12-Feb-16 World View -- US and Russia agree to a farcical 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria

[John]

12-Feb-16 World View -- US and Russia agree to a farcical 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria


The vitriolic hatred of Bashar al-Assad


** 12-Feb-16 World View -- US and Russia agree to a farcical 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ ... tm#e160212



Contents:
US and Russia agree to a farcical 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria
Russia launches massive military exercises, apparently targeting Turkey and Syria
The vitriolic hatred of Bashar al-Assad


Keys:
Generational Dynamics, Russia, Sergei Lavrov, John Kerry,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh
Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Aleppo, Turkey, Ukraine, Iran,
Northeast Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO,
Rwanda, Amy Chua, Philippines, Bosnia,
Burma, Myanmar, Buddhists, Rohingyas,
Vladimir Putin, Iran, Seyed Ali Khamenei

[Arnould]

Bashar al Assad is not alone. He is an Alawite. If the Alawites had
not fought back when attacked by 'moderate rebels' as our Laurent
Fabius named them, then it is highly probable that now you would cry a
river about mass slaughter of Alawites by those rebels.

And in fact that is exactly what the grand-father of Bashar wrote to
Leon Blum in 1936 while Syria was under French protectorate. The
fac-simile of the letter is here:

http://www.les-crises.fr/lettre-du-gran ... m-de-1936/

and if you follow the link at the top of this blog entry, you land on
the original english page by the Jewish Press explaining this.

So OK the Alawites are mass slaughtering Sunnis. If that had not
happened, then Sunnis would certainly mass slaughter the Alawites as
of today.

And you perfectly know this. In fact I read your blog for many years
now and I always felt that you are honest in your views. But in the
case of this Alawites vs Sunnis in Syria, I don't feel this
honesty. In fact I feel some hatred especially when you describe the
support of the Alawites by the Russians. May I remind you that Bashar
was elected and that he officially asked an ally for military help?
Can you explain this bias of yours? Did the Russians do something
personal to your family?

I would understand a positive response of yours, because my father is
an Armenian born in France. My grand-father, when he was about 10, in
1916, had to search for his parents in a mass of corpses slaughtered
by the Turcs on the beach of Smyrne (now Izmir, a tourist
resort). During this mass slaughter the English were looking at this
from their warships but did nothing else than take some Armenians who
could escape by swimming with them. I think that my grand-father never
found the bodies of his parents (my grand-grand parents) but he never
really spoke about these events. Thus I have a bias vs Turcs. But I am
honest about it.

So again, did part of your family suffer like this because of
Russians?

Arnould, Rueil-Malmaison near Paris, France.

[John]

I do not hate the Alawites nor the Russians. What I have written is
based entirely on the behavior of al-Assad and the Russians since
2011. I've written repeatedly about the mass slaughter of innocent
civilians by al-Assad and the Russians and I have been appalled by it.
I've expressed the same kinds of reactions to other national leaders
who have committed mass slaughter, as you should know.

> So OK the Alawites are mass slaughtering Sunnis. If that had not
> happened, then Sunnis would certainly mass slaughter the Alawites
> as of today.

This is where I disagree on multiple levels. This was true
in 1982 during the worst part of Syria's civil war, but today
is different because Syria is in a generational Awakening era.

I would not even agree that "the Alawites are mass slaughtering
Sunnis." It's al-Assad that is mass slaughtering Sunnis. The
Alawites are doing what they're doing under orders from al-Assad, but
in this generational Awakening era, they're acting half-heartedly.
And recall that before the Russian intervention, the Alawite army was
losing, and had almost completely collapsed because of defections.

In a generational Crisis era, the Alawites and the Sunnis would be
mass slaughtering each other. But in this era, there would be no
civil war if it were not for the appalling psychopathic behavior of
al-Assad.

[Arnould]

Thank you for this explanation. I now better understand your point of view.