Russia and China's Syrian Shame.

Russia and China must hang their collective heads in shame after the use of their veto at the United Nations Security Council. The proposed resolution called for a peaceful transition of power and and end to the abysmal violence that the Syrian regime employs to subdue its own, the veto was a licence to kill.
If the thinking inside the Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministries continues as in bygone days where one Soviet diplomat quipped " Casting the veto is like adultery; you worry about it the first time, but after that it's fun"then we are heading for a collision of great magnitude . These are real people who are daily being massacred not some whimsical game to be played at will to pass time.
At least the regular defections from the Army are continuing with more senior officers joining with the people. That gives us hope that this is a regime in its final days.
Let's pray the Russians and Chinese find their moral compass before more people have to needlessly die.

China 's role

As London is gripped in a spate of recreational rioting coming quickly on the heels of the US debt crises and Euro fiasco, Dave Cameron is forced to cut short his summer holiday. The fact that most of the rioters can't afford to go on holiday seems lost on Cameron and his government.
Meanwhile the former Syrian Defence Minister is found dead from multiple shot wounds hours after his removal, in an apparent suicide technique  that is peculiar to the Levant.
Saudi Arabia , Kuwait and Qatar finally make a small gesture to humanity as they recall their ambassadors from Damascus as the butchering of civilians continue. Even Turkish efforts to convince the Syrians to send their soldiers back to barracks fell on deaf ears.
Emboldened by Iran and taking note of the fate of Mubarak and Saddam , the Good Doctor will continue to cause carnage until he can negotiate himself out of crimes against humanity trial in the Hague or secure safe passage for him and his cronies and his money.
With Moscow being hesitant on this one Bashar has a little more leeway unlike Mad Mo in Libya who is now moving dead bodies around to areas that NATO bombed in an effort to embarrass the now largely leaderless organization.
Rumors of a split future Syria being staging point for attacks on a nuclear Iran are wishful and fanciful thinking despite Moscow's envoy to NATOs statement.
As stock markets crumble quantitative easing will not be found in funding further unnecessary conflicts however mass murdering dictatorships have no role in the modern world. These dictators need to be brought to justice and there has to be a more efficient formula for their exit from power.
The Chinese who have remained astutely quiet should stand up to the plate and assume the leadership role they have so craved.

Syria and the Devil.

 So the Holy month has arrived and the ophthalmologist come mass murderer continues the slaughter of his own people in attempt to subdue attempts at dissent. The international community still looks on impotently with  even the normally vocal Turks conspicuously silent as the tanks shell Hama for the second day. It is said that the gates of hell are closed on the first night of Ramadan and all the devils chained. Not so in Syria!
This regime is in its dying throes but one senses that humanity at large should be active in preventing this human cull.
With barely an attempt at outrage the Americans, who have been locked in a partisan fight about increasing the debt ceiling and already feeling war fatigued from years of fighting in the wrong wars, have acknowledged their Middle East failures and limit their interaction to a few soundbites. The Europeans are just as bad letting crass commercialism determine their political morality .
I can only pray that there is a spiritual awakening within the corrupt regime that will internally put a stop to these massacres, and for the sake of closure this despot and his cronies are brought to justice.

The Clock is ticking.

The clock is ticking for not only Gadaffi and Assad.
Mad Mo is making a last stand as the French try to find a political solution before the beginning of the Holy month of Ramadan.  His ranting of taking the war to the heart of European cities are just rantings as America finally acknowledged the TNC as the legitimate representatives of the Libyan people opening up the way to get their hands on Libya's frozen overseas assets . And so the war profiteers continue to celebrate as visions of billions being syphoned their way become a reality.
Nice to know that capitalism dressed up as justice and democracy is still able to rear its ugly head.
Syria which continues to massacre its own citizens at an alarming rate has now crossed the invisible line that compels the International Community to act in unison. The turning point could have been the heavy weaponry and scud missiles sent to Hezbollah that could target not only major cities in Israel but in neighboring Arab countries too.
Assad unlike other deposed leaders will  only find refuge in Tehran as he is unwelcome in Saudi Arabia a traditional sanctuary for deposed despots and no doubt he would want to escape the Hague.
If recent rumours of a US -Russian - German initiative takes hold his departure though inevitable may be sooner than we think.

