Obama Thinks His Syria Strategy is Right -- And Folks Just Don’t Get It

IRGC linked shiite militia Badr execute 10s of civis in Diyala fueling sectarian conflict & helping ISIL recruit!

AND the US comments to this are exactly what again.....??

Forgot...It is Implementation Day of the Iran Deal.......

Another highly successful Syrian strategy day for the Obama WH and another day that anti Assad forces are fighting IS with no support from the West---and the US supported SDF seems to be just marking time doing basically nothing.

YET Obama and company claim there is no one fighting IS worth supporting inside Syria.......and the US SecDef demands more allied SF troops....does that make sense.....?????

BTW....not a single Is position was hit by RuAF...today.....

#SAA shelling #Russia Cluster Bombs on #Douma
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 16

Remnants of #Russia Cluster Bombs used by #SAA killed a child
#Douma #Syria JAN 16 PT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIs35O0P6i0 …

SAA shelling using #Russia Cluster Bombs killed a child nearby the School of #Douma
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 16

4 martyrs victims of #Russia airstrikes targeting road between #Hardtin and #Maarasat_Khan villages
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 16

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Ayash village
#DeirEzzor #Syria JAN 16

#SAA helicopters dropped barrel bombs on #Teir_Maela
#Homs #Syria JAN 15

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Bayanoun town
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 16

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Ratyan village
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 16

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Hayan village

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tel_Jabin town
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 16

SAA mercenaries Tank shelling targeted #Aqrab town
#Hama cs #Syria JAN 16

Heavy clashes between Rebels and #SAA mercenaries at #alDardaghan & #alDurra villages
#Latakia #Syria JAN 16

62 martyrs; 7 children 2women 2 TORTURED
30 Damascus
10 Aleppo
5 DeirEzzor
5 Idlib
5 Homs
5 Hama
2 Daraa
Syria JAN15

BTW---REMEMBER it was social media that carried the fight to get aid into the besieged town not a single western MSM NOR western leader.

WHY is that??

Again the answer is so transparent.....the "Iran Deal" as it is Hezbollah an Iranian supported terror organization that has surrounded this Sunni town.

Two comments on just why the Obama Syrian strategy is simply not working and no amount of "messaging" is going to rescue it from the failure it already is and is getting worse....

Example one---the SecDef complained via social media that the allies are not sending more SF troops into Syria to fight IS.....INTERESTING in that the Syrian anti Assad forces numbering well over 80,000 have repeatedly indicated their willingness to fight IS After Assad is kicked out...Obama, Kerry and the SecDef all know this...so why not simply provide all available resources to the FSA and other anti Assad forces already on the ground and already fighting IS....THUS no further need for allied boots on the round.

BUT WAIT...Obama has this Iran Deal thing and 90% of the Assad forces are Iranian backed Iraqi Shia militia, Hezbollah, IRGC and Shia mercenaries from 12 Shia countries......THUS he cannot do anything that "rocks the Iranian boat".....simple as that.....

Example Two --the massive Russian killing of civilians via their uncontrolled and inaccurate and non precise air strikes, the continued use of Assad barrel bombs, AND the use of STARVATION by both Assad and Putin as a battlefield tactic is in full violation of international humanitarian law and the law of land warfare.

BUT WAIT did not Obama state that Assad can stay in power until March 2017 and he needs the Russians......so any formal and public complaint by the US will never happen at least under Obama as President.

THEN we have the role of the UN in the use of STARVATION as a battlefield tactic.......

REMEMBER there has been three valid UNSC passed resolutions stating that the bombing of civilians should stop and humanitarian aid must start...EVEN Russia signed off on these three resolutions.

SO now the truly interesting international relations and legal question---is if the US ie Obama has been physically informed by the US IC of the massive targeted and deliberate killing by Putin of Syrian civilians ie genocide AND he fully knows of the use of STARVATION as a battlefield tactic does he not have the moral leadership requirement to formally say something in the UNSC OTHERWISE is he not complicit in genocide and the use of starvation ie both war crimes??????

Remember silence in the face of knowledge of ongoing genocide and starvation is not a excuse to ignore them.

Exclusive: The U.N. Knew for Months That Madaya Was Starving

So why did it wait until January to provide humanitarian aid to suffering Syrians?

By Roy Gutman
January 15, 2016

ISTANBUL — Until the beginning of this month, Madaya was an obscure town in southwestern Syria, overshadowed by nearby Zabadani, where opposition rebels had fought a fierce battle against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and more recently Hezbollah. But today, as international relief convoys arrive with food and medicine to lift a starvation siege, Madaya has become the focal point of Syrian aid workers’ anger at the United Nations, who accuse the international body of giving higher priority to its relationship with Damascus than to the fate of Madaya’s beleaguered residents.

Madaya was the worst off of all the besieged towns in Syria, relief workers say. As early as October, locals in the town had been raising alarms about the dire humanitarian situation there. At least six children and 17 adults starved to death in December, and hundreds more risked starvation.

U.N. officials knew this — but until shocking images of starving infants started circulating and news media sounded the alarm, it remained silent, reserving alarm for an unpublished internal memo.

The “Flash Update” issued on Jan. 6 by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which negotiates aid deliveries, spoke of “desperate conditions,” including “severe malnutrition reported across the community,” and said there was an “urgent need” for humanitarian assistance. In October, community leaders reported some 1,000 cases of malnutrition in children under the age of 1, it said.

But the general public could not have known this, because OCHA classified the bulletin as “Internal, Not for Quotation.” OCHA had no immediate comment on why the update, leaked to Foreign Policy, wasn’t published.

The U.N.’s months-long silence on the starvation in Madaya is one of the reasons for the disquiet roiling the community of international and Syrian relief officials. Another is its oft-repeated claim that no one siege is that important but that all should be lifted, a goal that appears beyond reach. When Yacoub el-Hillo, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, addressed reporters on Jan. 12, a day after leading the first convoy into the town, he described Madaya residents as “a people that are desperate; a people that are cold; a people that are hungry; a people that have almost lost hope” — but he blamed no one in particular for this state of affairs and made no mention of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, which in fact is maintaining the siege against Syrian civilians in Madaya.

Instead, he swung into a familiar U.N. litany: The siege of rebel-held Madaya was just like the sieges mounted by the Islamic State or Syrian rebels against government-held regions.

“I am quite comfortable in saying that [it] is the same in any of these settings where siege is being used as a tactic of war,” he told reporters on Jan. 12. This included Fuaa and Kefraya, besieged government-held towns in Idlib province, which also received food deliveries from the U.N. World Food Program, International Red Cross, and Syrian Arab Red Crescent this week at the same time as Madaya.

But Madaya is different from Fuaa and Kefraya. In Madaya, food prices have hit astronomical levels with rice costing a staggering $256 per kilogram, according to information collected by the Syrian American Medical Society. The siege in the two Idlib towns apparently was a lot looser: In Fuaa and Kefraya, rice cost $1.25 per kilogram prior to this week’s deliveries, while tomatoes cost under a dollar, and potatoes about 50 cents each, according to residents there who were in direct communication with besieged residents in Zabadani. Unlike Madaya, where the siege was enforced by snipers and landmines, some goods could apparently still reach the two Idlib villages.

No fruits or vegetables, by contrast, were available in Madaya, where residents have been reduced to subsisting on soup made of boiled grass and at most a fraction of a cup of rice daily.

“We used to have one cup of rice a day; now one cup is enough for four people,” said Ebrahem, 26, a computer engineer in Madaya, who lives with his parents and an older sister. He asked to be identified only by his first name.

“We eat leaves. We eat some flowers. Grass soup tastes great,” he told FP over Skype. “But in winter there [are] no leaves or grass.” As for fruits and vegetables, “we forgot them entirely.” He said everyone in his family has lost 45 pounds.

