its land of ALL islamic terrorist enclaves and big celebrations are being held across the nation as I type this (from south Lebanon).

Of course, I must here also acknowledge, with proverbial middle finger, all the losers behind the spread of terrorism in the Levant: US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UK, France, and of course, that shitty little country of israel.

Always remember: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" - Mark Twain.

Posted by: Taxi | Aug 30 2017 16:11 utc | 17

It seems that links to Southfront are now picked out by the spam-bot whereas they weren't previously. Too bad my comment got zinged since it was very relevant.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 16:26 utc | 18

One day the US may find the tactics it uses being used against it with other nations inserting ISIS into the US mainland and resupplying them. The US establishment has gotten away with war crimes and mass murder for so long their morals are lower than ruthless gangsters, so like the Nazis they won't give up until they're driven back into their bunkers. ISIS could be turned by others to do just that.

Those two oceans which kept the US safe can be blockaded along both coasts to keep it from importing sufficient supplies to defend itself, and Canada and Mexico are unlikely to assist it. It would be a brutal war but that's what the US has done and deserves no consideration; if the forces invading the US can be resupplied more reliably than the US itself a war of attrition can be won in a few years.

Posted by: Michael McNulty | Aug 30 2017 16:43 utc | 19

The massive hypocrisy continues unabated. IMO, shipping ISIS to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would be nice. Like chickens coming home to roost.

Posted by: ben | Aug 30 2017 17:06 utc | 20

@ 18 said "One day the US may find the tactics it uses being used against it with other nations inserting ISIS into the US mainland and resupplying them."

Now THAT, would be justice....

Posted by: ben | Aug 30 2017 17:08 utc | 21

I fail to understand the difference between killing them now and killing them when all clustered together along the border.

And what makes them needing protection now just because the previous president and his SecState allowed them to grow?

Posted by: Bart in VA | Aug 30 2017 17:18 utc | 22

@16 taxi... thanks for your post..

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 17:19 utc | 23

classic usa dumbfuck thinkery... "I am told that there are 17 buses and that the number of people given in the press is about right. The US says that we have not yet struck the buses themselves, but the convoy is stuck out in the desert and CENTCOM has no idea what to do about it. pl"

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 17:28 utc | 24

@22
You're welcome, james. Appreciation for your posts on MoA too - mucho gracias to all other Mooners as well. Hope you're all in as good a mood as I am today heh!

Posted by: Taxi | Aug 30 2017 17:29 utc | 25

We had seen a significant uptick in rhetoric condemning the situation in Lebanon, and I can only assume that "ISIS in Lebanon" was going to be the battle-cry for a US/NATO invasion there soon. Of course it would actually be directed at Hezbollah per Israel's orders, and as soon as we had made it safe enough the Zionists would "help" by occupying Southern Lebanon, which they don't have the strength to do on their own. But suddenly ISIS is being bussed out of Lebanon? Wait!! We can't allow that!! What will be our justification for invasion?

Posted by: J Swift | Aug 30 2017 17:31 utc | 26

Posted by: MGS | Aug 30, 2017 11:28:24 AM | 12

Re: Pat Lang.

Well pilgrims, this ought to have some effect on the America haters who insist that the US created and runs IS for treacherous and nefarious secret purposes having to do with guano deposits in Kurdistan or some such thing. But, it won't affect their nonsense at all. A suitable rationalization will be found for the continuation of their lunacy

Lang is on fine form.

He's stoundingly obtuse, as ever.

Posted by: Just Sayin' | Aug 30 2017 17:33 utc | 27

Whining from a failed general better at killing civilians than Jihadis. It's not that the illegal and unwanted US presence in Syria has protected ISIs/Daesh and prolonged the war, they have been actively arming them.
MOA seems to be experiencing a troll invasion. A sure sign of growing importance and influence.

Posted by: CD Waller | Aug 30 2017 17:50 utc | 28

@25

Unless israel is ready to sacrifice tel aviv, it had better not touch Lebanon like that. Like Nasrallah warned the jewish terrorists in his speech several years back: "an airport for an airport, a hospital for a hospital, a building for a building, a bridge for a bridge" - and the israelis know damn well that hezbollah means it and can indeed deliver.