Saleh of Yemen will be in Saudi Arabia for the foreseeable future and with waning American influence on Saudi policy as King Abdulla  is still seething at the way the Americans treated Hosni Mubarak and how they handed Iraq to the Iranians the Khalifa family of Bahrain have a temporary reprieve.
Then we come to Palestine and their bid for statehood. As a Palestinian I can not renounce the right of return of other Palestinians and neither should Abbas. Time demographics and changing world opinion make a purely Jewish state unfeasible. The Israeli intransigence to a viable two state solution and the extent of the land heist of Palestinian ancestral lands makes a mockery of an unified cohesive Palestinian State.
I say just wait it out till the  Israeli's are forced to annex us then let them try in this day and age not to give us the universal freedoms that are enjoyed in the free world . If it is not a just solution it is not a solution and we should no longer fear to stand up and be heard.

The World is watching and hypocrisy and double standards no longer are the order of the day. The clock is ticking

Arise Syria the great from your shackles..

Despite the lack of a military will  by  the World powers more help is needed to stop the mass and habitual killing of protesters.
Syria will no doubt implode from the inside if the economy continues to slide. As one diplomat put it "When they are no longer capable of paying the salaries of bureaucrats, the army, the police and their Alawite militia this crisis will balloon and bring about the collapse of the regime,this is a train wreck waiting to happen." Signs of stretched resources and fraying loyalties are already apparent so let us hope that Russian reticence to a meaningful United Nations resolution condemning the regime remains only as that and no financial assistance is afforded to it so it can continue the brutality so far displayed. Recent statements from Moscow are a little more reassuring however not enough.
By allowing the slaughter of his own people for the preservation of himself and his inner circle  has he lost any semblance of legitimacy and should be tried for crimes against humanity. This regime can not be part of a reform process with so much blood on it's hands.  Due to this lack of a military will  and the political get out of jail cards offered by the International  community and the World powers more help is needed to stop the mass killing of protesters.
For Syria's allies in Lebanon, the first step to support Damascus has already been taken. After months of delay, Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed a new Lebanese government  dominated by pro-Syrian parties, including Hezbollah.
That followed five months of political vacuum after Hezbollah and its allies toppled Western-backed Saad al-Hariri's coalition in a dispute over a U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the killing in 2005 of statesman Rafik Hariri.
Hezbollah supported pro-democracy movements that toppled Western-backed leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, but officials say it will not stand idly by as international pressure mounts on Assad to yield to protesters. Hassan Nasrallah now sounded more like President Truman  who once famously said about the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza " he may be a bastard but he is our bastard" that he too did not care if Khamenei and Assad tortured and murdered their own people - so far as they kept him in business.
The fear for Israel is Asaad opens two fronts against Israel on the Golan and South Lebanon buying him more time to weave his deceit .
My gut feeling is despite international hesitation  there is growing real disassociation between his regional trading partners and military patrons.
Assad has become a liability to his partners and enemies and the extent of the evil his brother exhibited is an affront to humanity.
Aleppo rise up and make us proud, Damascus stand tall and show us the way don't lose thousands of yearsof noble history for four decades of misery. 

Syria responds

Yet again Syria has responded to anti government protests in the most brutal manner. Despite being given opportunity after opportunity to lead the reforms Bashar Al Asaad has chosen to take the path of repression.
Further sanctions by the European Union are more symbolic than effective and until his patrons in Russia apply more pressure this regime will continue to kill at will. Bashars regime no doubt will demand that Hizbollah open up a front with Israel and may even go as far as limited operations in the Golan to try to divert the momentum of anti government protesters and frighten an already tense region into believing that an all out war could ensue.
For a regime to encourage further misery for it's own preservation at the expense of it's citizens and regional neighbours is barbaric. 
Signs from Moscow earlier this week were a little more encouraging and may put further pressure on Asaad  if he thinks that Russia will find his replacement.
As the economy is getting shakier by the day the ability to continue to meet the salaries of the Army,bureaucrats  and regime loyalists becomes more difficult cracks will show.
The regime will crumble from within and if  the peoples of Aleppo and Damascus which so far have been relatively quite but have  shown signs of stirring, join the other anti regime protesters the regime is all but doomed and anything that Iran or Hizbollah could concoct would be futile.
Repression does not work and the Arab determination to be free from tyranny will not disappear. If Bashar and his bloodthirsty brother are not brought to account soon then more innocent lives will be sacrificed.