The U.N.’s handling of this crisis has prompted outrage from Syrian medical and rescue workers, who accuse the international body of kowtowing to Assad’s regime. In an open letter published on Jan. 13, 112 Syrian humanitarian workers from besieged areas accused the United Nations of “chasing permission you do not even need” from the Assad regime in light of two U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that humanitarian assistance flow freely, which should have given aid officials all the authorization they needed. The failure to more aggressively address the plight of starving Syrians, the letter said, had transformed the United Nations from “a symbol of hope into a symbol of complicity.”

U.N. officials in Damascus “are either too close to the regime or too scared of having their visas revoked by the same powers that are besieging us,” the letter said. “Those whose loved ones die from malnutrition-related illnesses or a lack of basic medical care will never forgive the [U.N.] staff, who sit minutes away in luxury hotels, within earshot of the bombings.”

The letter was circulated by the Syria Campaign, a nongovernmental organization that launched a “Break the Sieges” media push earlier this week.

International relief officials wouldn’t speak on the record, but more than a few agree with the content of the letter. “Given the magnitude of the humanitarian catastrophe, we have got to be much more ambitious than what we’ve been,” said one senior official at the International Red Cross.

OCHA said in a statement to FP on Jan. 15 that its priority was achieving a broader agreement to lift sieges all around Syria. “Bringing in convoys of humanitarian assistance immediately to all besieged and hard-to-reach areas is essential, but the priority and the solution is to lift the sieges.”

Some of the U.N.’s failures are self-evident. Hillo acknowledged last week that the U.N. had obtained assent from Damascus for only one-tenth of its requests to send convoys of food and medical supplies in 2015.

But some failures are subtler. There’s tension within the international relief community over OCHA’s method of determining which areas are besieged and which are “hard to reach” — a determination that carries weight because a siege that deprives civilians of the goods they need for survival can be prosecuted as a war crime. The U.N. designates Fuaa and Kefraya, where there were no reported deaths from starvation, as besieged towns and Madaya, where there were, as “hard to reach.”

Few in the humanitarian aid community endorse OCHA’s main statistics on sieges, and still fewer can explain them. OCHA routinely asserts that there are just under 400,000 besieged people in Syria, half of them in government-held territory — but the Syrian American Medical Society estimates that at least 608,000 are under government siege alone. Local officials in Syria, cited by the Syria Institute, a U.S. nonprofit devoted to charting the sieges, estimate the number at more than 1 million.

International aid officials have also criticized the U.N.’s pattern of playing down the besieged rebel-led areas and giving top billing to besieged government-held areas. For instance, in a Jan. 7 statement that presaged the aid delivery, Hillo began by expressing concern for the “plight of nearly 400,000 people” besieged by different parties in Deir Ezzor, a city in eastern Syria; Daraya, a town just west of Damascus; Fuaa and Kefraya; and parts of Eastern Ghouta in rural Damascus.

But Hillo’s statement didn’t take into account the dramatic differences in the various sieges. Half of that number, some 200,000 people, live in the government-held districts of Deir Ezzor, besieged by Islamic State militants. There are no reports of starvation in Deir Ezzor. Rice costs $5 per kilogram in government-held neighborhoods — and as little as 70 cents in areas controlled by the Islamic State, said anti-regime activists.

Anti-regime activists from Deir Ezzor also told FP the military airport is still operational and that the regime has delivered fuel to besieged neighborhoods by helicopter. U.N. officials say the airport can be used by helicopters only at night because of the danger of attack by Islamic State fighters.

It wasn’t until later in Hillo’s Jan. 7 statement that he mentioned Madaya — but that relegation cloaked the urgency. As the “Flash Update” published by OCHA on Jan. 6 already showed, U.N. officials were well aware of the incredibly dire circumstances that existed there — a far more serious situation than the other siege cases that Hillo mentioned at the beginning of his statement.

Did the U.N. draft the Jan. 7 statement and allow the Syrian government to rewrite it, making Madaya seem like a secondary issue? “I can’t really comment,” said Linda Tom, an OCHA spokeswoman in Amman, who took part in the drafting.

Core reason for the Obama, Kerry and the NSC to remain silent in the face of killing of civilians and the use of starvation as a battlefield tactic by both Assad and Putin............????????

Was Madaya's plight downgraded as a result of political sensitivities? UN knew for months that town was starving: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/15/u-n-knew-for-months-madaya-was-star… …

The SWJ commenter Robert Jones makes some interesting and pointed comments often when referring to the Sunni Shia issue.

From a Twitter Syrian account yesterday tends to support much of what he is always mentioning here.........

@UN @wfp food aid is being sold in Regime loyalists stores while nearby civilians slowly starve to death. #Syria

This should be evidence to any Sunni Muslim who thinks they can live peacefully under the rule of Shias..

ON top of that after the IS attacks in Diyala this week WHAT was the Shia militia response......they went on a Sunni progrom rampage and killed any Sunni civilian they could find......

We are in a massive Sunni Shia regional war and yet Obama, Kerry and the entire NSC somehow does not get it.....

The SWJ commenter Robert Jones makes some interesting and pointed comments often when referring to the Sunni Shia issue.

From a Twitter Syrian account yesterday tends to support much of what he is always mentioning here.........

@UN @wfp food aid is being sold in Regime loyalists stores while nearby civilians slowly starve to death. #Syria

This should be evidence to any Sunni Muslim who thinks they can live peacefully under the rule of Shias..

ON top of that after the IS attacks in Diyala this week WHAT was the Shia militia response......they went on a Sunni progrom rampage and killed any Sunni civilian they could find......

We are in a massive Sunni Shia regional war and yet Obama, Kerry and the entire NSC somehow does not get it.....

The SWJ commenter Robert Jones makes some interesting and pointed comments often when referring to the Sunni Shia issue.

From a Twitter Syrian account yesterday tends to support much of what he is always mentioning here.........

@UN @wfp food aid is being sold in Regime loyalists stores while nearby civilians slowly starve to death. #Syria

This should be evidence to any Sunni Muslim who thinks they can live peacefully under the rule of Shias..

ON top of that after the IS attacks in Diyala this week WHAT was the Shia militia response......they went on a Sunni progrom rampage and killed any Sunni civilian they could find......

We are in a massive Sunni Shia regional war and yet Obama, Kerry and the entire NSC somehow does not get it.....

Notice again yesterday that the Obama WH appears to not want to take any success credit for this particular Syrian strategy....there is an old IR concept that if a nation state knows of civilian atrocities and yet remains quiet about it ie the Bosnian War that nation state is just a complicit as the country carrying out the atrocities.......

Right now Obama, Kerry, his NSC and the US Ambassador to the UNSC who was very verbal initially during the early stages of the Russian invasion into eastern Ukraine AND who was reigned in by Obama has been surprisingly silent now.......

UNICEF documenting Assad war crimes in Madaya. Case closed. pro Assad liars claimed they don't starve children...

Since the Serbian concentration camps in #Trnopolje in #Bosnia back in 1995 I haven't seen this. #Madaya #Syria

Notice the UK is calling a spade a spade but nothing whatsoever from Obama and company......

Britain accuses #Russia of deliberately bombing rescue workers, schools, hospitals in #Syria
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12102306/Britai… … pic.twitter.com/EHPV8ARJGP

AND that successful Obama Syrian strategy was exactly what again.....???

check the exact date of the article......and the US IC did not see them at all in Syria...come on....??

Source: http://spioenkop.blogspot.fr/2013/11...-syria_16.html

Yallasouriya 4:12 pm on November 16, 2013

Russian contractors in #Syria

Quote:

Additional evidence of Russian contractors operating in Syria has emerged. According to an article published on the news site fontanka.ru, a private military company named Slavonic Corps indeed operated in Syria, but was actually disbanded after a single failed operation. The following story was told to fontanka.ru by former Slavonic Corps contractors which operated in Syria.

