The world wept for Paris but for Aleppo.......the silence is deafening

[Quixote1818]

[malaise]

1. Everything is perspective

I've heard people pointing out that we never saw this type of coverage and condemnation from M$Greedia when the Americans were slaughtering Iraqis. It's all a fugging mess - created by George Bush.

[pangaia]

3. Bush, FOR SURE.... Absolutely no question...

But doesn't it go back even farther?

I mean, without going back 5000 years or more, in the 'modern' history of the ME, would you agree that the Sykes–Picot Agreement in 1916 was, if not THE cause, at least a major cause of much that has happened since?

I am not very historically well-informed about ME history, a shortcoming I have started to try to correct, along with an interest in China from the 1911 (and earlier, actually) to 1949.

[guillaumeb]

6. Sykes-Picot?

Yet another example of colonialists dividing what was not theirs with no regard for historic, linguistic, tribal, and religious differences. What could possibly go wrong when that happens?

[pangaia]

7. right.....DUH !!!

And there was that Balfour Letter about the same time-- 1916..

[guillaumeb]

8. True. And it all revolved around actual control of the Middle East.

The US simply replaced Europe in the equation as the controller.

Syria is another battleground where proxy armies fight.

[pangaia]

9. True that, Who's the 'good guys' and who's the 'bad guys'...

Are there any "good guys?"

I wish I knew.

[guillaumeb]

26. And when the Kurds are considered the good guys and the bad guys

by the US and Turkey respectively, and the US and Turkey are NATO members and allies..?

[pangaia]

27. My brain is like a smoke-filled niche.

[guillaumeb]

28. That can be a good thing, depending on the source of the smoke.

Obviously referring to incense.

[pangaia]

30. Obviously, heh, heh...

[malaise]

23. Well there's a lot of history

Still in recent history the European power grab created even more instability. The Brits were merciless racists.

[pangaia]

25. And we didn't even mention India.

[HoneyBadger]

2. A Presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, had never heard of it

Not a surprise.

[RainCaster]

4. Think of what happened in Bosnia - if it's Muslims no one cares

The Holocaust Museum says "never again", but Israel looked the other way in both cases. But to be fair, there appears to be little help from oil rich Muslim countries either.

[oberliner]

5. Aleppo has literally been front page headline news all over the world for the past month

It is the international story that everyone is talking about.

[JI7]

10. not in the US

[oberliner]

13. It has been on the front page of the NY Times daily

It has been covered extensively in the US. There is not another international story that has gotten nearly as much coverage.

There has also been a great deal of social media information about Aleppo, from Facebook to Twitter and elsewhere.

[JI7]

15. not on tv

[oberliner]

17. It has been covered extensively on every TV news network

ABC:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/orphaned-children-aleppo-plead-evacuation-video/story?id=44218270

CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/17/middleeast/aleppo-syria-evacuation-agreement-reached/index.html

There are dozens of videos on each network.

This is in spite of the difficulty in getting US reporters and camera operators to the scene (as opposed to Paris where there was much greater access).

To say that "the world's silence is deafening" with regard to Aleppo is just absolute nonsense. The BBC and other networks across Europe have also had daily extensive coverage of what is going on there.

[greatauntoftriplets]

22. It's also been covered extensively on the PBS Newshour.

[1AM Coffee]

11. When you look at the bigger picture the best thing we can do for Aleppo is to keep Trump out of

office
http://www.newsweek.com/syrias-assad-says-donald-trump-could-be-natural-ally-against-extremism-532215

I think Assad is a bad guy, a very bad guy, all right?

I don't like Assad at all. But Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS.

The diplomatic equivalent of "I'm not racist but"

[LeftInTX]

16. If that is the case, Assad and Russia will have killed off ISIS by Jan 21st

But, Assad is not killing ISIS. Russia is not killing ISIS.

Assad benefits from ISIS. Assad wants to kill rebels and suppress uprisings. Assad knows that Donald is stupid.

[David__77]

31. The Syrian Arab Army (government) kills Islamic State.

The army in Deir Ezzor has been facing encirclement by Islamic State for years - and there have been many deaths on both sides. Kweires Airbase faced a similar encirclement by Islamic State, and the government broke the siege, fighting Islamic State. It's silly to claim the government forces don't kill Islamic State.

[LeftInTX]

34. I may be wrong, but I got my info from Wikipedia

During the Syrian Civil War, multiple opposition and anti-Assad parties in the conflict have accused Assad of collusion with ISIS; several sources have claimed that ISIS prisoners were strategically released from Syrian prisons at the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011.[190] The Assad government has also reportedly bought oil directly from both ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front.[119] United States Secretary of State John Kerry has stated that the Assad government has tactically avoided ISIS forces in order to weaken moderate opposition such as the Free Syrian Army,[191] as well as "even purposely ceding some territory to them [ISIS] in order to make them more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector against them".[192] A Jane's Defence Weekly database analysis confirmed that only a small percentage of the Syrian government's attacks were targeted at ISIS in 2014.[182]

snip...