From Spring to Summer

As the Western hemisphere officially celebrates the the first day of summer Syria braces itself for what could be a decisive and bloody Friday . The Arab spring is now the Arab Summer.
After a  weak speech  by Bashar Al Asaad that signaled that the regime was unable and unwilling to reform despite international calls for him to implement change and caused thousands to pour onto the streets to show their disappointment, it has become self evident that his rule is in it's dying throes.
With the economy in shambles and the population no longer appeased by his vague references for a national dialogue and blaming saboteurs,foreign conspirators and germs as the cause of the Syrians people's desire for freedom after more than four decades of autocratic rule, it is time for more pressure to be applied by the international community.
Despite the lack of a military will  by  the World powers more help is needed to stop the mass and habitual killing of protesters.
Syria will no doubt implode from the inside if the economy continues to slide. As one diplomat put it "When they are no longer capable of paying the salaries of bureaucrats, the army, the police and their Alawite militia this crisis will balloon and bring about the collapse of the regime,this is a train wreck waiting to happen." Signs of stretched resources and fraying loyalties are already apparent so let us hope that Russian reticence to a meaningful United Nations resolution condemning the regime remains only as that and no financial assistance is afforded to it so it can continue the brutality so far displayed.
By allowing the slaughter of his own people for the preservation of himself and his inner circle  has he lost any semblance of legitimacy and should be tried for crimes against humanity. This regime can not be part of a reform process with so much blood on it's hands.

The silence of the lambs

In only his third address since the uprising began in March, Bashar Al Assad managed to talk without saying anything of significance. Blaming the current unrest on conspirators he looked confused as he waffled on to a handpicked audience.
The International Community 's reticence about regime change given the fiasco in Libya has meant that the embattled President will continue to slaughter his civilians with impunity.Whilst there are calls for Turkey to apply more regional pressure the Russian resistance for any meaningful United Nations resolution in effect gives this homicidal regime a carte blanch for mass murder.
Instead of using this opportunity for significant reform and to curtail his psychopathic brother Maher's growing blood lust, the Good Doctor like many dictators have done lays the blame squarely on others. With a pro Assad government in Lebanon he might buy himself a little more time but that is all.
This regime has proved itself to be past its sell by date. His legitimacy has expired. Let us hope that internal squabbles in Moscow do not continue to hamper efforts to properly sanction the crimes this regime perpetuates on a daily basis against it's citizens and that the Lebanese do the right thing instead of being a pawn in this megalomaniacs arsenal.
This is the real silence of the lambs.