By the beginning of October the Slavonic Corps had 267 men in Syria, organized in two companies and based in Lattakia.

The plan was to deploy to Deir ez-Zor to ‘guard’ the oil fields there, which are of viral importance for the survival of Assad, although they were hinted that ‘guard duty’ may involve actual fighting.

The contractors received 37mm M1939 Anti-Aircraft Guns and 120mm 120-PM-43 mortars, and were supposed to receive four T-72’s and several BMP’s. However, what they actually got from the Syrian high command were old T-62’s and BMP-1’s that couldn’t even drive on their own power. So when they finally headed for Deir ez-Zor on the 15th of October, it was on guntrucks and technicals, without any heavy armour support.

They made a stop at T4 Airbase for two days, the following photo was taken there.

A very rare photo of a SyAAF Su-24 bomber, with Slavonic Corps contractors posing in front of it.

On 18th October, they were sent to As Sukhnah because Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Force troops were engaged in heavy fighting here. In a brief engagement near As Sukhnah the Slavonic Corps suffered six WIA’s (Wounded in Action) and had to retreat. During the retreat, one of the contractors, Aleksei Malyuta, lost his ID.This marked the end of the Russian contractors in Syria, at least for the time being. In the end of October Slavonic Corps was effectively disbanded and their personnel was flown back to Russia in two charter flights.

While fighting near As Sukhnah, they broke the main principle of Slavonic Corps Limited:

”The Company’s activities are in strict correspondence to Russian law and to the law of those countries where the Company protects Russian companies’ interests. Our principle – we never participate in armed conflicts as mercenaries and never consult entities, groups or individuals having even a slightest relation to terrorist organizations. Further we never take part in events related to overthrow of governments, violating human rights of civilian population and in any other actions violating International Law and Conventions.” [1]

Slavonic Corps Limited used to consist of veterans which served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Eastern Africa, Tajikistan, Northern Caucasus, Serbia and other countries.[2] Many of the contractors are likely to have served in the Second Chechen War, fighting Chechens and other foreign Mujahideen they also encountered while fighting near Sukhna.

It is important to note that according to fontanka.ru the Slavonic Corps leadership was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) upon returning to Russia and charged with recruiting mercenaries. Apparently sending Russian contractors to Syria actually is not a policy supported by the Russian Government at the moment.

This is a perfect example of just how poorly thought through any so called Obama strategy....strategy on anything is.....while he is claiming his Syrian strategy is working and just needs a tad more messaging ie say from DoS and DoD the Russians basically concluded a Status of Forces Agreement SOFA for their remaining FOREVER in Syria...

I had posted the announcement and actual document a few days ago on the Syrian thread........AND NOW MSM is picking it up.

So exactly how is there going to be pray tell any long term peace settlement especially from the side of the anti Assad forces and the Sunni Front States that "allows" Russia to maintain that SOFA????????

Putin has an interesting and unique ability to view any agreement even a PowerPoint presentation as a legally binding document FOREVER and I cannot see Russia simply packing everything up and heading home......notice that even with a 40 year basing agreement for the Black Sea Fleet Putin still invaded an annexed Crimea....

Syria Pact Puts No Time Limit on Russia Campaign, Document Shows
Ilya Arkhipov,
Bloomberg

Russia’s military is operating in Syria without a time limit under an accord between the two governments, which also agreed to a one-year notice period for either side to terminate the pact, according to the text of the deal dated Aug. 26 and published Thursday.

The document also states that Russia bears no responsibility for any damage it causes during the operation and that the Syrian government will have to settle any disputes against the Russian aviation group from third parties, according to the agreement, signed in Damascus last year and now published by the Kremlin.

Russian personnel have diplomatic immunity under the deal and Syrian authorities can’t enter their base without the permission of its Russian commander. They are also not allowed to inspect Russian shipments into the country or search Russian planes, it says.

President Vladimir Putin launched the air campaign on Sept. 30 and doubled the fleet of warplanes involved in bombing missions to about 70 in November. Russian bombers made more than 5,500 sorties since the strikes began, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

SO now exactly just what is the US messaging going to be with this specific development......basically ends any US involvement in Syria...SO I guess Obama was correct.....his strategy of doing nothing is actually working.

Another Syrian strategy success story........that actually does need some urgent US info warfare messaging on....

Notice the heavy handed Russian info warfare propaganda....if the Russians believed their own propaganda they put out THEN why has not Putin applied pressure on Assad to allow humanitarian aid into besieged towns and villages totaling over 400,000 civilians.....????

NOT until there was a seriously massive social media push on the use of starvation by both Assad and now the Russians DID the UN finally step in and start a limited aid relief program.....BUT ONLY after social media engaged.

MFA Russia ✔ @mfa_russia
It is essential that all parties to the Syrian conflict, and countries that have influence on them, assist in humanitarian aid distribution

BTW ---until even today the US has not said a single word concerning the use of starvation and the Assad regime and now Putin regime stopping of any aid to besieged Sunni areas.....

Another roaring success of that Obama WH Syrian strategy.....this one does in fact need so urgent messaging of the info warfare type........

Appears now that the US supported and backed SDF is a Russian military unit getting Russian air support, fighting along side Assad forces against the Syrian anti Assad forces.......how is that possible?????

10,5k #SDF troops fight terrorists alongside #SyrianArmy & their numbers grow by the day
http://sptnkne.ws/azWa

Quote:

Over 10,000 opposition members are fighting Daes terrorists alongside the Syrain Armed Forces, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation stated on Friday.

More than 10,500 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting today against the Daesh terrorists (ISIL/ISIS) alongside the Syrian armed forces, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Sergei Rudskoy said.

"Troops of the Syrian Democratic Forces alongside the Syrian Army have been playing an increasing role in the fight against terrorism. Currently, the total number of these units are 10,500 strong," he said.

According to him, over the past few days, opposition groups led by Ayman Al-Ghanim Flyat advanced eight kilometers in the direction of Raqqa, which is considered the "capital" of Daesh terrorists.

One of the "main strongholds" of the Daesh terrorists, a town in the province of Latakia Salma, was liberated with the assistance of the opposition units, the Lt.-Gen. told reporters.

"Three towns, including terrorists' stronghold and the capital of the mountain Latakia was liberated with the assistance of the opposition unit 'Desert Falcons'," Rudskoy said.

The Syrian army with the assistance of the opposition forces has regained control over 10 towns in the province of Hama, the chief of the Russian Genera Staff said.

"At least 24 armed militans who fought alongside terrorists surrendered to the Syrian government forces near the town of Jarjisa [Hama province]," Rudskoy said.

The Syrian government forces backed by opposition units have also reclaimed control over 7 towns near Kweiris military airflied.

Moreover, the Syrian opposition provided the Russian Armed Forces with information about every fifth terrorist target, Rudskoy noted.

"Over the past five months we have established cooperation with the troops of the patriotic opposition. They provide the command of the Russian aviation group with information about terrorist targets in combat zones. After checking the information, the Russian Air Forces conduct airstrikes. Today, the opposition provides us with information about every fifth target," Rudskoy said.

The Russian operation in Syria forced terrorists to operate under less than ideal conditions, such as fuel, ammunition and food shortages, the statement said.

Appears that Obama has a much more serious messaging problem than he wants the US civil society to believe and in fact supports the perception that the US has retrenched from the Arab world in favor of Iran and Putin in Syria....

ALL the kings men are not going to put that cracked egg back together and that includes the perceived need for more "messaging".....

Here's the latest sign of how bad things have gotten between the US and its Arab allies

Armin Rosen

President Barack Obama met Jordanian king Abdullah II for five minutes in the VIP lounge at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on January 13th.

