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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is of Assad and his family.


After less than two weeks of retreating with few shots fired and little resistance, the SAA has retreated into, well, a state of non-existence. This thereby ends a conflict that has been simmering for over a decade. With the end of this conflict, another begins: the carving up of what used to be Syria between Israel and Turkey, with perhaps the odd Syrian faction getting a rump state here and there. Both Israel and Turkey have begun military operations, with Israel working on expanding their territory in Syria and bombing military bases to ensure as little resistance as possible.

Israeli success in Syria is interesting to contrast against their failures in Gaza and Lebanon. A short time ago, Israel failed to make significant territorial progress in Lebanon due to Hezbollah's resistance despite the heavy hits they had recently taken, and was forced into a ceasefire with little to show for the manpower and equipment lost and the settlers displaced. The war with Lebanon was fast, but still slow enough to allow a degree of analysis and prediction. In contrast, the sheer speed of Syria's collapse has made analysis near-impossible beyond obvious statements like "this is bad" and "Assad is fucking up"; by the time a major Syrian city had fallen, you barely had time to digest the implications before the next one was under threat.

There is still too much that we don't know about the potential responses (and non-responses) of other countries in the region - Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Russia, for example. I think that this week and the next will see a lot of statements made by various parties and an elucidation of how the conflict will progress. The only thing that seems clear is that we are in the next stage of the conflict, and perhaps have been, in retrospect, since Nasrallah's assassination. This stage has been and will be far more chaotic as the damage to Israel compounds and they are willing to take greater and greater risks to stay in power. It will also involve Israel causing destruction all throughout the region, rather than mostly localizing it in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Successful gambles like with Syria may or may not outweigh the unsuccessful ones like with Lebanon. This is a similar road to the one apartheid South Africa took, but there are also too many differences to say if the destination will be the same.

What is certain is that Assad's time in power can be summarized as a failure, both to be an effective leader and to create positive economic conditions. His policies were actively harmful to internal stability for no real payoff and by the end, all goodwill had been fully depleted. By the end, the SAA did not fight back; not because of some wunderwaffen on the side of HST, but because there was nothing to fight for, and internal cohesion rapidly disintegrated.


Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
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Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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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[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 11 points 47 minutes ago* (last edited 27 minutes ago)

Russia is close to reaching an agreement with the new Syrian leadership to keep two bases in the country, two sources tell Bloomberg

Israel couldn't help it. All they had to do was play ball with a NATO backed goverment. HTS had been going out of its way to say they had no problems with Israel and were anti Hezbollah/Iran. But no, the Israelis just had to do a shameless landgrab and bomb the shit out of Syria instead.

No future government of Syria can exist without military infrastructure. And now Russia is back into play as the only actor that can make that a reality. I'm sure nobody in Washington will blame Israel for this though.

[-] miz@hexbear.net 12 points 40 minutes ago

on the contrary it will be framed as Russian meddling

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 7 points 24 minutes ago

Bad move on the part of HTS, their supporters and allies despise the Russians almost as much as Assad, the Russian jet was the bane of these beheaders for nine years, this guarantees infighting and splintering

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 6 points 20 minutes ago

this guarantees infighting and splintering

That’s the goal. Syria is going to remain fractured and that is good for the imperialists to create chaos.

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 6 points 18 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

The HTS have no choice if they want to get any advanced weapons, like air defence systems, aircraft, and tanks, though. Israel just destroyed all of it. Turkey, the NATO member, will not give that to them, China will not give that to them because they want to remain neutral, Iran doesn't have much to give, and the US certainly won't give them anything. The only option, and only nation prepared to sell, is Russia. Russia gave Syria S-300 and S-200 air defence systems along with Pantsir and Tor, MiG 29s fighters, Su-24 bombers, and T-72 and T-90 tanks under Assad. What other nation is prepared to sell equivalent equipment to Syria? It can be remarked that a lot of this is "Soviet era", but is there any nation prepared to give Syria anything better? A lot of this equipment is still very useful, T-72 tanks have taken out export specification Abrams tanks in battle during the Ukraine - Russia war. Tor and Pantsir are widely used by Russia.