Russia Syria and Iran

A tragedy of significant proportions is unfolding before our eyes in the continuation of the monstrous  crimes against humanity being committed by the Assad regime. As Russia's last important sphere of influence in the Arab Middle East, Moscow is hampering any  significant action by the United Nations security council critical of Syria.
With growing signs of defection amongst the Army not wishing to shoot its civilians Bashars  bloodthirsty and homicidal brother Maher who heads up both the Republican Guard and the 4th Army Division, of whom the 120  soldiers who were killed defected from, has relied on Iranian mercenaries to continue the slaughter.
Reports from Syrians fleeing to Turkey confirm their presence.
This regime will never reform and will always use torture and slaughter as a mainstay of their power.
The Russians have a huge role to play if they don't want Syria out of it's orbit. The killings can not continue and those  responsible for the barbaric genocides including but not limited to Bashar , Maher and their brother in law  General Assef Shawqat have to be tried at the Hague.
The International Community have to find a reforming successor quick and if Russia want to remain influential and have a possibility of a Mediterranean naval base and a good geopolitical ally they should pave the way.
With Moscow having a good working relationship with Tehran , Farsi mercenaries are not the answer and Moscow must make it clear to the Iranians.
Russia has found Iran a useful ally in a host of political hot spots. In Chechnya, despite the use by the Chechen rebels of Islamic themes in their conflict with Russia, Iran kept a very low profile. In Tajikistan, Iran helped Russia achieve a political settlement, albeit a shaky one. In Afghanistan, Russia and Iran stood together against Taliban efforts to seize control over the country. They work together in relation to Azerbaijan, which neither Iran (with a sizable Azeri population) nor Russia wishes to see emerge as a significant power. In particular, the two states have worked to limit the development of Caspian Sea-area hydrocarbons by Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Turkmenistan. In addition, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expands eastward and Turkish influence in the Caucasus and Central Asia increases, many Russian nationalists see close Russian-Iranian relations as a counterbalance.Syria has to be saved from this blood thirsty regime.
So they should find an alternative  leader who will remain sympathetic to their empire mentality and desires but acknowledges the Syrians aspirations to be free from tyranny and fear and the right to choose their destiny.
Otherwise they will lose any remaining credibility in the geopolitical outcome and become irrelevant as Asaad will no longer be tolerated by the world at large. 

Change or be changed.

As Britain and France push for a United Nations resolution condemning Syria that is acceptable to Russia more troops and tanks are gathering around the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the Turkish border.
Led by the Good Doctor's  feared evil and cruel brother Maher " the Butcher "another massacre is in the making as the one hundred and twenty soldiers that were killed recently were most probably executed for refusing to fire on civilians. This could show signs that the edifice of Bashar 's regime is finally crumbling if dissension in the Army becomes widespread. 
If the Army is prepared to side with the people as they did in Egypt we could see rapid regime change.
Eager to blame everything on armed gangs and Al Qaida the Syrian regime has tried to depict them as "trained to use weapons, commit massacres, mutilate bodies and steal military uniforms and equipment, but are also trained to participate in the media misdirection against Syria, making the satellite channels that broadcast such videos accomplices in the crimes and massacres committed by armed terrorist groups against civilians, policemen and security and army personnel".
Joshua Landis - a US Syrian-watcher who tends to be sympathetic towards  The regime  told the New York Times "Bashar al-Assad has modern tanks and helicopters, a well-trained army, and lots of firepower. The opposition has Facebook."
However as more  Army and Security personnel defect to the side of decency it will only be a matter of time before regime change takes place.
Massacres as in the past are no longer acceptable and the Hague awaits this evil regime for the crimes against humanity that they have perpetuated and in the words of that other war criminal Tony Blair "change or be changed ". A warning to all dictators in the region I think.

Syria and the Russians.

Russia having already conceded Libya and abandoned Mad Mo and his cronies to NATO and the Wests decision for regime change  looks likely to resist losing Syria and it's bloodthirsty Leader.Though the Good Doctor has brandished his homicidal credentials with virtual impunity , the International Community has at last started to recognize that a hypocritical approach to diplomacy is no longer tenable . Arguments that Bashar Al Asaad was essentially a reformer have been silenced in the wake of the massacres and atrocities that regime have recently committed .
Israel a one time advocate that Assad should stay on the premise that they have been enjoying a cold peace can no longer credibly sustain that argument with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak acknowledging that Asaad has lost legitimacy. If Israel has to shoot and kill unarmed civilians as they did last week as they attempt to cross the border whatever sympathy they might still retain will vanish. That may be the game changer for Assads departure.
The internal power struggle between the Russian President Dimitry Medvedev and his predecessor Vladimir Putin  that made Russia abandon Gaddafi  may not come into play with Syria as the stakes are higher with  Russian navel ships based at the port of Tartus being a potential Mediterranean military base, the  loss of Syria from its sphere of influence would be a severe blow both  politically and militarily. However if they can guarantee who will succeed they will dump Asaad faster than you can say perestroika. He is no longer a bankable proposition as he ventures further into the depths of depravity that his father and uncle knew so well.  Given the loss of Libya, and in the past the loss of Egypt then Iraq and Yemen and the waning influence it has in Algeria, it would be unimaginable that they would not have a plan B, and if that doesn't work there are another twenty four letters in the alphabet.
What is certain is that Asaads days are numbered.
At this point confusion seems to be the order of the day with the Chinese so far being the only long term winners.