Jordan is one of the US's top Middle East allies, a member of the anti-ISIS coalition, host of some 633,000 Syrian refugees, a lynchpin in Israeli-Palestinian relations, the recipient of $1 billion a year in US aid, and a generally moderating and stabilizing force in a combusting region.

In the past, a meeting between a US president and a Jordanian king would include a potentially lengthy closed-door session followed by a joint press conference and a photo op, as occurred during the king's December 2014 visit to the US.

This time — at a moment when Jordan would appear to be an especially critical US partner — the leaders didn't even meet long enough to give off the impression of having had a substantive or productive interaction.

It's unclear exactly why the White House is treating Abdullah this way. The official American explanation is that Obama's schedule is full, as Abdullah's visit coincided with the president's final State of the Union address along with a trip to Nebraska pegged to the speech.

But that only raises the question of why the president's schedule couldn't be altered to accommodate a leader so relevant to so many US interests — and someone who has taken on a certain personal risk over the years in allying so closely with the United States.

Regardless of the actual reason for the short meeting, the US's relations with its Arab allies are now historically strained.

Although none of the Arab states officially opposed the Iran nuclear deal, it's now clear that many of them are convinced it will empower an enemy state and usher in a period of US-Iranian detente at their own expense.

The Arab Gulf states have long believed that the US is at odds with them over the conflict in Syria and have suspected that Washington doesn't actually want to see the overthrow of the Assad regime.

The US had higher level contacts with Iran than Saudi Arabia during this month's crisis sparked by Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading Shi'ite cleric, with Secretary of State John Kerry reaching out to Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif before contacting his Saudi counterparts.

And over the past year, some of the US's Arab allies in the Middle East have been acting as if they don't expect to receive further serious US's diplomatic backing, as when Saudi Arabia organized an Arab coalition against the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen.

It's unclear if Obama was uninterested in meeting Abdullah, honestly believing his trip to Nebraska was a higher priority — or if relations between the US and one of its most trusted Arab partners have turned into an afterthought in the administration's mind.

But if the Arab states and the US really are in the midst of a strategic divergence, that would actually enhance the importance of someone like Abdullah, who is in a position to minimize any potential fallout of such a fundamental change in American policy.

Certainly a high-profile meeting between Abdullah and Obama could have pushed back against this narrative of Washington angling away from its traditional Arab regional partners.

Instead, the brief, perfunctory meeting raises the question of how bad relations have really gotten.

Well so much for the roaring successes in Syria of the Obama strategy...

JUST in......

BREAKING
#SAA & #HEZBOLLAH refused to let the #UN AID convoy enter #Madaya,the last 7trucks which are loaded w/Flour
#Damascus #Syria JAN14

Iran's Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that 200,000 of its fighters in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan & Pakistan
http://huff.to/1W9TS3U

So bluster on the part of the IRGC....OR reality finally admitted to by Iran......so now with the Iran Deal Iran will acquire 100B USD to just keep expanding their "revolutionary Islam" started by Khomeini.....

So can Obama now finally admit his Syrian strategy is just a bluff nothing more than an attempt to run out the 13 month clock....

The Obama WH and actually Obama needs far more than "messaging" as he is virtually all over the place with his so called FP....in his speech he referred to the Ukraine as being a "client state" of Putin/Russia....WHICH even stunned myself---all he had to do was follow the SWJ threads on the Ukraine since 2014 to be up to date.......?????

Posted that comment actually here the second it was stated....

Ukrainians dazed & confused by #Obama's reference to their country as a Russian "client state." http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2016/01/14/7095324/ …

THEN to top it off the Ukrainians themselves had to ask for clarification of the term "client state"...ONLY then did the DoS give a response this morning..

HOW can it be that the NSC and the Obama advisors did not catch this....OR was it actually intentional to signal a policy change to Putin?????

MORE of that roaring success that the Obama WH thinks they need more messaging on...actually think they wish that these "successes" would simply disappear.

WHEN your only foreign policy is one of "let the regional players figure it out" as we cannot help anyone but ourselves THEN you get the following roaring successes that definitely defies "any amount of messaging".....BUT in some aspects Obama is only following Putin's lead of "it ain't us it's those others".........

BTW---none of the Russian AF air strikes reported this morning are anywhere close to a IS position AND yet Obama, Kerry and Putin would have you believe that all the currently being killed civilians, the schools and kindergartens being struck by the RuAF are in fact IS fighters and IS positions.

AND yet the Obama WH wonders why the KSA is striking out on their own...in less than eight years Obama has virtually destroyed the last 70 years of US ME FP....that is actually a major record.

NOT a single Obama and Kerry comment on the sheer numbers of killed civilians and the deliberate targeting of schools and kindergartens by the RuAF...AND a deliberate policy of starvation as a battlefield tactic......how can that be from a country that always claims the "moral high ground"?????

Again I will repeat what I have stated here many times...this is the worst President, DoS and NSC in the last 70 years and the coming years are going to be extremely painful for the incoming new President....

SAA helicopters dropped barrel bombs on #Teir_Maela
#Homs #Syria JAN 14

SAA shelling using Fozdika targeting #Ghranattah village
#Homs #Syria JAN 14

Interim education ministry closes all schools in #Idlib for a week due to them being targeted by Russian airstrikes

Little boy Ghassan Mohammad Khalil, killed by #Russia airstrikes on #Nawah town yesterday JAN 13
#Daraa #Syria

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Deir_Fardis village
#Homs #Syria JAN 14

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tallaf village
#Homs #Syria JAN 14

SAA helicopters dropped barrel bombs on #Hirbnafsah village
#Hama cs #Syria JAN 14

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #al_Bab city
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 14

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #al_Bab city
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 14

SCD extinguish fire of civilian building in #Erbeen due #SAA shelling, only material damage.
#Damascus #Syria JAN14

ICRC Syria 
‏@ICRC_sy We are on our way again to #Madaya #Foua #Kefraya with more desperately needed aid w/ @SYRedCrescent @UNOCHA

What really happened in Madaya and how Russian state media lied: Article with @JulianRoepcke soon at @BILD.

Wounded and starved Syrians in Madaya are not evacuated, doctor from inside told me, calls @RT_com report a "farce."

So out of the Obama WH all we have heard is that he is highly successful in Syria and it is just the American population and the World that does not fully understand that so they want more messaging.....so in reality is this messaging any different than the Putin propaganda fed his civil society daily??

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-catastrophic-potential-of-o…

Opinions

Obama reveals his foreign policy fatalism

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama returned to the optimism that he personified in his first campaign — but applied it only to America.

For the rest of the world, Obama was pessimistic, even fatalistic. It is as though the only way he can process his failure in Syria, and the vast humanitarian catastrophe still unfolding there, is to convince himself that failure was inevitable and will be repeated many times.

“The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia,” Obama said.

And “instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world — in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, parts of Pakistan, in parts of Central America, in Africa, and Asia.”

Why would a president ask Americans to assume that the problems of Central America, say, are intractable and inevitable? Of the region’s seven small nations (total population: 42 million), some, such as Costa Rica, have been enviably stable for decades. Others, it’s true, have problems: gang violence in El Salvador; corrupt, pseudo-leftist, Venezuela-fueled authoritarianism in Nicaragua.
 
But Mexico, with far more entrenched challenges, has in 20 years moved from an apparently hopeless case to a lower-middle-class nation grappling with its still serious problems by means of a multiparty democracy — and attracting more returning migrants than it sends north. Why would we assume that El Salvador or Honduras can’t accomplish as much?

If Obama wants to think in decades, why not look back to South Korea, which not so many decades ago was an impoverished military dictatorship that development experts generally despaired of? Or Estonia, three decades ago a similarly impoverished captive of the Soviet Union?

