A massive number of innocent civilian deaths is almost certain to take place in Syria over the coming months unless the world does something about it. The dictator of Syria Bashar Assad and his allies have essentially defeated all the Syrian rebels throughout Syria except in one north western province, Idlib province. The state of things in Syria besides territory under Assad's control are that the Kurds are in control in three northern provinces and Turkey is in control of the northern portion of the northern province of Aleppo because Turkey wanted to deny the Kurds a continuous strip of northern territory in Syria to the Mediterranean Sea which would embolden the Kurds to create their own country and then you have the province of Idlib. Idlib has three million people living in it mostly all Sunni Syrians half native and half refugees Idlib has an abundance of Sunni civilians and rebel fighters from other enclaves in Syria which when Assad's forces laid siege to those areas these civilians and fighter were displaced to Idlib as part of the peace deals facilitating Assad's forces taking control of those enclaves. In early August of this year Bashar Assad publicly said he is going to take the province of Idlib. On August 14th of this year at a press conference in Turkey Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave his country's position that Assad has the right to take this territory by international law moreover he stated this province contains a group of terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda that must be destroyed. The vast vast majority of reasonable knowledgeable people would conclude from Russia's history and Russian officials comments that Russia will support and assist Bashar Assad's force invading and conquering Idlib province meaning most importantly that Russia will use its air power, the critical factor, to facilitate Assad's campaign in Idlib. With three million Sunnis in this province many in makeshift refugee camps and many being children when the military assault takes place on the province the world will see mass civilian deaths especially considering Assad's pattern on military tactics where he deliberately bombs hospitals and schools and markets with the purpose of breaking the "will to fight" of the population. This coupled with the fact that many of the rebel fighters in Idlib are hardened fighters with no place to retreat to so they will fight to the bitter end which will require super extensive bombing efforts on the Assad's forces part to defeat them which will leave the area extremely devastated resulting in massive number of civilian casualties. Members of the United States Congress cannot silently stand by and let this happen they should speak out and pass a resolution calling for the U.S and other Allies to establish a no fly-zone over Idlib province and in the alternative give the rebels Manpad systems (man portable air defense systems) and the U.S. Congress should also say in the resolution regardless of what the U.S. President says the U.S. Congress supports any country in giving manpads to the Syrian rebels (of course under controlled measures where the weapons won't find their way to being used in terrorist activities) and will not be subject to any sanctions or penalties by this Congress for doing such acts. Air power is the key to Assad's forces success in the War without that the war is static, a no fly zone of course would neutralize Assad's air power but if that cannot be implemented a shield of manpads for the rebels will make a difference it will allow the rebels to take out the Assad helicopters that drop barrel bombs that are extremely lethal and destructive to key infrastructure buildings and manpads can disrupt Assad's close air support of his ground force advances allowing them to be repulsed. Members of Congress legal and moral duty mandates they do this they have a duty to stop this human slaughter that is on the brink of occurring if they don't act. Members of Congress not only owe a duty to their fellow citizens by taking these extremely important jobs but they also owe a duty to God. God has blessed America abundantly and so America has a reciprocal responsibilty to God carried out vis-a-vis our leaders,members of Congress. America with its prosperity and its strong legal and governing system has a responsibility to make a responsible effort to care for the defenseless and vulnerable in the world. These innocent Syrian civilians in Idlib fit the bill they are going to be bombed, starved and deprived of medical care to death in large numbers when Assad's forces begin their offensive against Idlib province unless America takes these not extremely onerous steps. Members of Congress these are utmost serious matters you took the job now you need to fulfill the duties of the job! It is no defense that America's President Donald Trump is an off the charts intelligence and character depraved individual that won't do his duty when it comes to Idlib and Syria. It doesn't matter that he not only stopped giving arms, significant help, to the non-Islamist Syrian rebels and he has permanently pulled $230 million rebuilding aid for liberated areas that were once under ISIS control even though one of our allies could have handled the actual implementation of these projects and this aid could have provided really meaningful help to rebuild the area of Raqqa an historic Sunni Syrian area facilitating a return of a significant number of Sunni Syrian refugees to this area. Members of Congress those things are on Donald their examples of Donald not doing his duty, the question before you is will you do your duty!. A lot is being made by the Russians that the principle rebel group in Syria has ties to al Qaeda. The actual truth although not one hundred percent provable is that the group, HTS, is no longer connected to al Qaeda or shares its world wide Islamic caliphate ambitions. In any event, there is many non-HTS rebel groups in Idlib and there is millions of civilians. Assad and the Russians aren't planning to limit their offensive to HTS areas of Idlib they are planning to take the whole entire province, concern about casualties and death of innocent civilians there is not negated even if one believes there is a large terrorist rebel group in Idlib. it is warranted to explain a little about the rebel group breakdsown in Idlib to have an appreciation of right and wrong. First, it needs to be said that this writer is an American citizen and believes it is shameful beyond words how America's intelligence services and for that matter the media and political and economic powers throughout the would not distinguish between Islamist fighting groups that have ambition to engage in this war of civilization where on one side is the Islamic Caliphate and on