Why Syria will not Fall: Crushing Defeat of "Free Syrian Army"

Global Research

Galeb Kandil

(translated from Arabic by vijayvaani.com)

Destruction at Aleppo.

The recent developments in Syria revealed a series of important signs which will have decisive repercussions over the course of the global war led by the United States to destroy this country. Unlike the information and impressions of American strategists and their European and Arab accomplices - as conveyed by hundreds of media outlets engaged in the battle - the death squads, mercenaries and Takfiri groups introduced from all parts of the world suffered a crushing defeat at the level of the battles. Nonetheless, the Turkish officials and their Qatari and Saudi allies had promised – as they have already done last year and during the same period - that the month of Ramadan will witness the fall of the resisting regime in Syria. These illusions have once again collapsed on the battlefield where the armed gangs suffered the fall of thousands of dead, wounded and detainees.

Indeed, the comprehensive attack launched by the extremists against Damascus ended – even with the recognition of Western media outlets - with massive losses. Hence, the force which included local mercenaries and jihadists from around the world was completely annihilated by the Syrian army that is pursuing the remnants on the outskirts of the capital. As a result, tons of weapons were confiscated and the heavy infrastructure of the armed groups was dismantled and destroyed, which will require months to reconstruct if the armed groups are ever able to do so.

The outcome of the Aleppo battle on the other hand is known in advance, as the extremists are falling by the thousands in the face of the methodic progress of the army which was able to fully sever the supply lines of the mercenaries who came from the training camps led by the CIA in Turkey. Consequently, the armed gangs can no longer deliver reinforcements without having to pay a hefty price. As to their 4x4 convoys which are equipped with heavy artillery and were offered by their regional sponsors, they are moving under the fire of the army’s helicopters and aircrafts and are falling in the ambushes set up by the elite forces that have infiltrated enemy lines.

According to experts, one third of the extremist groups are composed of jihadists who have come from the Arab Maghreb, Libya, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Chechnya. At this level, European Union Intelligence Chief French national Patrice Bergamini recognized in an interview with the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar on Friday 17 August the important role played by the jihadists at the level of the Syrian conflict, stressing that the Western public was now aware of the threat they represented. It is clear that the Syrian army’s cleansing of the city of Aleppo and its countryside is now a mere question of time.

The crushing defeat suffered by the armed gangs throughout Syria reveals that the Syrian Arab army which was built on solid ideological bases quickly drew the lessons of the war and developed strategies of urban and rural counter-guerilla, which allowed it to strike the extremists despite the massive military, material, financial and media means that were generously offered to them by the coalition of dozens of countries, not to forget the sanctions adopted against the Syrian people and state outside the context of the United Nations.

In order to understand the developments of the situation, it is also important to analyze the Syrian people’s state of mind. Without real popular backup –which is naturally disregarded by Western media outlets - President Bashar al-Assad and his army would not have been able to resist and deter this attack. This popular support is due to three factors. Firstly, the majority of the Syrians are aware of the fact that their country is targeted by a plot aiming at subjugating Syria to include it in the Western imperialistic camp and consequently remove it from all the regional equations, knowing that during these last four decades, Syria has been at the heart of the balances of power and that nothing could be done in the Middle East without its knowledge and participation. These wide popular factions are attached to their country’s political autonomy and are willing to fight to defend it, which would explain why thousands of young people are volunteering to join the army’s ranks.

On the other hand, the experts believe that twenty percent of the public - which at some point sympathized with the opposition - discovered the real face of the extremists who are multiplying their savageries in the regions under their control (rape, executions, massacres, pillaging…). In light of this transformation affecting the popular mood, especially in the rural areas where the people have become sick and tired, the Syrian state has put in place discreet communication means allowing the population to inform the army about the presence of terrorists, which would explain how and why during these last few weeks, the special units and the air force were able to successfully carry out well designed strikes against the bases of the armed gangs.

In parallel to all the developments on the ground, Damascus’ regional and international allies are showing stringency and developing political and diplomatic initiatives to avoid leaving the arena open before the Westerners. At this level, the success of the meeting in Tehran between thirty countries, including China, India, Russia, nine Arab countries and Latin American and South African states, conveys this new balance of power. The formation of this group constituted a strong message to the Westerners and seriously jeopardized their project to establish – outside the context of the United Nations – a no-fly zone in the northern part of Syria. The last few months of 2012 will be decisive at the level of the emergence of new regional and international balances and the drawing up of a new image starting from Damascus, thanks to the victory of the Syrian national state in the global war led against it.

Fast-moving developments

Until the American presidential elections which will be held at the beginning of November, the Syrian internal, regional and international developments will grow faster than ever before. Obviously, foreign military intervention whether from inside or outside the Security Council is off the table, while the sanctions have reached their highest levels as long as Chapter VII is being deterred by the veto right. Following the American presidential elections, we will see the materialization of American political headlines and especially NATO, Turkish and Gulf ones, in parallel to the repercussions that will affect the military machine used across the border and from inside the Syrian territories.