Today, both are prospering democracies. And as unlikely as their successes might have seemed decades ago, no U.S. president would have written them off. On the contrary, it was the U.S. commitment to a peaceful democratic future for both their regions, on opposite sides of the globe, by presidents as different as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, that paved the way for their success.

Why would Obama set his sights lower for Afghanistan or Africa?

Age-old conflicts are a reliable default excuse. Yes, Shiite-Sunni strife dates back centuries. But “ancient hatreds” exist everywhere, from Northern Ireland to South Carolina to Alsace-Lorraine. Whether they are managed or explode is the result of political choices. It is not a matter of destiny.

The late diplomat Richard Holbrooke, in his memoir on negotiating an end to the Balkan war, recalls Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger declaring in 1992, “Until the Bosnians, Serbs and Croats decide to stop killing each other, there is nothing the outside world can do about it.”

The excuse then, too, was a theory of “ancient hatreds,” Holbrooke wrote, 100,000 deaths later.

“Those who invoked it were, for the most part, trying to excuse their own reluctance or inability to deal with the problems in the region,” he wrote. “Yugoslavia’s tragedy was not foreordained. It was the product of bad, even criminal political leaders. . . . Once they realized that the United States, at the height of its global influence, was disengaged, they proceeded rapidly on their descent into hell.”

Obama’s confusion about Syria is evident and understandable. Four years ago his senior advisers supported a modest intervention to forestall a civil war that might spin out of control, spreading beyond Syria’s borders and fostering extremism.

The president rejected their counsel, and the results are more dire than anyone could have imagined: Hundreds of thousands dead. Millions displaced. The entire continent of Europe strained by refu­gee flows and terrorism. Children starving to death.

In his end-of-year news conference last month, Obama seemed to acknowledge the disaster when he defended his Libya intervention by saying that, without it, “we could have had another Syria.”

But in an almost surreal moment Tuesday night, he pointed to Syria as an example of his “smarter approach, a patient and disciplined strategy that uses every element of our national power.”

“That’s our approach to conflicts like Syria, where we’re partnering with local forces and leading international efforts to help that broken society pursue a lasting peace,” the president said.

It is sad enough that the United States, having pledged after Rwanda to “never again” allow such a humanitarian catastrophe, stands aside while a nation is destroyed. It would compound the damage if the country allows itself to be convinced that this is the best we can do.

More raving successes of the Obama Syrian strategy that needs no messaging....

5 School destroyed in 3 days by Russia airstrikes with innocents lives inside and around it, keep turning your blind eye to Syria.

Breaking_news

Majid karbat-khani...an iranian general is now a prisoner in the rebels' hands in the southern countryside of Aleppo

So much for that moderation Obama was hoping for in Syria from the Iranians....seems that messaging with not stop the IRGC, Hezbollah, the 30 odd Iraqi Shia militias and the Shia mercenaries from 12 countries...from killing Syrian Sunni's.......

AND absolutely no stopping of Russian air strikes on schools and now kindergartens....EVEN after their conversation today....Obama has absolutely no influence any longer in eastern Ukraine and or Syria.

Devastation caused by the deadly Russian #terrorist attack on a school in the Zebdiyeh district of #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xskt66i6e88 …

Children victims of #Russia airstrikes targeting a #KINDERGARTEN in #Zebdiya
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN13

3 children killed,20+wounded due #Russia airstrike on #KINDERGARTEN at #Zebdiya neighborhood
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN13

FSA & Islamic rebel groups refuse peace talks with Assad before full implementation of UN resolution 2254 No. 12&13.

How is that messaging strategy now going.....????

This President in his drive to "save his legacy" appears to truly not understand Iranian non linear warfare and INFO warfare YET he has a messaging strategy for IS as his newest plans.....does this makes sense to anyone outside of DC?????

Iran released a video showing a US Navy sailor apologizing — and scored a massive propaganda victory in the process http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-video-us-sailor-apology-2016-1 …

Did he really say "Thank you for your assistance" ?! No problem Sir, its a friendly kidnapping Sir..

NOW Iranian info warfare kicks into full gear and Obama "talks" about messaging....just who advises this President in DC.....????

After the release of #USSailors, a poster is going viral through #IRGC accounts with a quote from #Iran's leader
https://twitter.com/IranTalks/status/687229398551007232

Max Boot ‏@MaxBoot ·
Obama claims credit for avoiding wars. Yet his troop drawdown reignited war in Iraq while hands off policy allowed Syria war to worsen......

Sad to see Obama citing US approach to Syria as a "smarter approach." Syria is Obama's greatest foreign policy failure.

Guess all that messaging has worked for the last five years in Syria..if it did not sure why so many civilians are still bein killed....???

If this President cannot get his facts correct on eastern Ukraine NOT so sure his ideas for Syria hold water.......

I don't think #Ukraine will like being called a client state of #Russia #SOTU

That is a strong tendency by this President to cave on anything Putin does and or says all the while making great PR statements BUT having little action behind those words such as with this article which is similar in some aspects to the standard Russian propaganda statements made by Putin.

Remember in 2014 these Obama words referencing eastern Ukraine and Crimea...

"we will judge Putin by his actions NOT his words".

HOW is that working in both eastern Ukraine and now Syria....??

Hezbollah is directly receiving long-range tactical missiles....and anti-tank weapons from Russia."
http://thebea.st/1PmWOVI

If true not sure all the Obama messaging in this world will help this development.......

Not sure if the Obama "messaging strategy" needs to be used in this roaring success.....

Russia Bombs Offices of American NGO in Syria, Says Group - Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/russia-bombs-offices-american-ngo-205305372.html …

ALL SIX US citizens were out of the building when it was struck by the Russia AF.......

So is Obama going to declare "war" on Russia for the attack on US citizens....???

Another raving Obama Syrian strategy success that needs no explanation.....

MORE deliberate Russian air strikes on schools and civilians......
15 MARTYRS SO FAR, MOSTLY CHILDREN DUE #RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #SARMADA, SCHOOL & CIVILIANS HOUSES
#IDLIB #SYRIA JAN12

Yes 1 more school destroyed by Russians this time in #Sarmada #Idleb #Syria

PUTIN NOW TARGETING DAILY SCHOOLS, TO CLEANSE OF #SYRIA CHILDREN!
VICTIMS OF #RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #SARMADA JAN 12

RUSSIA WARPLANES AIRSTRIKES TARGETING THE KINDERGARTEN OF #DEIR_ASAFYR
#DAMASCUS CS #SYRIA JAN12

BREAKING
@SyriaCivilDef RECOVER LITTLE BOY ALIVE UNDER RUBBLE DUE #RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #DEIR_ASAFYR #SYRIA JAN 12

SCD recover bodies of entire family under rubble victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Hardtinyn
#Aleppo #SYria JAN12

MORE civilians killed by Russian air strikes....deliberately aimed....
10 martyrs so far, victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Maarastah_alKhan village
#Aleppo CS #Syria JAN 12

AND US MSM is naturally carrying massive articles on these successes.....

THEN later today this raving success occurred that needs no messaging......

BREAKING
#RUSSIA WARPLANES CARRIED OUT MORE AIRSTRIKES TARGETING A SCHOOL AT #HAYAN VILLAGE
#ALEPPO CS #SYRIA JAN12

@SyriaCivilDef COLLECTING CHILDREN BODY PIECES
#RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON A SCHOOL
#HAYAN #ALEPPO #SYRIA JAN12

For my previous question as to the actual Obama Syria and actually eastern Ukraine and it GOES a super long way in explaining Obama's overall lack of a strategy for anything during his seven years.....RETRENCHMENT a la Wilson 1920 nothing more nothing less than that and anyone who does not see that now clearly needs a pair of glasses......