I don't know about you guys but for me it's incredibly satisfying to see the underdog (hezbollah) establishing a balance-of-terror with the neighborhood mass murderer (israel).

Posted by: Taxi | Aug 30 2017 17:52 utc | 29

Other sources state that the ISIS in Tal Afar retreated to al-Ayadiya and are heavily entrenched there:
http://news.antiwar.com/2017/08/29/iraqi-army-fighting-near-tal-afar-worse-than-mosul-battles/

Posted by: Krollchem | Aug 30 2017 17:52 utc | 30

Abadi's claims are false.

So what? It's not what Abadi says that matter but what he does that is important. He has to keep his American overlord happy so my best guess he'll say a lot but do absolutely nothing. As for Colonel Ryan, if he really wanted to see the convoy bombed, it'd just be bombed, so he doesn't want it bombed. If he tries to communicate this information privately with the SAA or Russians, he first of all needs to create a "back passage" so that they listen and then he risks being detected by the NSA and maybe ends up being accused of espionage. By standing up in an official presser, he establishes his credentials so he's taken seriously and making a speech allows him to communicate all the essential points. Now the Syrians and the Russians have all the information they need to make sure this agreement is successful executed without some dumb Americans fucking it over.

Posted by: Ghostship | Aug 30 2017 18:36 utc | 31

Well, there you go, it looks like was wrong.

Posted by: Ghostship | Aug 30 2017 18:39 utc | 32

Posted by: Michael McNulty | Aug 30, 2017 12:43:37 PM | 18

Oops!
Wouldn't climbing down into the gutter with the Yankees feel a lot more like joining them than beating them?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 30 2017 18:43 utc | 33

Bart in VA @21--

Typical "reasoning" from a resident of the Outlaw US Empire where one's "Word" is absolutely worthless. A deal was struck; safe-passage guaranteed as with numerous previous deals; yet this one is protested by the entity that's ultimately responsible for the entire war waged on Syria and its people and is illegally operating within Syria, killing its people and destroying its infrastructure.

Meanwhile, meaningful news being made elsewhere. Fort Russ reports Merkel saying the following at a Berlin PC:

"Sanctions will be removed when the reasons for them are no longer there. Economic sanctions were introduced over the situation in Ukraine - in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions - where Kiev does not have sovereignty over its own territory....

"If we succeed in implementing the Minsk Agreements, then a possibility will emerge to lift sanctions." http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/08/merkel-removal-of-sanctions-will.html

So Frau Merkel continues to base her policy making--and continues to promote--the Big Lie about the unfolding of events in Ukraine, and even why sanctions were placed to begin with--over Crimea, not over the Donbass resistance. Was she even challenged on these points at the Berlin PC or is responsible, Truth-seeking journalism dead within Germany too? And why is she still Chancellor?!? Do Germans lack the initiative to vote her out over her destructive policies, those that create the conditions for Depraved-Heart Murders within Germany and globally?

Putin was 100% correct to admit the entire sanctions regime will never be allowed to end because its entire premise is False.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 18:50 utc | 34

It's obvious the SDF is having a hard time in Raqqa. This is meant to make sure that no surrender deals are made in central Syria. The US goal is obviously to capture with the Kurds the eastern oil fields for the Kurd state. Hence also the ISIS assault along the Euphrates. The US generals are playing a dangerous game with the Russians, not sure Trump realizes or approves. The only good news is that the Arabs in the SDF are rebelling or refusing to fight, regardless of the amount of US cash.

Posted by: MGS | Aug 30 2017 19:22 utc | 35

I can't say that I blame the Iraqis for being upset, as these Orcs will be deposited near the Iraqi border.

In previous such cease-fire deals, the Orcs were all green-bussed off to Idlib, which amounts to a giant cauldron. This will be the last concentration of Orcs to be finished off after the rest of the country has been restored to government control.

So why send these Orcs to the East of Syria? The Syrian army and allies will be moving in on Dier El-Ezzor in the next week or so. Green-bussing the Orcs to the East means that the Syrians will now have several hundred more of these bastards to fight on that front.

Why not send these ISIS Orcs off to Idlib, where they can fight their brethren, the Al-Qaida Orcs, before the Idlib cauldron is eliminated by the Syrians in the last major battle of the war.

