MoA—The upper part of the graphic explains the S-400 system. The lower part says: “The system can eliminate” and then shows the silhouettes and names of U.S. military bomber, fighter and radar planes as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles. The only one missing is the ‘invisible’ F-35 which the S-400 can of course also detect and eliminate.
MOA—Erdogan had planned to only occupy a 10 miles deep strip along the Syrian-Turkish border. Some 15,000 Turkish controlled ‘Syrian rebels’ stand ready for that. He would need some 50-100,000 troops to occupy all of east Syria northward of the Euphrates. It would be a hostile occupation among well armed Kurds who would oppose it and an Arab population that is not exactly friendly towards a neo-Ottoman Turkey. Erdogan knows this well.
STRATEGIC CULTURE—Washington’s putative withdrawal from Syria, if anything, is due to its realization of defeat for its regime-change operation. The Syrian army, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah deserve the laurels for heroically defeating the terrorist jihadist proxies whom Washington deployed to Syria for regime change. Salute too to the brave Syrian people for their amazing steadfastness in the face of horrific assault.
Some people expressed their concern that perhaps Putin was a little reckless in agreeing to supply Turkey with S-400s. At the time, I confidently predicted that those advanced air defence systems would never be delivered to Turkey. The Turkish nuclear power plants may be built, but it won’t be by Russian companies. The “Turkstream” gas pipeline will be shelved. Turkey will not lose out by this second U-Turn; it will be rewarded with concessions that will be at the expense of Greece and Cyprus and…. Syria.
From the beginning, the Khashoggi story wasn’t really about the fate of one man. The Saudis have been getting away with bloody murder, literally, for years. They’re daily slaughtering the civilian population of Yemen with American and British help, with barely a ho-hum from the sensitive consciences always ready to invoke the so-called “responsibility to protect” Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, Syria, Xinjiang, Rakhine, and so forth.