Obama is "dissolving the U.S.'s traditional alliance system, along with the regional order"
http://huff.to/1ZhzGNz

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria .@statedeptspox: We’re looking for actions, not words. The regime’s record of broken promises on humanitarian access must stop now. #Syria

Fully agree...BUT what is the plan beyond Twitter.......?????????

Until the killing of civilians by Assad and Putin air strikes stops and the use of starvation stops..any so called progress is a total illusion......

MFA Russia ✔ @mfa_russia
Sergey Lavrov & @JohnKerry discussed by phone range of issues, including #Syria political process & fight against IS
http://sptnkne.ws/ayA6

NOTICE nothing about that in this PR from the Russian FM today......

Speaks for its self and silence from the WH........

100 days of Russian intervention:
12000 airstrikes
1730 Syrians killed including 135 children
29 hospitals destroyed

AND then this.........

Over 100 Russian airstrikes reported on Salma vlge today coordinated with regime army attack
https://youtu.be/4Kg-roKfLZQ

Islamic State nowhere to be seen in the area AND Putin claims he is destroying IS.........

Not sure what messaging could be used for this.........taken from Syria 2016 thread....

Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post

Russia's warplanes target schools area in the town of #Anjarah in rural #Aleppo #Syria leaving 35 dead

Spoke to another source in Turkey who told me the jet that bombed the #Anjarah schools today came straight from the #RuAF base in Latakia.

Don't ask me how they know but I guess you can imagine.

#Anjarah precision bomb came through the roof,floor wall&went straight into the class room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWnTmyHCTpE …

GRAPHIC #footage
The #AnjarahSchoolMassacre:
Children tell what happened to their schools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4P240oTILs …

Anjarah is possibly the best location to kill as many pupils as possible with a few bombs.
All 3 schools close-by.

Obama has his messaging moment BUT the killing fields of Syria just keep on killing..........

200+ #Russia airstrikes since morning in #Aleppo cs,
60+ #SAA barrel bombs since morning in #Darayya,
#Syria JAN 11

17children,1 teacher killed by #Russia in #Anjarah
#Syria JAN11
Educational Complex
https://goo.gl/nuw9i4

BREAKING
@SyriaCivilDef ENTIRE FAMILY UNDER RUBBLE AFTERMATH #RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #ANJARAH
#ALEPPO CS #SYRIA JAN11

Little girl wounded on her head w/ Shrapnel from #SAA Mortars shelling on #Saqba @SyriaCivilDef
#Syria JAN11

SAA terrorists shelling mortars on #Saqba
#Damascus cs #Syria JAN 11

Unexploded "rusted" #SAA missile fell on #Harasta
E #Ghouta #Damascus cs #Syria JAN 11

SAA Helicopters dropping barrel bombs on #Teir_Maela
#Homs #Syria JAN 11
(Look the "ring" that form b4 explosion)

FSA @forsanalhaq1 (North Div) try to target #Russia warplanes in the sky of #Maarat_al_Nouman
#Idlib #Syria JAN 11

Moment #Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Sheikh_Meskin
#Daraa #Syria JAN 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDtw-Rm1XAU …

SCD HERO Mohammed Omar, lost his life, victim of #Russia airstrikes on #Maarat_Alortiq
#Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 11

And the #Russia CLUSTER BOMBS don't stop..
Our HEROES #SCD collecting Cluster Bombs in Kafr_Zeta
#Hama #Syria JAN 11

So what should the new Syrian strategy messaging for DoD be for this particular event that I think is not covered in the Obama play book....

You just wake up w/ the idea that you are just going to have a "normal day" at School..but.
#Anjarah #Syria JAN11
pic.twitter.com/fM47Ju3Wo8

Russia's warplanes target schools area in the town of #Anjarah in rural #Aleppo #Syria leaving 35 dead

A Russian airstrike has hit a school in Syria
http://ind.pn/1TP6g8c
pic.twitter.com/X6WJBQ3ktc

One of the schools #Putin thugs targeted and destroyed in #Aleppo countryside.
https://youtu.be/AXFue5ruD1M
pic.twitter.com/lSkhCLqCtu

Putin pilots continue targeting schools and civil institutes across #Aleppo countryside - @5595Sad
pic.twitter.com/OXzPUuluoA

WHY is it apparently so hard for a Harvard grad to "call out" something as bad as a Russian air strike hitting a school and killing and wounding children BUT at the same time complains about armed attacks on US schools.....

AND this is now another in the unceasing line of Obama successes in Syrian...BUT WAIT the DoS did bring up only twice the excessive killing of civilians by the Russian and Assad AF directly with Putin...AND the shinning success was what again....ZERO....

Toll of barrel bombs dropped by the Syrian Regime air-force in 2015
According to @snhr , @KreaseChan @TheSyriaCmpgn
pic.twitter.com/7YTVBs2Y9P

So after seeing the reality on the ground in Syria, and the reality of the total lack of Obama/Kerry engagement other than tons of words designed in fact to deflect and distract for his remaining 13 months.....

BTW...distract and deflect are two of the Russian 6Ds of propaganda...

CAN any SWJ commenter and or casual reader ACTUALLY state in one simple constructed sentence JUST what is the Obama Syrian strategy....OR after his total failure in eastern Ukraine and now Syria WHAT should his messaging be.

IF I were any member of DoD and this includes the SecDef....I would be extremely wary of making any public statement that has the words Syria and strategy in the same statement ...as it will come back under the next President to haunt them.

BTW--- there is mounting evidence, that the US ie Obama is holding back supplies, munitions and TOWs from the FSA the only real fighting force inside Syria that is actually fighting Assad, Putin and IS.

BUT at the same time the Obama and Kerry crew are not saying a single word about the 30 Iraqi Shia militias armed by the US that are fighting inside Syria now Hezbollah....NOR anything on the deliberate Russian killing of civilians and the Assad, Hezbollah and Putin use of starvation as a battlefield tactical weapon......

WHY is that??

Ever really wonder why it is not being called out by US MSM???

EVEN MORE Syrian strategy successes by the Obama Kerry team......taken from the Syrian 2016 thread comments...

...and if anybody is curious to read the following (and feel free to call it 'another rant'), here a reason more to think (and very hard at it!) about what are Russians actually doing in Syria...

Elijah J Mangier, one of two major English-language mouthpieces of Assadist regime that is online, attempted to explain why is Assad (and Putler too) so insistent on bombing civilians and FSyA - instead of fighting the Daesh (which is what all the West not only expects, but also thinks they are doing): For Assad defeating al-Qaeda and its allies, rather than ISIS, is a top priority: ISIS is a “marionette”

The piece is actually typical PRBS from Assadists. However, one can't simply discard it as such and ignore it. Instead, some careful 'reading between the lines' reveals plenty of details. Just concentrate on crucial statements:

Quote:

...Nonetheless, the Syrian Army’ command, and now its allies, has avoided clashing with ISIS in many occasions, when unnecessary, on several fronts. In few words, ISIS is said to be “much easier and less urgent to defeat than al-Qaeda in Syria”.
Means: yes stupids, we're NOT fighting Daesh.

Quote:

...
The answer to such a strategy comes from one of the highest decision maker of the joint operations room in Damascus that includes Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah Lebanon (3+1 which is different from the one in Baghdad, called 4+1 as it includes Iraq).
...
Moreover, ISIS does not exist in areas considered vital and rich like Idlib, Homs and the suburbs where the population is against the regime and supports the rebels.
...
From our side, we want to establish a demarcation line with ISIS and will refrain from carrying out large military operations against the group to spare our forces (the military engagement) for other more strategic fronts.
...
There follows plenty of outright idiotic babbling, like 'ISIS has no regional or international political horizont... no political cover up or umbrella... is no longer directly financed by any country or organization...', like 'al-Qaida in Syria' being in control of Ahrar ash-Sham, 'all the Jihadists' etc., being used by USA and allies etc. Of course, FSyA is not mentioned with a single word - as if nearly 100,000 of its combatants neither exist nor matter.

