Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Aleppo is about to fall. Why is it not seen as good news?

via Washington Post.
Over the past week, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad havenearly encircled the city of Aleppo, once the war-torn country's most populous urban center. By doing so, they have effectively cut off all vital routes of supply from Turkey to the rebel-held areas of the city.
On Monday, Syrian government forces seized the northern town of Kfeen, not far from the border with Turkey. The offensive has prompted fears of a new refugee exodus, as well as the real risk that Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital during peacetime, will fall, marking perhaps the greatest victory for Assad since the 2011 rebellion against his rule first began.
Then check this out...
Should Aleppo fall to the regime, it will mark a real turning point in the conflict. As Sly reported last week, the rebel takeover of the city in 2012 had come at a moment when many observers were confident Assad's demise was inevitable. Now, a fractured rebellion will have to soldier on against the odds, probably with the more fundamentalist, Islamist factions leading the fight.
Moreover, world powers — and presumably also the Assad regime — will still want to vanquish the Islamic State, the extremist group that has dominated global headlines since its dramatic rise two years ago and controls territory in Iraq and Syria.
"This is not the end of the war, but could be the beginning of the end, with Assad, Russia, Hezbollah, and Iran as the biggest winners,” Patrick Megahan, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Bloomberg News.
And then finally this...
"Syria is now the Obama administration’s shame, a debacle of such dimensions that it may overshadow the president’s domestic achievements," Cohen concludes.
Aleppo.

The burial ground of the Obama Administration's Middle East policy....but otherwise the beginning of good news if you want the region to at least temporarily stabilize.

Besides.  Haliburton is gonna make a killing rebuilding

No comments :

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.