Saker’s “man of the year”: the Syrian soldier 

In 2013 The Saker chose the Syrian soldier for his "Man of the Year" award.  We completely agree, for all the reasons The Saker lays out so well in this essay, and that's why we are reposting it here, a belated move we regard as doubly apt considering the constant denigration the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) receives at the hands of their doctrinal enemies and career disinformers in the imperialist media.

—The Editor

The Saker

Syrian soldiers. Loyal to Assad and Syria's independence as a nation.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he latest instance of this sordid, unrelenting campaign to blacken the image of this fighting force (part of the corporate press demonization of Bashir al-Assad's government), cropped up in a segment of CBS' 60 Minutes telemagazine last Sunday (10 January 2016). The segment, delivered by Mike Whitaker, purported to examine the Russian military presence in Syria. In what these days passes for journalism, Whitaker, while loyally using the stiletto on Assad, and putting some poison on the lips of a Russian general, also managed to include a few dissing remarks on the SAA. The calumny against the Syrian Army, while characteristically hypocritical, is jarring because the SAA is the only armed force that has from the start, and with the utmost resolution, opposed the legions of murderous Salafists and lunatics employed by the West to accomplish its criminal designs in the Middle East, an insalubrious effort currently focused on Syria. Anyone who is serious about defeating these barbarous maniacs should stand by the SAA fighters. They have certainly earned the respect of decent people across the world for their bravery in the face of the most challenging circumstances.——The Editors

NOTE: This essay is an excerpt from The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world. For a critique of the 60 Minutes program, click here.

By The Saker
Yes, I know, this “man of the year” business is silly. But then, when I see the pathetic choices made for man of the year by the corporate media, I feel that if they can’t even do a halfway decent job in that rather easy task, why should I not indulge myself and choose my own man, or woman, of the year. So anyway, here is my choice.

Runner up: Vladimir Putin 

First, I thought of nominating Vladimir Putin. Pretty obvious, I would say. Not only did he stop the US in its planned attack on Syria, he thereby also prevented an almost inevitable domino effect of having Iran drawn in and then even possibly Russia. Throughout the Syrian war, Putin showed an ironclad consistency in upholding the rule of international law and demanding that a negotiated solution be found. If we consider that the US attack on Yugoslavia on behalf of the Kosovar guerrillas marked the official death of international law, the Russian move to stop the US attack just days before it occurred was, quite literally, the resurrection of international law. Just for that Putin deserves the Nobel Peace Prize while Obama should be stripped of his. Putin also firmly resisted the Saudi offer of money in exchange for caving in on the Syrian problem, and even when Bandar threatened terrorist attacks on Sochi, Putin held firm. When Netanyahu showed up in Moscow with, basically, the same demands, Putin also warmly welcomed him, smiled a lot, and then sent him home empty handed.

The price paid by the Syrian army has been enormous. ISIL routinely murders any SAA prisoners in the most barbaric way imaginable. Here they get ready for a mass execution. Beheadings, hangings and drownings are common, but other even more satanic forms of murder have been practiced on SAA troops. Meanwhile Western human rights organizations have never raised a finger to protest such atrocities.

Putin also did an absolutely stellar job of beating back the Anglo-Zionist propaganda machine: he did not yield on the homo lobby’s campaign to organize a “pride parade” in Moscow, instead he actually got a law passed making the propaganda of homosexuality among minors a criminal offense. He did not yield in the infamous “Pussy Riot” case either— Amnesty International called these creatures “prisoners of conscience,” but that did not prevent him from sticking them exactly where they belong: in the company of other petty criminals in a work camp. Nor did Putin yield even a millimeter to the liberal crowds who attempted to organize a color-coded coup similar to the one they later attempted on the Maidan square in Kiev. When Western oil interests dispatched Greenpeace’s activists to try to stop Russia from exploring and exploiting its Arctic shelf, Putin showed that he did not intend to yield to that sort of pressure either, instead he made sure that Russia would develop the means and capabilities to defend its national interests on the North Pole. Last, but not least, he got two of his most formidable opponents (Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky) to plead for his mercy (the former was killed for doing so, the latter left Russia). All of the above proved to the AngloZionists that Russia was no longer their colony and that Russia had recovered most, though not all, of its sovereignty. That is a huge achievement as for the first time since February 1917 a sovereign Russia reappeared on the world map. And yet, I think that there is somebody which deserves even more praise and whom I will nominate my “man of the year 2013″: Saker’s Man of the Year 2013: the Syrian soldier

Syrian army regulars celebrating a recent victory and hailing Assad.