Antoinetta III

Posted by: Antoinetta III | Aug 30 2017 19:56 utc | 36

Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah has issued a statement to the Iraqi people that explains the deal to move the Daesh: "By this we are moving these defeated militiamen – ISIS fighters – from a front we fight on, to another front that we fight on." Much more commentary on his statement plus a copy of it in Arabic is available at the Southfront website, whose URL I'd post but won't since the spam-bot appears to now be eating comments containing them. Southfront also has recent news and map update about SAA's advances into Deir Ez-zor province. The Mt. Bishri Triangle is the newest point of focus that when taken will provide SAA with overall fire control over the entire region.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 20:01 utc | 37

from al masdar... sounds about right "BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:30 P.M.) – The U.S. regime has allegedly halted its military aid to the Lebanese Army after Hezbollah’s recent participation in the Qalamoun offensive, An-Nahar newspaper claimed on Wednesday.

According to the Al-Nahar story, “the U.S. has halted its military support to Lebanon and decided to recover nearly 50 modernized tanks that Saudi Arabia paid for in order to supply the army in its war on terrorism.”

“These tanks are deployed at several posts across the country and they played an important role in the army’s battle at Al-Qa’a and Ras Ba’albak,” An-Nahar added. The U.S. regime has not confirmed nor denied this story; however, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, recently expressed dissatisfaction over Hezbollah’s participation in the offensive. "

i like how they use the word regime in reference to the usa...

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 21:00 utc | 38

b fails to mention Obama's policy to prefer ISIS over Assad - resulting in:

>> 'for show' bombing ...
which was revealed when Russia showed the world pictures of hundreds of ISIS oil trucks

>> ... and distorted intelligence to justify/cover it up
which dozens of analysts brought to the attention of Congress:

“After months of investigation, this much is very clear,” Representative Mike Pompeo, Republican of Kansas, said in a statement. “From the middle of 2014 to the middle of 2015, the United States Central Command’s most senior intelligence leaders manipulated the command’s intelligence products to downplay the threat from ISIS in Iraq.”

<> <> <> <> <> <>

General Lloyd Austin, who was commander of CentCom at the time (his picture is in the NYTimes article) appears to have suffered no ill effects from the distorted intelligence scandal. He retired in April 2016 with numerous awards and commendations. His Wikipedia page doesn't mention the scandal AT ALL thought it depicts him as a hands-on leader:

After ISIL seized control of the northern city of Mosul in Iraq in June 2014, Austin immediately and decisively engaged the enemy and he began the critical outreach to military and government leaders ... At the same time, he oversaw the development and execution of the military campaign plan to counter and ultimately defeat ISIL .... Serving as the Combined Forces Commander for Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, Austin directed the employment of all Coalition military forces within the battlespace on the ground and in the air.[22] His efforts resulted in the execution of well over 10,000 kinetic strikes in Iraq and Syria by aircrews from 16 partner nations, which served to halt ISIL’s advance and enabled the indigenous forces to retake over 17,000 square kilometers of territory previously held by the enemy.[23]

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 30 2017 21:52 utc | 39

@38 jr... from b's post above - "Obama as well as then Secretary of State Kerry are on the record saying that they intentionally let ISIS grow to oust the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and the Syrian President Assad."

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2017 22:13 utc | 40

The Empire lost the hope for regime changes it desired and settled for "war forever", to disable the perceived adversaries for as long as possible. Now that the war is clearly winding down, government of Syria and Iraq gaining upper hand with much bemoaned "Iranian influence", there is some residual lashing out and feeble posturing.

The other aspect is some perverse sincerity. USA cannot imagine making deals with good faith, which is amply visible from its record of deal making.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 30 2017 22:32 utc | 41

The gordian knot is the so called Global War On Terror. Western political actions emanate from the GWOT. The GWOT excuses all manner of war crimes committed by the west. It provides cover for every sort of underhanded act such as land grabs, resource theft, intellectual property theft, false flag events, legalized broadcasting of 24/7 propaganda, and economic sanctions directed at the world's poor.

Dubya declared that his job was NOT TO UPHOLD and defend the Constitution, but instead to PROTECT the American people (from the bogeymen he and others created).

Now every political office holder makes the same declaration - protect us from the bogeymen they created. The Constitution is as Dubya declared, "a goddamn piece of paper".