Analyst Noah Bonsey of the International Crisis Group has suggested that ISIS are politically expedient for Assad, as "the threat of ISIS provides a way out [for Assad] because the regime believes that over time the U.S. and other countries backing the opposition will eventually conclude that the regime is a necessary partner on the ground in confronting this jihadi threat",

snip....

On 1 June 2015, the United States stated that the Assad government was "making air-strikes in support" of an ISIS advance on Syrian opposition positions north of Aleppo

snip....

In 2016, Syrian Democratic Forces found paperwork at a recently captured oil refinery during the al-Shaddadi offensive suggesting that ISIS had sold oil directly to the Assad regime, with a SDF commander stating; "The regime says that it's fighting terrorists, but it's not really. In fact, it's always maintained economic ties. Bashar Assad controls nothing anymore and he has a massive logistical lead in terms of oil especially so he's bought oil from the jihadists, and in return, he's supplied them with weapons".[217]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad (From section entitled Al-Qaeda and ISIS)

Here are a few articles here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/09/29/the-islamic-state-and-assad-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/?utm_term=.ed4c0b7b8ec1

http://time.com/3719129/assad-isis-asset/

______________________________________

I also have my own personal opinion: If Assad is capable of killing all these civilians, isn't he capable of killing ISIS? Couldn't he have wiped them out? Also he can point to ISIS as a reason to continue his civil war. If ISIS was wiped out, then the West would have a reason to go after him directly.

I could be totally wrong......

[David__77]

35. The government armed forces aren't very strong in my opinion.

I think the government has focused on consolidating control of large cities, other than those in the east for which it would be logisticllly difficult to contend. I do not think the Syrian government and allied forces have the power now to seize the areas occupied by Islamic State without leaving its own territory vulnerable to the non-Islamic State insurgents. Perhaps they will after eliminating pockets of insurgents near the capital and generally penning the insurgents in in Idlib, and perhaps after Mosul campaign is over some Iraqi militia may come assist government forces in Syria.

In my opinion, the best of the insurgents are found in the Syrian Democratic Forces, and they are not fighting the government; in fact, they are tactically allied with it in some cases.

[LeftInTX]

36. Thanks for responding. You seem to have studied the complicated issue more in-depth

It is not an easy issue to tackle.

[David__77]

37. You're welcome! It's a challenging subject for me.

This is a many-faceted war. I prefer to hang back from making definitive conclusions. That said, I do hope that an Islamic state doesn't take control of Syria. I hope that Alawites, Christians, and Shiites have full freedom to practice their religions and maintain their identities. I hope that women be free to unveil, to be educated and assume positions of power in society. I hope people have freedom to speak and study in their languages and celebrate their cultural heritage. I hope that the poor and poorer regions are not left behind in the course of economic development.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

21. Gee, should'a thought of that in early November. nt

[KamaAina]

12. Okay, name the last major fashion show that was held in Aleppo.

[oberliner]

14. This is such a BS post

If you think the world is silent with respect to Aleppo then you are not listening.

[MFM008]

18. Its the age of maggot

nobody cares.

[dembotoz]

19. generally agree

there is a prayer service at a city mosque today i was pondering going to....
will see if my car starts in the cold

[David__77]

32. If it's a Shiite mosque, I imagine the perspective will be interesting.

...

[smirkymonkey]

20. It breaks my heart.

I cannot believe how cruel the world can be.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

24. If you think the world has been silent on Aleppo, you haven't been listening. N.T.

[True Dough]

29. I think there's been adequate coverage of Aleppo

My question is how the problem can be brought to an end? Other than the "rebel" fighters being defeated and those suspected of aiding/sympathizing with the rebels being slaughtered, sadly, what can the U.S. or any of its allies do to help the people of Syria?

John Kerry has taken a few stabs at this thing but he's not holding a strong hand.

I get tired of hearing the Rethug's repeatedly insisting that Obama's strategy has been a disaster. Okay, but how would you have acted successfully and what is the game plan that the "brilliant" Donald J. Drumpf is going to devise???

[Generator]

33. We only weep when muslims do the killing

not when Muslims are killed. Are they even human? That's what many people in this shitass country think. People are not good. In fact they are mostly evil. Sorry but I think a couple world wars and the holocaust taught me that. We only live in fantasy and can't face the truth.