The End of Syria

What happened in Syria was unpredictable but a long time in coming. Behind the scenes, both Russia and Iran understood that Assad’s position was growing increasingly tenuous as Syria was strangled under American sanctions and deprived of the revenues it had previously relied upon to function as a state due to illegal occupations of its territory by the United States and Turkey.

Russia and Iran provided critical military support and other aid to Syria, but neither could afford to subsidize such a large country wholesale. Moreover, the desperate situation was compromising Iranian supply operations to Hezbollah because of rampant corruption. Their routes were constantly being exposed for Israeli bombing operations. Jews have the money and thrive on exploiting desperation. This has been the bane of all resistance movements towards them in the Middle East.

While the name of the country could easily date back 4,000 years, the Syrian state was set up in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse without much regard to the ethnic, tribal, and religious diversity that made it a completely contrived entity rather than something more organic like Finland or Japan. Just like Iraq, it was impossible to control without serious coercion.

Historical Primer on the Syrian Catastrophe

Whoever was in charge of Syria would have to rule by coalitions and force rather than a natural population consensus that comes from everyone being the same. Just like with Iraq, they initially tried to set it up under a monarchy which soon failed. In hindsight, the Assad family had a pretty long run considering the odds stacked against them. They’re Alawites, and thus not from one of the major factions like the Sunnis. The massive population growth between Assad’s father coming to power and his flight into exile didn’t help either.

It appears safe to say at this point that the state of Syria is gone, never to return. Turkey wanted much of Syria back and had long resented having it separated from the modern Turkish state after the Ottoman Empire’s defeat by the Allies. Turkish commentators and public officials, such as Erdogan himself, express irredentist claims about a significant portion of the Middle East and will probably seek to incorporate the Syrian territory it controls into Turkey.

The collapse of Syria seems to have been prompted by Turkey’s “rent-a-jihadi” move solely against Aleppo directed by Turkish intelligence. Most of the terrorists aren’t even from Syria. Their salaries were exponentially higher than the starvation wages of Assad’s troops. These are literally ISIS/Al-Qaeda terrorists whose leader they started dressing up like Zelensky rather than his classic terrorist style. It’s almost comical, and serves as proof of just how easy it is to curate a narrative for the idiot MSM consumer.

Middle East Deceptions

There were probably only around 15,000 of them while Syria’s military numbered in the hundreds of thousands and could call upon support from Iran and Russia. However, the entire edifice was tottering, and this move by the Turks to take Aleppo with their rented jihadis proved to be the catalyst for its demise.

Nobody knew this was going to happen, but the Russians and Iranians realized they couldn’t commit themselves to an unwinnable situation and quickly cut their losses. Apparently, it was so rapid and unexpected that Assad’s brother didn’t even know that he was about to flee. It remains to be seen what arrangement the Russians might strike to keep their bases, or else move them to Libya or Algeria in humiliation.

The MSM narrative is that a brutal dictator propped up by the bad guys in Moscow and Tehran was finally overthrown by rebels, and coverage constantly shows footage of emptied Syrian prisons and cheering crowds. The reality is that once everyone realized Syria was a corpse, the terrorists pressed on all the way to Damascus and everyone else moved in to devour the best morsels. This is a very bad situation for the average Syrian.

Israel has now formally claimed the Golan Heights and will no doubt seek to annex as much of Syria as possible under the pretext of creating a security “buffer zone.” Once the Syrian military deserted, the Israelis moved in to blow all of its equipment up, again under the pretext of making sure it doesn’t fall into the hands of terrorists. No state is going to be resurrected that can serve as a bulwark against Israel, this seems to be a certainty.

Hundreds of targets have been hit by low-flying Israeli planes which face no AA threat whatsoever. I’ve seen American experts claim these bombings prove that F-35s can’t be detected by Russian AA systems such as the S-300, which the Jews have been destroying. Blowing up abandoned equipment doesn’t prove much of anything but, once again, I have total confidence that the U.S. military will be able to learn nothing of value from what’s happened.

There are some very important lessons for rational observers to draw, lessons which will shape how events unfold as Trump takes office. I will cover these in my fourth article on this topic later in the week.