Posted by: fast freddy | Aug 30 2017 22:40 utc | 42

@33 karlof1

It's just more of the same intentional gaslighting of the content of the Minsk 2 Agreement. For Frau Merkel to say "if we succeed in implementing the Minsk Agreements, then a possibility will emerge to lift sanctions" without acknowledging that Russia is nowhere mentioned in the agreement, is not required to do anything under this agreement, and that Ukraine has been in violation of the agrement since it failed to carry out the req

Posted by: Sad Canuck | Aug 30 2017 23:13 utc | 43

@33 karlof1

sorry the post button got hit unintentionally - to continue....

It's just more of the same intentional gaslighting of the content of the Minsk 2 Agreement. For Frau Merkel to say "if we succeed in implementing the Minsk Agreements, then a possibility will emerge to lift sanctions" without acknowledging that Russia is nowhere mentioned in the agreement, Russia is not required to do anything under this agreement, and that Ukraine has been in violation of said agreement since it failed to carry out the required constitutional reforms by the end of 2015 is just more of the same bald-faced lying that almost all western governments have indulged in without limit or challenge in the media since these agreements were signed.

Posted by: Sad Canuck | Aug 30 2017 23:17 utc | 44

FF @41--

I suspect the CIA elements present within the Joint Chiefs planning officers during the early 1960s were the ones who designed Operation Northwoods, which was Weaponized on 9/11/2001, but for which preparations were made during the last years of Slick Willie's admin, because the outcome desired is a CIA Wet Dream 24/7/365 and hoists them into the Driver's Seat because it's the senior so-called intelligence agency. I also think CIA learned a lesson when it ran its plan by JFK who told them to scrap it--in the run-up to 911, it didn't ask for permission to run the OP and installing Cheney/Bush was part of plan since they're fellow Neocon allies. Yes, but it was the USSC Coup that installed Cheney/Bush--goes the objection--so some of them had to be privy to the plan. However as I said above, the CIA would've run the OP even with Gore as POTUS with the Neocon Liberman as VEEP, the Global War OF Terror would still have been unleashed. It was THE Plan for establishing GHW Bush's proclaimed New World Order.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2017 23:22 utc | 45

james @39

You're right. I saw Maliki but I missed the last part (Assad).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 30 2017 23:24 utc | 46

ff @ 41 said:"Dubya declared that his job was NOT TO UPHOLD and defend the Constitution, but instead to PROTECT the American people (from the bogeymen he and others created)."

Great post freddy, and that rational still applies.

Posted by: ben | Aug 30 2017 23:39 utc | 47

It is some time now since Iraq defeated ISIS in Mosul, yet no move has been into the desert towards Syria? Iraqi PMU's were stopped on the Syrian border and are not covering the Syrian flank as Syrian forces move towards the Euphrates. US seem desperate to keep ISIS alive in Syria, and most likely very pissed that they lost their foothold in Lebanon.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 30 2017 23:43 utc | 48

44 I concur with your assessment.

For warmongers, the beauty of the GWOT is that it is theoretically endless. Far better than the Red Scare/cold war, which was said to have expired when the USSR was broken apart. Interesting that the Red Scare has been reheated anyway. Both dishes are served concurrently to prevent boredom, while your job has been outsourced.

Posted by: fast freddy | Aug 31 2017 0:16 utc | 49

@47 Indeed but in the end it matters not much, its a case of a slow death vs expedite ending. The US is outwitted at every turn and very rightly so..

Posted by: Lozion | Aug 31 2017 3:41 utc | 50

Very little on this in RT or Sputnik. Russia, Iran, Damascus don't seem to be making a lot of noise about it. Perhaps the US has just given them a good excuse not to let the bastards loose again without actualy breaking their part of the bargain?

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Aug 31 2017 8:45 utc | 51

Tyler over at zerohedge has link to an article here by Bernard, saying

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-30/us-coalition-attacks-isis-convoy-accuses-syria-and-russia-terror-transfer

"...And yet the US has itself routinely cut deals with ISIS and facilitated the movement of its convoys on a much larger scale, which has served to increase the terror threat. One astute observer of the Syrian war compiled a summary which proves the US coalition's statement to be hypocritical and false:

'This is ridiculous. Over and over the U.S. gave ISIS all chances to grow and to escape destruction. It itself made similar cease fire and retreat deals with the Takfiris.

