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Sunday, December 23, 2012

And The Media Buys It


Just two days ago, a spokesman for the Russian government said that the Syrian civil war was a stalemate with neither side capable of winning. Almost on cue, the media is now writing articles with titles like "Fighting a War with No Winners in Syria" and "Stalemated Civil War Drags On". To say the least, these pieces distributed by the AP and CNN are nothing more than articles by reporters who have been duped by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The trajectory of the Syrian Civil War is quite clear: the rebels are making steady advances and the Assad forces are falling apart. When the protests began a year and a half ago, Assad had the entire armed forces and the police forces on his side. The protesters were not even armed. Then Assad decided to crush the protests by having snipers randomly kill men and women who were marching in the protests. When that did not stop the protests, Assad stepped up the killing. Things got worse and worse until the protesters took up arms against the regime. Even so, Assad controled essentially all of the country and had overwhelming superiority of forces. But Assad ran a campaign that was heavy on slaughter of innocents and brutal in its treatment of opponents. More and more members of the Syrian military refused to continue the slaughter or even switched sides in an attempt to stop Assad. The rebels made gains in the north and central portions of Syria. Today, a majority of Syrian territory is in rebel control. Fighting is taking place in Damascus, Assad's capital city. Assad has used artillery, tanks, aircraft and other heavy weapons. The rebels continue to advance. Even the threat of chemical weapons has not stopped the revel advance.

Russia has supported Assad throughout the fighting, but now it sees the handwriting on the wall. If the rebels win outright, Russia will surely be thrown out of its naval base on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. So, in an attempt to salvage something of its position in Syria, Russia now says that there is a stalemate. It is much like the stalemate that existed in the Second World War two days before VE day. Assad is crumbling and Russia is just telling lies.

But the fools in the main stream media have adopted the Russian view. These reporters seem not to bother even learning the facts before they ignore them. Who knows, maybe the reporters who understand the job are already off for Christmas. But then again, it is the main stream media. They might just be this bad.






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