Hence, there should either be a recognition of the impossibility to introduce change at the level of Syria’s geography and role which should prompt preparations for serious negotiations and for political solutions – that are rejected by the Americans who are refusing to respond to the invitation addressed by Russia to meet – or sustain the war alliance and the mobilization of the state of hostility from all directions, i.e. from the Mecca conference to the visit of the French foreign minister to Syria’s neighboring states to assemble as many pressure cards as possible.

There will be no buffer zones and no air embargoes, rather efforts to completely isolate certain border regions from the state’s control in order to test the chances of establishing mini-states, similar to the ones established by Saad Haddad and Antoine Lahd under Israeli tutelage in South Lebanon. At this level, the wager is on Aleppo’s countryside to which all those who sold their honor among the dissidents will be introduced following preparations in Doha, Riyadh and Amman to grant legitimacy in form to the division project.

On the other hand, Lakhdar Brahimi was appointed as envoy and mediator for the political solution and the observers mission was ended to prepare the arena for all possibilities. Brahimi will thus spend time touring before a decision is adopted, while Syria is standing fast with its army and people and drawing up - starting from Aleppo and its countryside - the course of the upcoming change.

(translated from Arabic by vijayvaani.com)

Military Rape Survivors Call On Congress To Stop The Silent Epidemic

Business Insider
Lauren Brown

Today a group of veterans delivered letters signed by 200 military sexual assault and rape survivors to Congress urging them to pass the STOP Act. The letters were presented to Congresswoman Spier who introduced the Act to congress in November of 2011.

If passed, the STOP Act would remove the reporting of sexual assault and rape in the military outside of the chain of command and into the jurisdiction of the military's Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office which is comprised of military and civilian experts.

Despite 17 congressional hearings over the past 25 years, there's been no major action taken to stem the "silent epidemic" of sexual assault in the military. It's been estimated that nearly 20,000 servicemembers were assaulted in 2010 though only a little more than 13 percent of the incidents were reported.

The group of women delivered the letters with the human rights organization, Protect Our Defenders, which provides support for men and women who have served in the military and been victims of sexual assault. A number of the women who went to Congress today were featured in the documentary, "The Invisible War," a film which gives voice to the staggering number of horrific sexual assaults that have gone unpunished.

The letter was from:

"200 Veterans who have been raped or sexually assaulted at least once while serving in the United States Armed Forces between 1971 – 2011. Retaliation, including discharge and punishment, happened to many of us who tried reporting the crime."

Many victims say that the way they were treated by the military after the incident and the military's failure to prosecute the assault is worse than the actual incident.

Police Claim DNA Evidence of Strauss-Kahn's Alleged Assault

The Atlantic Wire

It's not a pleasant Monday for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief arrested Sunday in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid. The Frenchman has agreed to a scientific forensic investigation, in which prosecutors will obtain DNA evidence on his skin or beneath his fingernails to back up the maid's account that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from his hotel bathroom Sunday, chased her down a hallway, pulled her into a bedroom and attempted to rape her. The evidence could prove decisive, as the Wall Street Journal now reports that detectives have recovered DNA evidence at the scene of the alleged assault. The IMF, meanwhile, has named John Lipsky, a former U.S. Treasury executive and JP Morgan banker, to replace Strauss-Kahn as acting managing director.

Interestingly, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers say they have proof that he was having lunch at a restaurant with his daughter at the time of the alleged assault. According to France's RMC radio, the lawyers have reconstructed his day, saying he checked out of his hotel midday, returned his key, dined with his daughter and taxied to the airport. If the schedule is accurate, it would serve as an alibi because he would've been gone at the time the maid accused him of assaulting her.

Back in France, other accusations against Strauss-Kahn' are appearing in the media. Tristane Banon, a French writer, accuses him of sexually assaulting her nine years ago, saying he acted like a "rutting chimpanzee." The woman had consulted a lawyer at the time but her mother convinced her not to take action because her mother was, as The Guardian notes, "a regional councilor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family." Before his charades on Sunday, Strauss-Kahn was expected to lead the Socialist party to victory against French President Nicolas Sarkozy, though now most consider that outcome slim to none. The New York Times says the country is going through a process of "soul-searching" as political leaders label the arrest a “historical moment, in negative terms, in French politics.”

In the U.S., Texas congressman Ron Paul used the opportunity to slam the IMF, an institution he considers dangerous and overreaching. "These are the kinds of people who are running the IMF," he told Chris Wallace on Fox News, "and we want to turn the world's finances and the control of the money supply [over] to them?" The GOP 2012 presidential candidate said the organization's monetary policies force countries to sacrifice their sovereignty to it. In a Monday editorial, The Wall Street Journal also calls the arrest a "black mark" for the IMF which "chose to overlook his previous sexual behavior." In a moment of transparent schadenfreude, the Journal writes "It will be fascinating to see how the grandees of French and international financial politics handle this one."