The ISIS core was groomed in a U.S. prison in Buqqa, Iraq. It later came from Iraq into Syria. Obama as well as then Secretary of State Kerry are on the record saying that they intentionally let ISIS grow to oust the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and the Syrian President Assad...'

Posted by: michaelj72 | Aug 31 2017 9:01 utc | 52

Western diplomats and leaders are seeing the writing on the wall.....assholes

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/31/victory-for-assad-looks-increasingly-likely-as-world-loses-interest-in-syria

Posted by: notlurking | Aug 31 2017 11:50 utc | 53

Narallah explains the USA's furor of having Hezbollah victorious and deciding on the fate of the jihadists they fought against. (in french)

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1070201/nasrallah-je-suis-alle-a-damas-pour-demander-a-assad-daccepter-levacuation-des-jihadistes-du-liban.html)

Posted by: Virgile | Aug 31 2017 20:16 utc | 54

Oups my comment @50 was refering to post 48, not 47..

Posted by: Lozion | Aug 31 2017 20:48 utc | 55

Decided yesterday to adapt my android box to pick up Australian news channels, in one way I almost wish I hadn't as the lead story from the state broadcaster, the other ABC, this morning was that Oz is going to send troops in the form of 'advisors' to help in the murder of the indigenous people of Mindanao. It seems that Duterte, finding himself between a rock and a hard place after some of the Philippines military attacked the people of Marawi, using xtian Luzonese and immigrant forces to savage remaining Islamic enclaves while Duterte was up in Beijing negotiating an end to the South China sea mess with China, has decided he must go 'all in' and destroy the indigenous population of Mindanao. He has learned the hard way that deals he struck as a Mindanao politician are difficult to sell to the northen populations which are overwhelmingly stridently catholic. Thanks Spain & amerika for yet again fucking up one of the best spots in the world.

The people of Mindanao never cop a break and if it weren't for the neverending bulldust about evil islam which has been pushed out during GWOT, most right thinking people would side with them against the invaders.
It is too easy to forget that underneath the ongoing "headchopper" style propaganda that islam is just about the last refuge for people attempting to halt the spread of empire and protect their people and culture from the onslaught of corporate imperialism which is backed up by simplistic neoliberal policies which claim to cure everything from genital warts to war but which only result in misery and the desertification of the unique, many and varied lifestyles of humans all across the planet.

This is why thinking people must carefully examine all claims outta DC, London, the NYT & the Guardian because deep down islamic resisters are fighting the good fight.
In the Philippines instance many are aware that the Marawi attack was likely engineered by amerikan policy makers desperate to prevent the Philippines from reaching agreement with PRC and undermining amerika's ludicrous claim for unfettered control of all seaways in the western Pacific ocean & China Sea. In the case of ISIS fighters being attacked as they move to Abu Kamal the amerikan motive may be more difficult to discern, but it will be just as savage and unreasonable as that which caused them to casually spill so much Filipino blood.
Hate ISIS all you want, but do remember that the ultimate aim of genuine resistance by Islamic people is to throw off the chains of an empire which seeks to butcher, exploit and destroy anything that isn't great for corporate amerika and islam has been deemed to be "superfluous to current requirements".
When I was up in Mindanao as a young man there was war. Back then it was all about "defeating Communism". Many of the people espoused a type of tribal socialism but wouldn't know Karl from Groucho - they just wanted to hold onto a world they loved, I have no doubt that the same is true now. Islam is the only protection from the vast influx of Luzonese invaders who seek to destroy Mindanao cultures and establish a version of obeisant xtianity that aids the ingress of consumerism.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 1 2017 0:06 utc | 56

Debsisdead | Aug 31, 2017 8:06:52 PM | 56

I do not know much about the situation in the phillipines, other than to guess that the US would be assisting ISIS their as Duterte is anti US.

