SYRIA

JANICE KORTKAMP—Problems abound in Syria. An estimated half a million people have died. Nearly half the population was displaced with millions becoming refugees outside the country. There are huge swaths of horrific destruction of infrastructure. The economy is shattered while corruption, smuggling, and the black market continue to be major issues. Electricity is scarce. The US, Turkey and Israel all are illegally occupying Syrian lands. And the army, the brave and stalwart Syrian Army soldiers with their allies, must keep fighting the remaining terrorist groups, particularly ISIS and al Qaeda.

Syria has won against the combined efforts of the “leaders of the free world” and western regional puppets to conquer it though the costs have been catastrophically and tragically high.

VANESSA BEELEY—Ambassadors have been reduced to nothing more than talking heads for power, there are no longer any checks and balances from senior diplomats who once held sway over their government policy. These days we see juvenile reactions from gravitas-deficient representatives of UK and US bi-partisan war parties.

We in the West are represented by ambitious careerist popinjays who will run PR campaigns for sadistic regime foreign policy without a second thought for the peoples affected. It is up to us to reverse the trend and to demand that those who lead us to wars we don’t want and who kill people we identify with, in our names, are stopped. Not just this time but for always. We owe it to Syria.

I asked former UK Ambassador to Syria and Bahrain, Peter Ford, for a statement, this is what he wrote:

“The most significant thing is that the elections were held at all. With three foreign armies occupying part of their soil (Turkey, the US and Israel), with the West waging savage economic war on them to turn them against their President, with years of indescribable suffering at the hands of Western-backed militants behind them, the Syrian people delivered a resounding verdict in favour of stability as represented by the holding of elections on schedule.

JANICE KORTKAMP—Syrian people are not isolated. They have,  and have had, full open access to the entirety of the internet and social media. Many speak two or more languages. They know everything that has been said about their country, their leader and their army. Every accusation. Every denouncement by every western official. Every “war sells news so news sells war” establishment media report.

On the same day, the Turkish military established three new ‘observation posts’ around Jisr al-Shughur. They are located at the villages of Baksariya, al-Z’ainiyah and Furaykah. Idlib militants see Turkish positions as an important defense line that would allow containing possible Russia- and Iran-backed anti-terrorist operations in the area.

The 46th Regiment Base of the Syrian Army in western Aleppo came under Turkish artillery shelling. In response, Syrian forces struck position of Turkish-backed militants near Kafr Amma. The attack on the 46th Regiment Base became a third incident between the Turkish military and Syrian troops in less than a week. On April 3, two Syrian soldiers were killed in a Turkish artillery strike on their positions near Tell Abyad.

Late on February 4, Assad forces broke through the defenses of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Party and their colleagues southeast of Saraqib and captured over 110km2, including the villages of Sheikh Edris, Balisah and Kafr Amim. Nearby Turkish observation posts observed this with tears in their eyes. Ankara just declared that its military had delivered a devastating blow to the regime with dozens of strikes. Turkish troops just did not expect such a cowardly attack from the defeated pro-government forces.