What is this all important, you might wonder?

Well, pay attention:
- Not only is this an outright - and then 'official' & 'public' - admission that Keystone Cops in Moscow are lying all the time about 'bombing Daesh' (because Elijah is, right next to al-Masdar, something like 'spokesperson' of that '3+1' HQ in Damascus). It's an admission that, 'the Daesh did not manage to integrate itself among the population in Syria' - which, dear quasi-anti-Imperialists, Neo-Nazis etc. in the West, means that it is idiotic to say 'Syrians are all terrorists'.

- It also means that Assaidsts and Russians know they are NOT bombing Daesh, and are intentionally bombing insurgent-held area because insurgents ARE integrated among the population.

- Less important, but still a matter of fact, it means that Assadists and Russians are now openly lying about attacking 'al-Qaida in Syria': the JAN was barely hit so far. What they are attacking are primarily civilians in areas controlled by the FSyA, IF and Ahrar.

Another important fact: the source in question further babbles (citate), "Officially, Russia has declared al-Qaeda, Ahrar al-sham and all the salafist jihadists as terrorists, rejecting any presence of these groups at the negotiating table. This is exactly what Mr Assad declared throughout the years of war."

This is another lie, then Assad refused to talk with anybody from the FSyA, first and foremost. He's not going to change this now, as can be seen from Putler's insistence on declaring the FSyA, IF, and AAS for 'terrorists'.

Finally, what levels of absurdity such standpoints represent can at best be read in closing statements of that piece:

Quote:

...ISIS is exhausting Iran’s finance that is injected to support Syria with oil and cash to pay salaries and keep the various institutions standing and functioning. For the second time since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran is sending troops abroad to fight in thousands and not only a limited number of tens or hundreds of advisors.
So, if it is ISIS that is 'exhausting' Iran...which is the party that is paying practically everything that's left of the Assadist regime: then why to hell don't they fight the ISIS, but explain that it's 'no priority'?!?
CrowBat is offline Report Post

MORE Obama Syrian successes.......taken from Syrian 2016 thread comments...

Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post

CrowBat---anything to this comment...??

If Turkey is helping Azaz/Mare rebels to break through against IS, we could end up with rebels, YPG/SDF and regime all converging at Al Bab

It's certainly so that there is a sort of 'race' for al-Bab and Manbij going on:

- Turkey-supported FSyA insurgents are advancing along the border in the north;
- '2nd Division' of the regime (that is: 'Tiger Force' and 'Katibat Ba'ath' of the Ba'ath Party Militia/Phalanga) is advancing from Kweres AB in the south;
- SDF's US-supported/vetted FSyA elements are advancing from Teshreen Dam towards Manbij from south-east.

However, this morning the Hezbollah, IRGC, SSNP and NDF have launched an all-out attack on Salma in NE Lattakia, while the IRGC and 4th Division have launched an all-out attack west of Aleppo (city). Both of these are likely to draw lots of insurgent attention away from northern Aleppo.

So, I would say that this might become something like a 'crucial moment' in this war: either insurgents still have reserves - and supplies - they can re-deploy to reinforce frontlines in NE Lattakia and western Aleppo, and do so while continuing advance in northern Aleppo, or they are not only going to lose the race to al-Bab, but also give the regime a major PR coup.

Considering reports from southern Syria, where 24 FSyA groups are on the best way to beat the IRGC+PLA assault on Sheikh Mishkin despite another US ban on delivery of ammo and supplies from Jordan... sigh... well, guess it's not much better in regards of what they're getting from Turkey meanwhile and thus it's hard to place any bets on them any more.

Once again: 'congratulations Oblabla'...
CrowBat is offline Report Post

MORE Obama Syrian strategy successes that he and Kerry somehow do not want told and yet they "worry about messaging"..........

Taken from the Syrian 2016 thread comments.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post

...BTW--an accidental Twitter comment from a proAssad supporter indicated the "average accuracy" of the Russian dumb bomb to be between 1-2km from actual target point.

4 KM is not a problem as regime pilots are actually aiming with iPads at the villages/cities https://twitter.com/mario_greenly/st...24056589979648 …

This is something I'm 'telling' whoever is ready to 'listen' since nearly three months - and for which I'm getting attacked in all imaginable ways in return, too: fact is not only that the VKS is almost exclusively deploying 'dumb' bombs, but foremost that its aircraft lack the precision, and are flying much too high but to hit anything at all (especially in a country that is as windy as Syria is).

We all - and I mean: all serious observers of this and similar ongoing wars - are used to nearly 20 years of continuous warfare by Western militaries. Western warfare envisages tight integration between intel and combat operations with the aim of achieving greatest possible accuracy. It's not working 100%; not even 80%; so much is clear and we need not making ourselves any illusions. But, it's still really 'amazingly precise on average', especially when compared to earlier times (indeed, one can see significant improvement already in comparison to Bosnia of 1995, or Serbia/Kosovo of 1999).

Because of this we all expect a similar performance from Russians too. Actually, Russians are neither capable nor interested in delivering a comparable performance. From Moscow's POV, it's PRBS which is all that matters, and not some amazing precision or else. Why 'waste billions of bucks' when all that matters is number of sorties flown and number of bombs dropped one can claim in the public?

In turn, these numbers enable Keystone Cops in Moscow to claim 'hundreds of terrorists killed', every single day. The MSM is insta-buying this, mass of the public too, and nobody cares afterwards, no matter how much both of them - Keystone Cops and the MSM - have been proved as wrong.

While actually, 'even' Su-34s and Su-30SMs are really spraying and praying. This is more than logical, then one simply can't hit anything at all if dropping dumb bombs from 2,000m + altitude in a country as windy as Syria is.

As if eager to confirm this, Elijah J Mangier, one of biggest regime-fans online, indicated that the 'average accuracy' of Russian dumb bombs is about 1,000-2,000 metres from the actual target point; that of Assadist barrel-bomb attacks out to 4,000 metres. Curiously, he deleted that Tweet ever since, but this was saved by some others, for example here.

Final irony: wherever I tried to explain that 90% of Russian sorties are targeting civilians in insurgent-held territories and about 5% are targeting the FSyA on several other 'military' forums, I've got banned within seconds - irrespectivelly of my assessment being based on Russian and allied releases, and well-supported. Now the AJE report here is citing the SNC reports that say,

Quote:

..."Nearly 94 percent of the 12,000 sorties the Russian air force has so far flown in Syria targeted civilians and the Free Syrian Army."
...
...which means: their statistics is confirming mine...

Bottom line: it's not as if 'Moscow couldn't care less when bombing civilians'. It's a part of their strategy.

However, actual fact is that they are missing even these and - to make things 'even better' - at least something like 50% of their bombs are failing to detonate.

Therefore, it's as absurd as true: Syrians can consider themselves happy Russian aiming is as piss-poor, otherwise there would be dozens of thousands of casualties already...
CrowBat is offline Report Post

Why does Obama worry about "messaging" in his Syrian strategy WHEN he absolutely does nothing that would indicate that he is a leader......

ONLY two comments from his DoS and Kerry about the deliberate Putin air strikes against only civilians and not a single IS fighter....AND absolutely not a single comment on the deliberate use of starvation as a tactical weapon which is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

The US dropped food supplies to Kurds BUT the "messaging" to the average Syrian civilian is "you are not worth the effort"...........