the other is Western and Modern civilization. Outside of the Islamic State there was no major Islamist rebel group that had international ambitions the other major Islamist group a predecessor of HTS and now HTS ambitions were and are only within Syria; America, Western economic and political powers and the media labeling of this group as an international terrorist threat and its efforts to kill its leaders and destroy this group and not support other rebel groups because of their affiliation with this group lost the Syrian War for the rebels and for democracy and for democracy throughout the Middle East and the Arab World. I think there is a real interesting story here that the world public would be interested in I think that the truth is that this paranoi about Islamist groups in Syria not the Islamic State posing an international security threat and the resulting failing to support the Syrian rebels and in some instances killing them was manufactured paranoi because if the Syrian rebels succeeded in bringing democracy to Syria Syria would become prosperous and this democracy and prosperity would spread through the Middle East (for Muslims are hard working and smart people) and the resulting financial and other industries in the Middle East would challenge those industries in America, the United Kingdom and Europe and at minimum take some business away from them thus hurting them economically. It was a disgrace of historic proportion and really perplexing how the U.S. and the West bungled helping the Syrian rebels overthrow a monster dictator and bring democracy to Syria. Back to the rebel breakdown in Idlib. HTS controls sixty-percent of the province. HTS is an abbreviation for "Hayat Tahrir Al Sham" which stands for "The Organization for the Liberation of the Levant (Levant is the historic geographic name for Syria)". A multitude of other Syrian rebel groups control the balance of the province. Many of these non-HTS Syrian rebel group are part of the Free Syrian Army, an umbrella group of Syrian rebels, which is heavily allied with Turkey and which has also worked with the United States. Some of these non-HTS rebel groups are also part of the National Liberation Front a rebel umbrella group which is heavily allied with Turkey. Hayat Tahrir Al Sham is the Islamist rebel group that America, the West and Russia have a big problem with they claim it is an affiliate of al Qaeda in my opinion that is a bunch of garbage this group poses no security threat outside the borders of Syria. Hayat Tahrir al Sham is lead by a man that goes by the name Abu Mohammed al Julani he is their senior military commander. He is a Islamic jihadi fighter that fought in Iraq and was actually captured by the Americans and spent some time at Camp Bucca and was released in 2008. After being released he hooked up with Abu Bakr al Baghdadi the head of the Islamic State and fought in Iraq for him; that is not so terrible because at that time the Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was in power in Iraq and was discriminating against Sunni Iraqi big time and at that time the Islamic State had a good reputation amongst Sunni Iraqi it was before this group started their rampage of barbarism, in any event al Julani distinguished himself as a fighter for the Islamic State. So when the uprising against Assad began in Syria al Baghdadi sent his able commander al Julani to set-up an Islamic State militia in Syria. Al Julani succeeds in Syria and so Al Baghdadi sends a message to al Julani in Syria that he has to fold his leadership and allow the leadership of al Baghdadi run his militia. Al Julani says forget it we are severing ties with the Islamic State and so what al Julani does in order to protect his milita from the Islam State and gain stature and credibility in the militia world is he goes to the head of al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, and offers to be an affiliate of al Qaeda in Syria and al Zawahiri. That is basically the extent of al Julani's group's connection with al Qaeda. Actually, back in July 2016 al Julani publicly severed ties with al Qaeda saying his groups aims are only limited to Syria. A fair and accurate assessment is that al Julani and his organization Hayat Tahrir al Sham are not an international terroristic threat, al Julani is Syrian born in Daraa Province most of his fighter are Syrian unlike the Islamic State and if al Julani had as his ambition to help establish a world wide Islamic caliphate he has had plenty of time to announce or reveal those intentions like al Baghdadi did but he hasn't a good and accurate assessment is that al Julani's militia is just a Syrian rebel militia albeit an Islamic Jihadi militia group! The country of Turkey has to make some big decisions about what will take place in Idlib province over the ensuing months. I wish I could say my country has and is a good friend to Turkey but the super selfish American President Donald Trump has failed to lead America to be a good friend to Turkey in this time of need for Turkey and so I cannot advocate for Turkey coming to the aid of the rebels in Idlib. One legitimate comment to Turkey is you should really reconsider the legitimacy of this Astana agreement which is supposedly a cease fire agreement in certain areas in Syria; it is a simpleton, a fool's, agreement by its very terms that Assad's forces won't attack in certain areas of Syria unless it is against terrorists and by the way Assad's definition of terrorists is all Syrian rebels. This is a stupid agreement. Morever, it puts the burden on Turkey to disarm and disband the Hayat Tahrir al Sham rebel group which is an impossible task they are committed rebel and jihad fighters it just ain't happening, in addition, it is bad character for Turkey to take up this task it is unfriendly to do this this group and their leader al Julani who sacrificed and incurred internal criticism letting Turkish forces into the Province of Idlib Turkey shouldn't betray HTS like this. Turkey should tell Russia we're out of Idlib province if you and Assad want to go into Idlib province have at it Turkey won't fight you there but you do it at your own peril because not only will the Rebels there put up an outstanding fight in conquering that territory you will disperse the remnants of the Idlib rebel fighters (probably currently numbering at least sixty to eighty thousand strong) throughout Syria where they will conduct guerrilla attacks against Alawite politicians and Assad's military personnel and military infrastructure. The country of Turkey has done enough taking in three and half million Syrian refugees and spending twenty-five plus billion dollars sustaining them the world will understand if Turkey bows out of the Idlib fight and just focuses on solving its domestic problems!
