Mato's Blog

The Islamists in eastern Aleppo must be really in dire straits, because Western propaganda has reached fever pitch, with unprecedented levels of hysteria and acrimony against Russia and Syria.

Military maps show, that in three weeks the territory occupied by the insurgents has shrunk by a third and northern Aleppo is now completely under government control. One cannot say anymore that Aleppo is evenly divided, because the Islamists hold just a third of the city at the most. That the Islamists have mined and barricaded all seven civilian crossings to prevent people from leaving the area is clear indication that they are getting desperate.

In accordance with their territory the estimations of the radical Islamists strengths have shrunk as well. While for a long time there was consent that roughly half of the insurgents trapped in eastern Aleppo were members of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra), UN envoy de Mistura now revived their number down to just 900 and in the last days articles appeared where unnamed diplomatic sources claim, that not more than 200 members of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham are among the insurgents.

A recent piece in the Guardian, who churns out pro-war articles at an increasingly frantic rate, eclipsing both Washington Post and New York Times as the new leader in the anti-Russia, anti-Syria propaganda campaign, tells another story.

According to this article the brave defenders of eastern Aleppo, frustrated and disillusioned by their failure to take the city, either gave up, left, or were chased away by the radical Islamists who replaced them nearly completely. This was of course the fault of the evil Assad-regime, who didn’t leave the insurgents alone (as any decent government would have done), but relentlessly tried to reassert state control over the city.

The author of this article should be fired instantly. He is not only a bad journalist, but, even more important, a bad propagandist.  How can he write that the “moderate rebels” are gone, when his paymasters insist that only a handful of Islamists are among the heroic defenders of eastern Aleppo?

Such lapses should never be allowed to happen, because they can severely undermine the officially approved narrative. Fortunately (for the propagandists) Western media users are numbed and dumbed by the constant propaganda barrage, while attention span and long-term memory capacity have reached historic lows due to smartphones, computers, and TV.

So, while mistakes are made here and there and evidence may be inconclusive or contradictory, the pro-war campaign is gathering pace and is steamrolling all dissent. French President Francois Hollande: “The population [of Aleppo] is the victim of war crimes. Those who commit these acts will pay for this responsibility before the international court of justice.”

The accusation of genocide until now has only been made by journalists and mid-level officials, who have raised memories about the bombing of Guernica (British MP Andrew Mitchell) and the Rwandan genocide (Washington Post, October 8). Top Western leaders probably spare the genocide label for the decisive phase of war preparations.

Well, throughout human history the winning side was always right and justice has been exclusively a “justice of the victors.” Therefore it is not inconceivable that after the defeat of Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Algeria, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, Equador, Bolivia, Zimbabwe, South Africa by the West in World War III there will be a reenactment of the Nuremberg trials, where Putin, Lavrov, Shoygu, Assad, Makhlouf, al-Freij, Xi, Chang, and others will be sentenced to death and hanged like it happened to Frank, Frick, Goering, Jodl, von Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Streicher, and Seyss-Inquart in 1946.

Of course, there is still some way to go till this happens, and it is not assured that 1. people will support war, 2. the West will win, and 3. humans will survive World War III.

This blog has since the start of the Syrian conflict tried to present alternative views about Syria, using preferably sources which usually are considered as neutral, fair, and trustworthy. Here is another report about Aleppo city which may give additional insight:

Simon Caldwell   Catholic News Service

On a visit in Lancaster, England, a Christian nun working with families in western Aleppo, has criticized journalists for their biased coverage of the six-year conflict.

Sister Annie Demerjian, a member of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary, questioned why Western journalists focused on the plight of people in areas held by jihadis but seldom mention those in regions controlled by the government of Bashar al-Assad.

“It is not fair,” she told Catholic News Service in an October 10 interview.

“We don’t see a balance,” she said. “Last week nobody spoke about a (Christian) woman who pulled her son from a balcony without his head, and just a river of blood coming out of his neck.”

She said the adult son had rushed outside when a rebel shell had landed nearby and he heard shouts in the street. His head was blown off when the area of government-controlled western Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, was struck by a second shell.

“His mother was crying, ‘Come in, come in,'” said Sister Annie. “She pulled him to find he had no head. Nobody spoke about that, nothing. There are many stories like that. It is very painful when shells are falling in residential areas. Many people die.”

“Sometimes their families and friends have to collect the pieces of the bodies — a hand here, a leg there, body parts in other places — but nobody is talking about it,” she said. “Why is the world silent about it? People don’t know what is happening.”

Sister Annie said families were very afraid.

“They are living in fear most of the time and also the hope that one day there will be peace. Parents, when they send their children to school, say goodbye like they will not see each other again because they know that at any time rockets or shells might fall on top of us.”

Her comments came as governments in the West stepped up their criticism of the bombardment by Syrian forces of rebel positions, with the help of Russian jets.

The rebels, along with Islamic State fighters and militants of the Nusra Front — a former affiliate of al-Qaida — have surrounded the city and have constantly attacked the government regions where all of the Christian inhabitants are sheltering.

But amid concerns that civilians in rebel areas are being targeted by Bashar al-Assad and his allies, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, in late September described Russian intervention in Aleppo as “barbarism.”

Russia announced on October 11 that President Vladimir Putin has canceled a visit to France scheduled for mid-October after the French government suggested that his forces were guilty of war crimes.

In the UK former government minister Andrew Mitchell, speaking on October 11 during a three-hour emergency debate on the battle for Aleppo, compared Russia to Nazi Germany and said it would be right to shoot down Russian planes to protect civilians.

Just a day earlier, Major General Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Ministry of Defense told the UK that Russia was “achieving results” against terrorists.

“Where was Great Britain when IS almost reached the shores of the Mediterranean, almost turning Syria into a terrorist caliphate — in the same way that happened in Libya thanks to your efforts?” he said in an October 10 statement.

In her interview with CNS, Sister Annie, 49, said civilians on both sides were suffering from the fighting in Aleppo.

“There are shells and bombs from everywhere falling all over Aleppo,” she said. “Both sides are suffering, yes.”

But she said she would like journalists to better reflect the plight of all civilians in what they reported “in their newspapers, in their interviews.”

She added: “I wish and I hope that everybody — all those who have power to intervene in Syria — will act as peacemakers and think about how they can make peace in Syria and especially in Aleppo.”

“This is very important to us — stop thinking about victory for one side or the other. We want peace, we have had enough. Our people are tired after six years,” she said. “We wonder why this is happening to us. We were living in peace and lacking nothing and we wonder why this has happened. Many people are asking why this war has happened.”

She continued: “This is the message from my people: Please, please be the makers of peace. It is not just for Syria, it’s for the whole world.”

Sister Annie, who was in England as a guest of Aid to the Church in Need and who was scheduled to address politicians in the Houses of Parliament on October 17, said Christians and Muslims lived in harmony before the war.

“We lived in the same areas, we called each other brothers and sisters. … We didn’t have divisions between Muslims and Christians before. This is new.”