I think you're saying the US's support for the YPG shows that the US thinks the YPG is the most effective force against Daesh. Is that right?
I'm not sure that I agree, but that wasn't really my issue - the US thinks all sorts of weird and wonderful things after all. I was wondering if you know of the US offering any evidence that the YPG might actually be the most effective force against Daesh.
As I write this, the apocalypse, namely an Iranian-led pro-Assad ground force, encircles Aleppo - the largest and most strategic rebel stronghold, while Russia rains death upon it from above.
TonTon wrote: I think you're saying the US's support for the YPG shows that the US thinks the YPG is the most effective force against Daesh. Is that right?
I'm not sure that I agree, but that wasn't really my issue - the US thinks all sorts of weird and wonderful things after all. I was wondering if you know of the US offering any evidence that the YPG might actually be the most effective force against Daesh.
I've no evidence bar what I've read. What's your opinion on this TonTon?
I think you're saying the US's support for the YPG shows that the US thinks the YPG is the most effective force against Daesh. Is that right?
I'm not sure that I agree, but that wasn't really my issue - the US thinks all sorts of weird and wonderful things after all. I was wondering if you know of the US offering any evidence that the YPG might actually be the most effective force against Daesh.
I've no evidence bar what I've read. What's your opinion on this TonTon?
Well I'm struggling to work out what's meant, tbh. It strikes me as self-evidently untrue that the YPG is the most effective at fighting Daesh, so that can't be what's meant. Perhaps something like "a strong, independent Kurdish state in Syria is the most effective way to combat Daesh, and the YPG is the best-placed group to achieve this"? I mean, that also seems ridiculous, but it's at least a much more subjective claim and could be argued. Rather than just being simply, plainly factually untrue.
I'd more or less go with Sam Charles Hamad's assessment:
"Under the patronage of Russian and US imperialism, the PYD has begun renaming Arab-majority cities with Kurdish names. People talk about the 'era of Sykes-Picot' being over, but the mercenaries of imperialism like the PYD are while perhaps altering the boundaries of Sykes-Picot, the entire raison d'etre of which was division and functional disunity, fully embodying the *spirit* of Sykes-Picot. As with the regime-Iranian forces, they are its living agents.
The US already has plans to build a base in 'Rojava', the one party state that the PYD have created since being given control of Kurdish-majority areas since 2011 by the Baath, while Russia's brutal Syrian-murdering air strikes are the only reason the PYD have been able to extend their authoritarian, ethnocratic state to Arab areas - this is imperialism-by-numbers.
The PYD one party state, far from these genuinely nonsensical 'radical' pretensions, will be another launchpad for Russian and US imperialism - Russia to destroy Free Syria and the US to fight Daesh, which was created by Assad-Iran-Russia's slaughter and will only be boosted by this division. The PYD are not only NOT anti-imperialist, nor are they not only benefitting from the brutality of Russian imperialism against Free Syria and the chauvinistic will of the West to so disastrously focus on the lesser evil of Daesh while ignoring its much more murderous root causes, but they're actively paving the way for a new imperialist order in the Syria and the wider middle east.
If Syria's remaining friends have any bottle or any genuine will to see Free Syrian forces triumph, they ought to do something spectacular. Russia and Iran need a knock on the head - they are classic bullies and thus bluffers. The US also needs a knock on the head - it has to understand in some concrete sense that in a 'multipolar' world passivity and appeasement can be just as destructive as the 'active' imperialism of the Iraq crime - the continuity between them is beyond obvious."
From what I've read that air base in Northern Syria is already there.
As a fighting force they've used the air cover provided by the West and Russia to take territory from anti Assad forces but they were doing that, albeit on a limited basis before.
The narrative of the west and in the west is of the brave Kurds standing up against Daesh and I understand that it's not completely true. They've also committed atrocities and are engaged in ethnic cleansing which the west is conveniently ignoring.
I think the US in particular is extremely wary and confused after what's come to pass in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya that they are seeing the KRG in Northern Iraq and thinking perhaps the YPG might turn out like them. A friendly regime that's pro Israel.
Looks like I was wrong about or being IS. An offshoot of the PKK has claimed responsibility for the Ankara car bomb, they say the bomber was a man from Van. Turkey had said it was a Syrian.
The US have apparently captured the IS chemical weapons expert. There's also been the leak of IS documents that have come from a defector that show the bureaucracy of the group in action in regards to both recruitment of foreign fighters and executions. There is a lot more to them than being a bunch of psychopaths.
Are they different from Al Qaeda in that respect? I've always read that AQ were very dispersed so that the capture of one person would never jeopardize that much. Perhaps the need of IS to function as a quasi-state in their held territory makes that unfeasible? AQ also had a client state (Afghanistan) that could do much of the heavy lifting, whereas IS is that much bigger.
That's good news GO. I think the job will have gone imho.
One of the 37 people murdered yesterday was Galatasaray and Turkey forward Umut Bulut's father who was in Ankara to watch his son play.
The Australia ambassador was also metres away from the explosion.
Turkey has responded by bombing the PKK despite now group claiming responsibility. Unusually for Turkey the names of the bombers have yet to come to light.
The derby match tonight between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe has been postponed after specific threats were deemed sufficiently real enough to warrant this drastic decision. The decision was made two hours before kick off with fans already in and around the stadium. Reports say there was a bomb threat and that the original plan was to play the match behind closed doors.
I presume that Turkey will release details in due course but my guess was it was IS related.
On the ground in Syria Palmyra is being attacked by a mainly Syrian force, the Russians are providing air support and also special forces.
In Iraq the battle for Mosul has apparently began with the Iraqi government wary of using Shiite forces. I wonder if the approximate 500 US forces and the 1000 plus Turkish troops are going to get involved.
25 people killed by Daesh suicide bomb in Baghdad, where Daesh has a coalition of the world's strongest air forces bombing it, as well as US and Iranian-supported Iraqi military and sectarian militias attacking it on the ground, yet European leaders want you to believe that this bombing of Daesh-held civilian areas will somehow keep Europe safe from Daesh-inspired sympathisers?
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