[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 5 points 9 minutes ago* (last edited 5 minutes ago)

At this rate the new syrian government has no choice if they want to have weapons at all. Israel is destroying the entire security infrastructure of the Syrian state. Airbases, barracks, police stations, naval bases, intelligence agencies, even an university from what I understand. You name it, Israel probably destroyed it 'in self defense'.

Turkey doesn't like seeing this, but it can't go against the US directly. The US might think the Israelis are going too far, but they would never dare reprimand them. This leaves Russia as the only viable actor to offer security guarantees (you'll be bombed 3 times a week instead of 500 or more). Turkey in turn becomes the cement that gels Russia and HTS communications.

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 4 points 11 minutes ago

Putin selling weapons to HTS is the equivalent of him selling weapons to foreign mercs in Ukraine in the hopes of destabilizing Zelensky

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 4 points 8 minutes ago

It all depends on how badly Russia want to keep their naval facilities and airbase in Syria. They're going to have to cut a deal with HTS to keep that, such a deal could involve arms sales.

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 4 points 7 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

I don’t think Syria is getting re-armed by the Russians.

Russia’s force projection via Syria is effectively over, with a new “government” that is receptive if not straight up backed by the US, Israel and Turkey.

This is a new leadership and while the Russians may not get immediately expelled (they will be eventually), the old network formed over decades under the Assads is gone and Russia is going to have to compete with the Western imperialists to win over the new guys taking over.

Not to mention the economic collapse that is going to take place. Syria’s fate appears to be to open themselves up to neoliberal slaughter, which is what the new leaders are already signaling.

[-] Lemister@hexbear.net 1 points 4 minutes ago

Just create the Latakia state at this point, because the HTS wont survive the next years anyways.

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 2 points 2 minutes ago

I rather think it's about oil (at least transitionary) or neutralizing turkey somewhat. Iran wouldn't send the oil to hts (well likely wouldn't), cause their value is likely negative.

Also i could just as well see this as entity (under usa auspices lol) sticking russia there to ward off turkey influence.

Russia has contradictions with rebels the size of a moon and they have bad blood against russia.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 13 points 59 minutes ago

Jimmy Carter Has Outlived United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson - r/JimmyCarterAliveCheck

tito-laugh

[-] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 8 points 33 minutes ago
[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 4 points 17 minutes ago

Socdem former PM of Japan, Tomiichi Murayama, also outlived Brian Thompson, and he is 100 years old.

[-] miz@hexbear.net 2 points 12 minutes ago

Wittier than Andrew Witty

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 1 points 2 minutes ago

What other capabilities peanut allergies hide from us plebs deeper-sadness

[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 28 points 1 hour ago

Some pretty wild footage. The prison Luigi is being held at has the inmates in uproar, and they basically do a live television interview about Luigi's prison conditions. The news anchor is able to interview inmates live because they're just shouting across the fence; lots of chants of "Free Luigi." Luigi is probably already 50% of the way there to leading a prison riot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCml-w9MQ7Y

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 8 points 28 minutes ago

If he gets jury nullified, that would be so pog.

Which is why he likely gets ruby-ed

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 15 points 50 minutes ago

I swear to god if this man leads a prison riot lmao holy shit

[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 2 points 9 minutes ago

Attica 2.0 is going to be so fucking lit

[-] miz@hexbear.net 13 points 48 minutes ago* (last edited 47 minutes ago)

if the widespread national support doesn't die down fast, you're going to see bourgeois media bury this story and try to avoid covering him despite the profit incentive to do so. they are close to hitting the panic button to shut this down

[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 5 points 10 minutes ago

The NYTimes already put out a whole thing about how they will no longer be showing his picture because he's too hot and will inspire too many copycats. We're already there.

