Bulletins and News Discussion from December 16th to December 22nd, 2024 - Assad's Apology
Bulletins and News Discussion from December 16th to December 22nd, 2024 - Assad's Apology
Image is of Assad's presidential palace in 2013. There's more images of it in this article, though the words in it aren't worth reading.
Here is Assad's version of events. I like to imagine he's making one of those Youtuber apology videos where they sigh at the start and talk in a chastised yet somewhat defensive tone of voice.
As terrorism spread across Syria and ultimately reached Damascus on the evening of Saturday 7th December 2024, questions arose about the president's fate and whereabouts. This occurred amidst a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth, aimed at recasting international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.
At such a critical juncture in the nation’s history, where truth must take precedence, it is essential to address these distortions. Unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances at the time, including a total communication blackout for security reasons, delayed the release of this statement. This does not replace a detailed account of the events that unfolded, which will be provided when the opportunity allows.
First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024. As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in co-ordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations. Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes.
With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This took place a day after the fall of Damascus following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.
At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.
I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields. He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war. Furthermore, the person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.
I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people, who believed in its vision. I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment.
When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless. This does not, in any way, diminish my profound sense of belonging to Syria and her people – a bond that remains unshaken by any position or circumstance. It is a belonging filled with hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Feels like a lot of shit has happened and the vibes are completely off, but I think a lot of folks here and elsewhere have kind of forgotten that the American imperial machine is still in a state of rapid unraveling and no "wins" in the Middle East are going to stop it. Compared to 2015, for instance, the world is entirely different. So many more regions can afford to effectively ignore the United States and pursue their own interests, for good or ill. The civil war in Sudan is case and point; the US can't do shit to stop it, and has no real influence there at all. Fucking Ukraine is doing more on the ground to shape Sudan that the United States, let alone actors like the UAE. India has shown complete disregard for the American imperial project to the point of assassinating enemies of the Indian state in Canada of all places. The Sahel has been able to entirely pursue its own interests, and there's nothing the West can do about it. They can't even stop Yemen from closing down the Red Sea. There's a shit ton of dooming here, but I think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the world has irrevocably changed in the last decade, that the space for maneuver is far wider than its been in decades, and there's virtually nothing the United States or its pawns can do to change this continuing shift.
The fall of the US empire is inevitable, but the real question is whether it will commit a region-wide Holocaust on the way out, and the answer to that question, especially after the last year is yes
And then what?
Broken record: you need an alternative economic system i.e. a Soviet Union to allow the rest of the world to keep their economy running. We wait eagerly for China to take up that role but doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.
We’re in the situation today because Keynes’s bancor model wasn’t adopted back in 1944, and this has led to a huge trade imbalance in the world where only two countries benefit immensely: the super-imperialist US that runs a huge trade deficit by printing an infinite amount of money to get free stuff, and China that runs a huge trade surplus to receive and accommodate the vast amount of industries exported from the US itself.
This gives the declining empire a huge leverage to fuck with the global economy, market and trade because the global value chain ends in the US. The rest of the developing world is too weak in their industrial capacities to defend against monetary imperialism, apart from China which has absorbed all the industrial capacities from the rest of the world and strategically concentrated there by the US empire.
The only way we get out of this is an alternative economic and financial system, like the USSR, but this time headed by China, using its huge population to generate a strong consumer base (by raising their wages) that can absorb the loss of demand from the US empire, and thus exporting industrial capacities to the Global South countries. The end goal is to run balanced trade i.e. using bancor to clear trade settlements and prevent buildup of huge deficits or surpluses, where each country can assert their own economic sovereignty to contribute proportionally to the global productive capacity, and thus preventing the super-imperialism predicament we are in today.
Why would China do that, though? Would they even consider taking the risk? They've been relatively safe right where they are now.
I would not look at India so superficialy like that. The US is at very least looking at that as a favor that they will call back on later. The US doesn't have much to care about what other countries do unless it is relevant to agenda.
This is the sort of rethoric around the Khashoggi murder. They did that, they shocked the world, they got all the liberal media and even the NGO clown shit circle to turn their head away in disgust and then what exactly materially changed about KSA and USA relations? 5 years later KSA is as big a vassal as ever.
For India as a country I think rather this double faced BRICS and US relations will bring them absolutely nowhere but the bottom pit of the global south material conditions. Climate change, Bangladesh. These are some of the keywords that matter for 10-20 years from now.
Yeah India is busted, its going to fall into being a wet-bulb wasteland in like 2050 ish. Bangladesh, Iraq, the Gulf States all of them are on limited time. Even Italy and Mexico will barely be able to do agriculture anymore since they are predicted to have the most severe reduction in rainfall.
India has shown complete disregard for the American imperial project to the point of assassinating enemies of the Indian state in Canada of all places.
Nah they more servile than you think. All Indian oligarchs have billions of dollars in Dollar denominated debt to U.S. Finance sector. They can try a bit of adventurism and U.S. will kinda ignore it for China reasons, that's all.
And the assassination was so dumb, there was really no reason to do it, probably meant as a test run.
The US could absolutely tell the UAE to stop in Sudan, the same way we could tell Israel to stop. We don't want to.