The Washpost is trying to escape USG censorship?

"Russia’s military intervention in Syria is finally generating gains on the ground for Syrian government forces, tilting the battlefield in favor of President Bashar al-Assad to such an extent that the Obama administration’s quest for a negotiated settlement to the war suddenly looks a lot less likely to succeed.

The gains are small-scale, hard-won and in terms of territory overall don’t add up to much, in keeping with the incremental nature of war.

But after 3½ months of relentless airstrikes that have mostly targeted the Western-backed opposition to Assad’s rule, they have proved sufficient to push beyond doubt any likelihood that Assad will be removed from power by the nearly five-year-old revolt against his rule. The gains on the ground are also calling into question whether there can be meaningful negotiations to end a conflict Assad and his allies now seem convinced they can win."  Washpost

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Laughable.

The US MSM has carefully avoided describing the major gains made by R+6 forces but now the game has so clearly gone down the drain for the R2Pers, their neocon friends, the Turks and the Gulfies that mention of it cannot be avoided.

I wonder if Ms Sly actually understands war so little that she believes her own description of the battlefield situation.  Perhaps.  Perhaps.

Well, pilgrims, she has one thing right.  There isn't the chance of a snowball in hell that R+6 can be BSd into giving up what is obviously a winning hand. 

We Americans ought to start contemplating the massive amounts of money that we are NOT GOING TO MAKE in the re-construction of Syria and the development of Iran's economy.

The dreams of the Brave New World Order have proven to be expensive.  pl 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-airstrikes-are-working-in-syria--enough-to-put-peace-talks-in-doubt/2016/01/19/64127084-beb2-11e5-98c8-7fab78677d51_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Comments

[FB Ali]

An example of how the media spins blatant lies. A small paragraph right at the bottom of a long piece on Syria in my local paper:

"On Saturday, for example, news sites the world over erupted with a report of ISIS “massacres” in the embattled eastern city of Deir Ezzour, where Daesh reportedly shot or beheaded as many as 200 civilians and kidnapped 400 others. By Sunday, activists inside the city sharply contradicted those reports, suggesting instead a death toll of as few as 15 people. One local anti-ISIS outlet, DeirEzzor24, reported it could find “no evidence that the group perpetrated a massacre in the town.”

http://tinyurl.com/z9ja6up

[Matthew]

Col: Donald Trump recently tweeted that Iran was going to buy 114 planes from Airbus, but expressed shock that they would not be buying from us.

I guess refusing to sell Iran spare parts for their civilian airliners might just have left a bad aftertaste.

Fortunately, the Israeli market can absorb another $100 billion in Boeing sales, can't it? (Sad Trombone sound.)

[bell]

thanks pat... nice title to your post!

[Barish]

Who in the world is "DeirEzzor24", some social media shills comparably situated like the Coventry-show?

One is inclined to suggest that by weeding out the various militant groups primarily out for themselves and their own special dreams of emirate-governance, evil Russkies and the Syrian government are setting the stage for a serious, civil discussion on how to post-war Syria is supposed to look like in the first place. Said militants wouldn't mind feuding until Kingdom come were they to be left to themselves.

[Castellio]

That New World Order was indeed expensive, and the bills – in the US and throughout the world – are still accumulating.

Will Ash Carter look at the ledger, acknowledge the folly, and step back... or will we hear an argument for a new initiative to be opened?

[steve]

My apologies if this has already been posted,

It's being reported that the US has taken control of an airbase--Rmelian--in Kurdish-controlled NE Syria.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/takes-control-rmeilan-airfield-syria-160119141331681.html

There is some speculation that this is a step in the ultimate partition of Syria.

[Medicine Man]

FB Ali,

There was a piece in our local transit paper this morning talking about the alarming numbers of civilian killings in the ISIS ruled portions of Iraq. There was no soothing spin either. The clear message was that in spite of the string of recent battlefield defeats (their words), ISIS/ISIL is still brutalizing the people under their control. The counter narrative creeps out in places.

[Charles Michael]

fresh from RT news:

We’ll fight ISIS until its complete annihilation’ – Russian FM Lavrov after Kerry talks
Islamic State and the Nusra Front won’t be part of the proposed Syrian ceasefire as the fight against the jihadists will go on until their complete annihilation, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart, John Kerry, agreed during talks in Zurich.
https://www.rt.com/news/329591-syria-isis-lavrov-kerry/

[Jack]

Sir

I read the WaPo article yesterday and what crossed my mind was the author should spend more time on SST and get a real education on what's going on.

[FkDahl]

The MSM reporting on this is as bad as from the Donbass last year: when the Ukrainian army+militias had been bagged up in "kessels" the MSM was still going on how close to final defeat the rebels were. Later the total reversal in fortune could for them only be explained by direct Russian intervention.

[Tony]

"We Americans ought to start contemplating the massive amounts of money that we are NOT GOING TO MAKE in the re-construction of Syria and the development of Iran's economy." I agree completely. But in Iran's case, the warmongers and Iran-haters in congress are to be blamed. I read somewhere that Iran was actually interested in buying some air plains from Boeing, but opted to buy from Airbus.

[ked]

Apparently, we made enough money in Iraq & Afghanistan so we don't have to make money in Syria. Maybe we won't have to make money in SA in the future, either.

[Jack]

Now it's the NY Times turn quoting Gen. Dunford.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/world/middleeast/russia-syria-joint-chiefs-chairman.html?_r=0

[turcopolier]

ked

Explain to me how we "made money" in Iraq and Afghanistan. pl

[ked]

I am being facetious. Lots of private contractors have made a ton of money on our Modern Way of Forever War. We have outsourced not only the infrastructure of conflict (from material to manpower) but the policy-making concerning its application - Citizen's United applied to National Security. Private interest self-justifies, the value of recurring revenue is a higher end than victory.

[turcopolier]

ked

Yes. a lot of looters made a lot of money in these wars as individuals. pl

[LondonBob]

Depending on one's definition of direct intervention, I thought it was pretty much accepted that the Russians intervened at Ilovaysk and, perhaps, on a smaller scale at Debaltsevo. Indeed Ilovaysk amply demonstrated what would have happened had the UAF been fighting the Russian Army.

[Emad]

Matthew,

The calculus is a bit different.

This first batch of orders is to plug holes in long domestic routes, and routes to Turkey, UAE and Europe. These are the most popular and profitable routes for Iranian airlines. The best choice for them is to go with narrowbodies like the A320 family or the B737 family.

Now A320s are prone to U.S. sanctions too. Their engines are made either by P&W, which is a U.S. company, or CFM half of which is owned by GE. So if sanctions come back A320s are affected too. There's however a difference in how.

The U.S. has interpreted the snapback provision of JCPOA as retroactive, meaning transactions by U.S. companies already in effect must be terminated when a snapback is announced. The EU on the other hand allows European companies to finish current transactions, purchasing orders or service agreements. So Boeing will have to terminate, not suspend, any contract with Iran the moment sanctions are snapped back. This not only makes Boeing a less competitive candidate than Airbus from the Iranians's point of view, but also the Iranian market a less attractive market to Boeing than it is to Airbus.

My hunch is that an IDIQ-type service contract can be structured with Airbus such that Airbus can claim for quite some time that it is fulfilling an existing order or service contract, thus ensuring serviceability and overhaul of planes, if the U.S. decides to go for some snapback adventure.

[alba etie]

ked
Vice President Cheney and his 'blind " KB portfolio during the Bushcheney debacles in Iraq & Afghanistan . Yes there was a bunch of looting going on then - still going on now .