Starving Syrians in Madaya are denied aid amid political jockeying. http://nyti.ms/1Zfl0P7

Footage
Hell on earth in #Douma again ...
Giant "#Russian" bombs hit the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5-tzjKoOyk …
pic.twitter.com/UazGqC79YB

No words to describe this ...
#Douma today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAEPpJ8j2cE …
pic.twitter.com/HJlyV6D5R3

Death toll in Russian raids on Syria's Idlib nears 100
http://dld.bz/egXtu
pic.twitter.com/y9Cj89GjnC

BTW--an accidental Twitter comment from a proAssad supporter indicated the "average accuracy" of the Russian dumb bomb to be between 1-2km from actual target point.

4 KM is not a problem as regime pilots are actually aiming with iPads at the villages/cities https://twitter.com/mario_greenly/status/686424056589979648 …

When it comes to Syria and a Syrian strategy highly suggest the Obama WH replace the entire 700 person NSC with this author....the last three paragraphs especially the last paragraph concern facts that somehow do not get mentioned by the Obama WH and or the US MSM...wonder why that is????

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...ssads-war#full

Iran won’t surrender militias that conduct Assad’s war

Hassan Hassan

January 10, 2016 Updated: January 10, 2016 05:27 PM

Quote:

Not long before the Riyadh-Tehran diplomatic row that followed the execution of Saudi Shia cleric Nimr Al Nimr, a showdown between the two countries unfolded in New York. While it is difficult to draw a direct correlation between the two events, the incident can help us understand the depth of the continuing crisis.

On December 18, heated debate ensued between representatives of the two countries at a meeting in New York over the listing of armed groups operating in Syria for possible determination as terrorist organisations. The list, which Jordan was asked to develop, would name extremist groups that must be defeated as part of the UN-sponsored political process for Syria.

A month earlier in Vienna, Saudi Arabia had insisted on including in the list foreign Shia militias fighting on the side of president Bashar Al Assad. Riyadh argued that all foreign fighters must leave Syria, regardless of which side they supported. In New York, Iran, joined by Russia, strongly objected to the demand and the standoff caused a deeper rift between the two countries.

For now, the designation of terror groups in Syria has been referred to a committee comprising several European and regional countries. They first determined indicators and criteria of what constitutes a terrorist organisation, then named armed groups currently fighting in Syria. There is a preliminary list of more than 160 Sunni and Shia organisations.

Iran categorically rejects including any Shia groups in the list. For Tehran, the fate of the Assad regime it supports is critically tied to the presence of those Shia militias. It is a fact that adds to the many issues that compound the conflict in Syria – issues that the international community would seemingly rather sweep under the carpet instead of deal with head on.

The Syrian regime controls about 30 per cent of the country, though it probably controls over 50 per cent of the population. According to the defence think tank IHS Jane’s, the regime lost 16 per cent of its territory over the past year. These figures are particularly damning if one considers that foreign Shia militias were on the front line of key battles against the rebels – in the Qalamoun region, Aleppo and central and western Syria – over this period.

The growing role of these militias last year came as the Syrian army showed signs of internal weakening, something that Mr Al Assad has admitted. During his most recent speech, almost exactly a month before the Russian intervention in September, the president said that the army lacked “manpower”. Also last year, paramilitary fighters with the National Defence Forces (NDF) began to focus on their local areas rather than deploy in the front lines elsewhere – a task that foreign fighters took on.

Youssef Sadaki, a Syrian researcher who closely focuses on Shia militias, says those foreign fighters acted as the main strikers in battles outside the regime’s heartlands, while the NDF fighters defended their areas or secured and held newly-captured areas.

According to Mr Sadaki, foreign militias lead the regime’s battles in southern Aleppo, and the front lines between Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs and Hama. Hizbollah has spearheaded key battles in southern Syria near the Lebanese borders, while other militias guard the front lines in Damascus and fought in Deraa.

Phillip Smyth, a close observer of Shia militancy, says that most of the regime’s offensives over the past two years were led by foreign forces, including in areas where the regime’s elite units operate, such as in Damascus.

“When we look at Aleppo, the entire offensive there was spearheaded and planned by the Iranians, it was their Shia militia proxy forces which showcased the entire campaign,” said Mr Smyth, from the University of Maryland. “It’s quite clear that they are a – if not the main – fighting force in many areas.”

Last month on these pages, I highlighted that while Iran and Russia might in theory be willing to accept the removal of Mr Al Assad, there are practical reasons why they would not do that, because consequences are unpredictable and the result is not guaranteed.

For the rebels, no peace is possible while Mr Al Assad is in power, so his future complicates the peace talks. So does the presence of Shia militias in Syria.

Reliance on these foreign forces means that their departure will have to follow the consolidation of the government’s military control over the country. They operate in critical areas and the regime’s army or NDF do not appear to be prepared to take their place.

The presence of Shia militias is important for the regime and for its backer in Tehran. Many of these militias are also key Iranian proxies in Iraq, with recent reports suggesting that Iran has diverted them to Syria to assist in the wake of the Russian intervention in Syria. So the issue has also a regional dimension that cannot be ignored.

Iran finds itself in a situation where it seeks to save the regime in Syria through the help of religious zealots, while pushing for the designation as terrorists of Sunni extremists fighting on the side of the opposition.

In western capitals, strangely, that seems to be a reasonable position. For the opposition and regional backers such as Saudi Arabia, that is double dealing that further complicates the already-complex conflict in Syria.

The Syrian strategy successes just keep on rolling in....one phone call and one transport flight away from a nuclear device since one out of 120 will not be badly missed.......??

YET Obama and team worries about Iran....??

Sunni Arab States have now formally begun to structure themselves as the de facto Sunni Block against Iran --seems Obama and company overlooked that critical calculation in their Iran Deal.......KSA on one side of Iran and Pakistan on the other side...interesting.....

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pakistan-...144318541.html

Pakistan says it will respond to any threat to Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Any threat to Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity will evoke a strong response from Islamabad, Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif said Sunday.

Sharif made the remarks in a statement after Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman met with him in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital.

Salman earlier arrived in Islamabad, making him the second top Saudi official to visit Pakistan in a week amid growing tension with Iran over Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr's recent execution.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir visited Pakistan a couple of days ago.

The visits came after Saudi Arabia and several of its allies announced the severing or downgrading of diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran. Protesters in Tehran stormed the Saudi embassy and a Saudi consulate elsewhere in the country after Saudi Arabia executed al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric and opposition leader earlier this month.

Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni state, also has a large Shiite population. Pakistan has had a history of sectarian violence where Sunni and Shiite militants have reportedly been funded and supported by Gulf states for their proxy wars.

The deputy crown prince later called on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The people of Pakistan would always stand with the people of Saudi Arabia, said Sharif in a statement after the meeting. Pakistan has previously agreed to become part of a Saudi-led counter-terrorism alliance. Sharif welcomed the initiative and informed the prince about Pakistan's support for efforts to oppose terrorism and extremism. It was agreed that the two countries would cooperate in developing an effective counter narrative to defeat the extremist mindset, said the statement. It said Pakistan also expressed its readiness to offer its offices to brotherly Muslim countries for resolution of their differences through peaceful dialogue and reconciliation.

Pakistan hold its defense ties with Saudi Arabia in highest esteem, said Sharif, the army chief. He said Pakistan attached great importance to the security of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Those Syrian strategy successes just keep on keeping on.........after this particular success MAYBE the Obama WH does in fact truly need some messaging.

Breaking
#Hezbollah al-Nujaba leader Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi visits invasion forces in Al-Eis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OcGNvrK20 …
pic.twitter.com/94RDK1LW57

More information on him:
http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.de/201...kaabi-and.html …
and his de facto Iranian-led militia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haraka...llah_al-Nujaba …

AND who is exactly the God Father to Hezbollah......AND who wants to maintain a land corridor through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon??

BUT WAIT that Iranian Deal was to ensure the "moderates take over" right???