     A BOOK REVIEW NOT TO BE MISSED.     

THE ESSENTIAL SAKER: from the trenches of the  emerging multipolar world
(Kindle Locations 11184-11201). Nimble Books LLC. Kindle Edition.

Reviewed by Jeff J. Brown

More Syrian soldiers (SAA) summarily executed.

Of course, the Syrian soldier had to show courage to fight against the international coalition which brought together Western special forces officers and murderous Wahhabi thugs from all over the planet. But he also had to show a different kind of courage not to get discouraged with the so-called “friends of Syria” got together for that international meeting on how to crush Syria. It took a very special courage for the Syrian soldier not to get disgusted and bitter when he saw the wave of betrayals coming from all over the Muslim and Arab world, especially from the political prostitutes of Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian “intellectuals” who sided with Uncle Sam and his Empire. I can only imagine the anguish felt by the Syrian soldiers when they were told that Russia, Iran and Hezbollah would offer nothing more than words, while the West would offer money, guns and training to the insurgency. And yet the fighting spirit of the Syrian soldier did not break, even when some Syrian generals betrayed their fellow officers and defected to their Western handlers.

Syrian army soldiers cheering their victory in Qusayr. Assad still enjoys wide popularity in many sectors of the population, and most Syrians are aware of what awaits them at the hands of NATO-enabled lunatics. The SAA (Syrian Arab Army) is the oldest anti-terrorist force in the region.

And yet, somehow, even those who truly want the Syrian people to be free seem to take for granted that the Syrian military would fight with no hesitation or doubts. Why? They are not robots. And I am quite sure that most of them are quite aware that the current Syrian regime is, shall we say, less than perfect and that the Syrian security services are not exactly beloved by the vast majority of the population. In the age of the Internet, I am quite confident that the vast majority of Syrian are fully aware of all the ugly aspects of the regime Bashar al-Assad inherited from his father. I guess they realize that he was simply not given the time to implement reforms he had been pondering as early as his years in the UK and they have forgiven him his clumsy handling of the earlier stages of the insurrection. Whatever may be the case, the Syrian soldiers have plenty of reasons to doubt and fear that they would be swiped away like Gaddafi’s regime. And yet they stood firm, for two and a half long years and they held on long enough to finally see at least the general outline of a possible end to the conflict.

At the end of 2013 things definitely look better for Syria than in 2012 or 2011 and even though the Saudis are now clearly threatening a terrorist campaign, it is now possible to hope that 2014 will be a comparatively better year for the Syrian people.

Special distinction: Hassan Nasrallah 

[dropcap]I [/dropcap]have to mention another person who acted heroically in 2013: Hassan Nasrallah. At a time when the vast majority of the Muslim and Arab world had betrayed the Syrian people and basically sold out to the Anglos, Zionists and Wahhabis, Hassan Nasrallah took the very delicate decision to stand by the Syrian regime even though I am quite sure that he had little love for Assad or his brand of Baathism. Nasrallah also must have known how corrupt the Syrian regime was, that it was chock-full of CIA/‌ MI6/‌ Mossad/‌ DGSE/‌ etc. agents and simply corrupt officials, and yet he made the correct call, very early on, to stand by Syria and its less-than-perfect President. And when things got really tough, Hassan Nasrallah did send Hezbollah fighters to stand by the Syrian military even though that put him in a delicate political situation inside Lebanon. As for Hezbollah fighters, they performed as always— in an absolutely stellar way— and they played the crucial role of turning the tide of the entire war during the battle for al-Qusayr. The main reason why I did not give the title of man of the year to Hassan Nasrallah is that he would be more deserving of the title of “man of the decade.” Besides, think of it this way: in early 2011 who could have expected Hassan Nasrallah to act wisely and heroically? Everybody, of course. But who would have expected the Syrian soldier to show so much courage and fortitude? Not very many people, I think. What is sure is that Hassan Nasrallah remains one of the most popular leaders in the Middle East while very few people render homage to the Syrian soldier and this is why I decided to single him out as my (collective) “Man of the Year 2013.” What are your candidates? —December 25, 2013

From The Saker (2015-11-17). THE ESSENTIAL SAKER: from the trenches of the  emerging multipolar world (Kindle Locations 11184-11201). Nimble Books LLC. Kindle Edition.