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Thursday, July 19, 2018

Here's Some Real News

So did the Russians hack the DNC in 2016?  Did President Trump accept that view of the intelligence agencies?  Did Trump change his mind?  Did he tell Putin to stop the hacking?  Did he ignore the subject in Helsinki?  Does anyone other than the media really care about this?  I mean will it change the life of even one American if Trump said something to Putin on the subject that has not been accurately reported?  Or is this just the latest installment of the media game "Let's Attack Trump"?

The truth is that there really were things accomplished in Helsinki by Trump and Putin, but none of them get any coverage.  One area of agreement was in Syria.  The USA and Russia agreed in Helsinki that in southwest Syria, there should be a return to the rules that governed under the 1974 cease-fire accord (which went into place after the 1973 war between Syria and Israel.  This means that the region will be under the control of the Syrian government but there will be no foreign troops deployed in the area at all.  It may not sound like much, but it may have averted some serious fighting that could have led to an even bigger war in the area.

Let me explain.  For the last year or so, as the Assad regime has been winning the civil war, Iran has been trying to install its forces along the Israeli border.  For its part, Israel has been making clear that it will not accept the deployment of Iranian forces near its border.  Israel does not want another hostile military force along that border, particularly not one from Iran.  The Iranians have been moving troops into the area, and the Israelis have responded with attacks on Iranian installations in the entire western half of Syria.  The USA has supported the moves against Iran and the Russians have remained silent about them.  In Helsinki, however, the USA and Russia blessed the idea that there will be no Iranians in the region.  Iran has a sizeable force in Syria, but it would not take a position there directly contrary to the wishes of both the USA and Russia.

This morning in Syria, a surrender agreement was announced under which the Sunni rebels in the area are ceding control of the region to the Assad regime.  Meanwhile it seems as if the Iranians are going to be limited to getting no closer to the border than Damascus (which is about 40 miles away.) 

This should end the Iranian efforts designed to install substantial forces along the border and it should also end the Israeli attacks designed to keep those forces from the border.  In a bigger sense, it also means that the likelihood of a major Iranian - Israeli confrontation in Syria has just been drastically reduced.  That's some very good news.  But hey, unless it deals with what Trump did or didn't say about something that happened years ago which won't change anything, the media doesn't care. 

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