Sunni kill Shia .. Shia kill Sunni .. Arabs kill Arabs and the party goes on ... OOpsss... i forgot to blame Israel for that ..
I don't think there is anything in Syria or anywhere else in the middle east worth risking the life of one American soldier.
@JimfromPennsylvania So ? No country in this earth as an official role of world police. Even if god gave to a country this right, he better writte it down "hereby, me, god give the right to Zimbabwe to be world police". A lot of Syrian will die. And ? It's syrian matter. If the US do something, people would blame your country and hate it even more. Syrian people are big boys and girls, they can handle things themselves.
[QUOTE JimfromPennsylvania].... this writer is an American citizen and believes it is shameful beyond words how America's intelligence services and, for that matter, the media and political and economic powers throughout the world not distinguish between Islamist fighting groups that have ambition to engage in this war of civilization, where on one side is the Islamic Caliphate and on the other is Western and Modern civilization. [/QUOTE] Good for you to recognize your country's flaws! There were several rebel groups, all fighting over the same cadaver. They all were a corrupt and marauding bunch, beheading people, looting oil and blowing up buildings. None were genuine rebels, wanting to better the country. They all were "for hire" proxy armies, getting supplied and paid by outsiders Oh sure, lots of people around the globe are interested in what is going on in Syria. Most everybody has woken up by now and realizes the threat this poses to world peace. Wasn't Libya quite prosperous under Qaddafi? Yet, the US and its damned NATO allies had to bomb it into the stone age and impale Qaddafi! Do you know why they did that? Oh, Dear! You are so blue-eyed still and have no idea, WHO the real culprit is! Wikileaks revealed that the US even during and after the “Arab Spring” was planning to overthrow the Syrian president – as told by General Wesley Clark as of 2003. Behind the Spring and all other coloured revolutions were and are George Soros, the NED and Freedom House of the US Congress. The CIA arms, finances, trains and directs the ISIS and other rebel groups. Syria did not want to take part in the USA’s NWO game, nor to have a Rothschild Central Bank or petrodollars. Read all here: https://new.euro-med.dk/20150920-wi...icking-refugees-in-war-on-non-existing-eu.php So, you can see that Assad's brutal monster regime refused to be dominated by the US and Israel. THAT is Assad's only crime, just like Qaddafi of Libya. Oh, and he wants the Golan Heights back from Israel. Thank you for enlightening me... I had been wondering what HTS stands for. O.k., all no good! They are in there for themselves and for Turkey... not for the Syrian people! I see, another torture camp in Iraq... http://historycommons.org/timeline...._captives_in_iraq,_afghanistan,_and_elsewhere Like cutting heads off? Good for him! Here is a photo of him... good-looking fella! Almost overwhelming for me. I admire your intimate knowledge and memorizing all those complicated names. Were you at one time a Jihadist fighter yourself?
This is how it always goes. World: THIS IS HORRIBLE! The US needs to do something! US: Ok, brt, hold on. US: Ok, we're here and helping. World: THIS IS HORRIBLE! Why are the Americans killing people! GET OUT NOW! END US IMPERIALISM! Time to tell the world to **** off. Do it yourselves.
Your medias. There is people in the US which have high interest that the US waste its money in that kind of operations. There is, I think, few people who think that the US has to do something, but your medias will over speak of the few one who wish that. And there is other people in this world who will blame the US for their sick cow, so anyway for them, even if you breath, you're doing something wrong.
