I got impression that our establishment media makes increasingly frank reversal of what is projected as “principles” and “moral values”. A paragraph from Bloomberg:
“And finally, there’s a lot of money to be made in Syria for the cynical opportunist. The pulverized bridges, roads, schools, hospitals, and government buildings all represent potential reconstruction opportunities for enterprising construction firms lucky enough to land the contracts. As the conflict has drawn down, Russian and Iranian firms have snapped up lucrative government contracts for infrastructure reconstruction. Chinese firms, thus far, have come in a distant third, despite infrastructure investment being Beijing’s forte. Xi has centered his signature global economic initiative (known as the the Belt and Road) around it.”
It is a cynical opportunism to rebuild “pulverized bridges etc.” in a war thorn country, and a matter of principle to keep the victims starving, roadless and homeless. Supply of food to “rebel territories” is simply a crime if it is not approved by the West. For example, there are no “legal” supplies to Crimea, because they would haveto be approved by Ukrainian government, so EU duly sanctions individuals and companies involved in such propaganda. Were the situation in Crimea as dire as in Yemen, charitable organizations approved by the West would be allowed to supply something, unless ports would be bombed by Ukrainian government, and lacking sufficient air force, by governments asked by the latter to help. It is a simple consequence of Westphalian principles! Only NATO can decide to suspend these hallowed tenets of international law. Crimea is rather lucky that it does not depend on tender mercies of Kiev government, but Yemeni “rebels” do not have such luck. But where is the government that is so ably aided to starve its own citizens? The address in unclear, and in the face of Westphalian principles, irrelevant.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 11 2018 23:10 utc | 102