It's going to be fascinating as Ankara and the Syrian regime begin to work together with Iran and Russia...while Ankara continues to prevent Sweden joining NATO and continues to bash Greece...the commentators who continually "explain" Ankara's position...
It's going to be endless excuses as in "no, don't you see, Ankara isn't working with Syria, but you see they have interests, and see they are compartmentalizing, and they have shared concerns...you see they aren't working together"...etc...
Ankara has such a lobby and kind of magic wand affect hold on some that adoration for Ankara and excuses for it, no matter what it does, is built in...for some of these commentators they claim to adore Ankara because it is "against Russia-Iran-Assad"...it's "balancing" them etc
The US is demanding testing of those traveling from China, China responds for demands for "science-based" policies. Ok, so what was "science-based" about Beijing going from "zero Covid" to few restrictions. Since we always here about this "science," let's see it.
Throughout the pandemic we've been told about "science" the way people talk about religion...policies go from one extreme to the other, but where is the "science" behind it. When does "science" say that a country should go from "zero" Covid mandates...to "travel free-for-all?
Most of what we hear about "science" is in fact just ham-handed policies, loosely rooted in a scientific approach, meaning they take expert opinions on things that are largely unproven...science can't tell you what to do you usually.
Israel's Ministry of Defense: Another Step in 'Eitan' APC Serial Production: the Israel Ministry of Defense has selected "Oshkosh Defense" to produce hundreds of hulls for the IDF's new wheeled Armored Personnel Carriers (APC).
"The hulls that will arrive in Israel in about a year and a half will immediately join the production line. Once fully assembled, the vehicles will be transferred for operational use, thus significantly expanding the number of armored APCs used by the IDF."
- "The deal between the procurement mission and Oshkosh Defense is estimated to be over 100 million dollars, financed by American aid funds."
Thread: So Russia is brokering some kind of talks between Turkey and the Syrian regime, this looks important, it comes after Ankara has demanded more invasions of Syria and wants to use former Syrian rebels to fight the SDF, to neutralize both.
The potential deal with the Syrian regime has been hinted at for months. Ankara wants normalization and said that first its ministers must meet their counterparts before the big meeting happens.
Russia wants to broker this because both Moscow and Ankara want to get the US out of Syria. Ankara carried out massive airstrikes after it used a November bombing in Istanbul as an excuse to carry out attacks, even though there was no evidence of a link to Syria
The whole tragedy of eastern Syria and the US-SDF partnership is that it’s just security, no one ever comments about civilian life and their rights there, when there is Ankara bombing it’s just “destabilization” no one says that the people deserve a life free from bombing
Note the different rhetoric regarding Idlib and eastern Syria. Bombing in Idlib is seen as affecting civilian life, in eastern Syria it’s solely about the anti-ISIS mission…no one ever comments about the rights of civilians
It’s so sad because the war on ISIS was foremost about liberating areas from their brutal control, it shouldn’t just be about security, you have to win the peace after the war, not just have endless security issues, but rebuilding and helping people.
That's what happens when any country or group relies on Moscow. It's not Armenia's fault it was forced to be stuck with Moscow, but since it had to rely on Moscow it was inevitable that this will happen. No country that is connected to Moscow will ever be anything but used
Moscow doesn't care about the average people in Yerevan, Donetsk, Minsk, Benghazi, Damascus, or wherever else lurks...these are pieces on the chess board...which is why "realists" like Moscow because they too think everything is pawns and rooks
That's why some people talk about eastern Syria as "temporary, transactional and tactical"...just another "pawn" on the board to be traded for this or that; 160,000 people in Afrin were traded back in 2018 too...millions can be moved here and there, starved, frozen, that's Moscow