Looking at what is happening in the middle east, it is sad to see the current US empire plus the old imperialist UK and France are able to turn muslems on each other so easily - that rather than directing their jihad against the imperialists who deal in divide and conquer, they turn their jihad aghainst other moslems that are targets of the imperialists.
In whatching the videos of the killing fields of the fake chemical weapons attacks, the jihadists have zero compassion for any of their victims. Filming their victims in the last moments of death for propaganda purposes, no different to the ISIS snuff movies. And this is groups that have not pleged alliegence to ISIS or AQ.
Once they have been infected with this disease, they do need to be treated like rabid dogs.
I believe one group in the Phillippines has pledged alegience to ISIS. There will be people the US have moved in to kick it off, but how many are now infected with this disease? Fighters and non fighters alike will have contracted it.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Sep 1 2017 1:14 utc | 57

Interesting:

Southfront - "Russia: FSA Is Planning To Use Chemical Weapons In Daraa"

Voltairenet -Syrie : des rebelles « made in CIA » attaquent l'armée US

Posted by: ProPeace | Sep 1 2017 1:45 utc | 58

Islam is just about the last refuge for people attempting to halt the spread of empire and protect their people and culture from the onslaught of corporate imperialism.

Posted by: From The Hague | Sep 1 2017 3:38 utc | 59

@Peter AU #57
I have no doubt that some of the ME leadership of ISIS are amerikan puppets. Leaders of whatever ilk are politicians first and as such are entirely capable of selling out their people if it suits their intersts, but even so the antipathy amongst the indigenous people of Mindanao towards the US is so deeply felt such instances there will be rare. Remember it was the xtian led Philippine army and police who first kicked off the violence & that a more likely inference is that it was the xtians who were acting as puppets of amerika bent on distracting Duterte from sidling too close to China.

The entire picture is complicated tho. If you cast your mind back to 70's Oz and the Fraser government whose coup had been instigated by USuk precisely to prevent Australia from slipping the leash and turning to ME finanace sources, the security services first move was to false flag Ananda Marga with a cocked up operation that killed australians in order to scare people into accepting security laws that bolstered the agency's power and ability to protect amerikan interests while doing zilch to better protect australians, an early move was to allow Saudi Arabian finance to take over the delivery of Islamic services by encouraging development of Saudi funded wahabist mosques in Oz and obstructing other strains of islam.
This was easy to achieve in a nation where xtian fascism in the form of the DLP had been encouraged as a counter to Australians' natural socialist tendencies.
By the early 1980's Fraser's 'feed the rich by starving the poor' paternalist policies had become untenable, so the zionist gangster Peter Abeles pushed his puppet, the right honourable' RJ Hawke into leadership of the ALP and an election that could have been won by a drovers' dog.

That put the final lid on Australia ever being able to achieve an independent foreign policy without going to war against their alleged 'friends'.
Since then Oz foreign policy has been determined in DC not Canberra and nothing reveals that better than the US decision to support the nasty oppressive xtian fundie government of Fiji. Prior to that USuk had made a pretence of allowing Oz to express its best interests in the immediate region Oz is located but Hillary Clinton had been pushed into a 'pivot to asia' by the amerikan deep state or whatever we're calling it this week and while everyone in the Pacific was generally getting on with China very well (including Fiji), Fiji's repressive regime had upset all its pacific neighbours and they had instituted some limited sanction aimed at the dictatorship's leaders, so Bainimarama was more than happy to kick China to the kerb in return for amerika pressuring everyone in the Pacific to lift the sanctions.
That is what happened and it made Oz a laughing stock across the Pacific, because it had been Australia which had dreamed up and demanded sanctions in the first place - now with one dog-whistle from an entirely corrupt and incompetent amerikan woman they were standing at attention and saluting the nation that demanded they commit an illogical policy U-turn.

Australia going to war with the indigenous people of Mindanao will be at the behest of amerika and if nothing else it tells us that whatever influence amerika has in ISIS it doesn't reach as far as the Philippines.
In fact I doubt ISIS itself has much influence there. The local people have always practiced a form of Islam which the saudi would consider blasphemy as it integrates much of the island's pre-colonial animism. No doubt the fighters take financial support from whoever offers it and maybe even some of the Mindanoan resistance's leadership sticks to wahabi stupidities, but the people themselves won't be doing any such thing.
It will be exactly as it was when the only support to be got was from the USSR & PRC, when soldiers would wave the little red book or collected Engels or whatever, without bothering to read any of the whitefella claptrap, while they committed to ways of successfully driving out the Luzonese invader.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 1 2017 3:49 utc | 60