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 17 points 58 minutes ago

oh no, those inmates are going to get banned for lionizing him

[-] TheModerateTankie@hexbear.net 1 points 1 minute ago

che-smile wanted posters for other ceo's being posted in manhatten.

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 1 hour ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 13 points 1 hour ago

ToI journalist hypothesizing

[-] miz@hexbear.net 10 points 57 minutes ago

fascism expands until it destroys itself or the world, ngl I'm anxious about the coin toss on this one

[-] RaisedFistJoker@hexbear.net 9 points 1 hour ago

every country in the world should look to north korea on how to deal with america's rabid dogs

[-] jack@hexbear.net 4 points 24 minutes ago
[-] Biddles@hexbear.net 14 points 1 hour ago

A pretty hopeless post by Yves on NakedCapitalism

The collapse of Syria, BRICS, and wishful thinking

[-] edge@hexbear.net 14 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

One detail of the CEO killing I haven't seen discussed much: he was walking to the hotel where the company event was being hosted... from the different hotel he was staying in across the street.

If he just stayed in the same hotel as the event, this wouldn't have happened. What's the point in using two different hotels in the first place?

I wonder if companies will start making sure their executives stay in the same building as the events they're attending.

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 7 points 1 hour ago

If he just stayed in the same hotel as the event, this wouldn't have happened. What's the point in using two different hotels in the first place?

We all know why...

I wonder if companies will start making sure their executives stay in the same building as the events they're attending.

Lol no. What's the point of these business trips for the C-suite ghouls if they can't cheat on their partners without anyone knowing about it?

[-] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 14 points 2 hours ago

I'm guessing that the other hotel was more luxurious?

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

The people he shared his second hotel room with, that his wife and business associates didn't know about, was more "luxurious", sure...

[-] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 7 points 1 hour ago

I'm guessing he didn't want his work associates to notice who was making calls to his hotel room.

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 3 points 1 hour ago

I remember them using the word “hostel” so I assumed he was staying at a cheaper place than the exec

[-] miz@hexbear.net 10 points 1 hour ago

edge is talking about where Brian Thompson stayed, none of the pronouns in his comment refer to the shooter

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 7 points 1 hour ago

Lmao u right my b

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 15 points 2 hours ago

International Torture Watchdog: Danish Immigration Detention Facility "Resembles A Prison"

Denmark's infamous Ellebæk Immigration Detention Facility has come under fire from the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for maintaining "prison-like conditions."

The center features barred windows, locked sections, and officers equipped with handcuffs and pepper spray. However, the residents are not criminals.

"Such conditions are unacceptable, as the foreign nationals detained at Ellebæk are neither suspected of crimes nor serving sentences," states a new CPT report.

Independent human rights organization Dignity agrees with the criticism.

"These are several points of concern that we believe Denmark should take seriously," said senior advisor Elna Søndergaard, urging Denmark's anti-refugee regime to change course.

Ellebæk houses refugees who have been denied asylum by the Nordic hermit kingdom's notoriously restrictive and racist asylum system and who the regime is unable to deport by force. The regime claims the refugees "refuse to return home" but many of them fear for their lives if they go back.

The Danish asylum system uses punitive measures such as so-called "detention to encourage compliance", prison-like confinement intended to make life so unbearable for refugees that they would rather return home to an uncertain fate than stay.

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 19 points 3 hours ago
[-] plinky@hexbear.net 10 points 2 hours ago

qatar continues its shenanigans. (although i feel it's mischaracterizing, as guillotine implies some court). I wonder if qatar will try to buy out them form under turkey though, erdie is broke, and qatar/uk would be delighted to have militias there

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

When people think of the French Revolution, trials and courts are not the first thing to come to mind. Anyways, putting the artists and media people under the guillotine seems unambiguously bad

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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
162 points (99.4% liked)

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