Yemen Syria and the Chineese Victory

Lying in a Saudi military hospital Ali Abdullah Saleh seems unlikely to return to Yemen. For him it may have been a face saving strategy as he concludes a financial and political immunity deal and with most of his immediate family out it is up to his son who controls the Republican Guard or his brother who controls the Air force to ensure his ultimate deal.
Meanwhile in Syria the brutal regime continues to slaughter it's own unarmed civilians unchecked by the International Community. With estimates of over fifteen hundred slaughtered I am wondering how many more have to be killed before real action is taken?
With the death of young Hamza Alkhateeb , the thirteen year old boy who was tortured and mutilated prior to his death giving the Syrian uprising a second wind and with the opposition in exile having met in Turkey a more coordinated effort may result.
The Good Doctor who was preparing to declare victory after offering a political amnesty but now after having a taste of blood will wish to extract revenge on his citizens. If this is not a crime against humanity than what the hell is? His Iranian sponsors are going to have to work overtime.
The Saudis having given up on American reliability are a contemplating raising a Sunni Army to combat what they perceive to be a Shia threat emanating from Iran. No doubt their Oil reserves and financial capability will serve them well in creating more mayhem.
The UAE took the easier option of giving Eric Prince's Blackwater a six hundred million US dollar contract to put down any counterinsurgency.
In Libya Mad Mo has shown no signs of leaving despite continued NATO battering. Tripoli will soon feel the effects of food shortages and his grip of terror is loosening.
With Willie Hague turning up in Benghazi, albeit without his Defense Minister Liam Fox, the stalemate might be over. Mission creep seems to be working as there are more European troops actively coordinating the efforts. So much for boots on the ground, perhaps they were wearing sandals?
No doubt in years to come unless Wikileaks or similar give us a glimpse to the secret machinations of Foreign policy deals sooner it will emerge that the Europeans and Americans have agreed with the Russians at the last G8 meeting to regime change in Libya in exchange for letting Assad remain in Syria.
So much for supporting the legitimate aspirations of the Arabs !
As to Israel it seems that demography and intransigence is making a two state solution more and more unlikely and so like the rest of the Middle East it is their government that will be their ultimate downfall.
Arrogance and hypocrisy will keep the region embroiled for some time to come and while Obama and Cameron discuss their essential relationship their influence and relevance in the Middle East is waning fast. Their failing policies will be destined to go on the BBQ of history as bad plans badly executed.
At least China is happy with all this chaos keeping the West tied down from Libya to Iraq and Afghanistan, it can quietly evolve into the " super" market and super power it is destined to become.

War crimes and military gangsters

The world waited sixteen years for the Bosnian Serb General and military gangster  Ratko Mladic to be arrested. Without doubt the Serb authorities knew of his whereabouts for years but chose to remain silent and to some degree excused his genocidal massacres of Muslims.
But at least he was captured alive and will eventually be tried at the Hague.
Pakistan was accused of withholding knowledge of Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts but once found he was not given the benefit of a trial but was extrajudicialy  killed. The rule of law was not seen to have taken place. A dangerous precedent.
Both were responsible for murder and death on a great scale and their respective trial or assassination will not bring back the thousands who died or were maimed or whose presence on earth was denied.
Yet there are others who have killed more and hide behind their offices or uniforms that still have not been brought to justice.The International Criminal Court awaits them all.
In the west Tony Blair and George W Bush spring to mind.
In the Middle East Hosni Mubarak might escape the Hague tribunal by his failing health. King Hamad ibn Issa Al Khalifa of Bahrain and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia by Saudi intervention. Ali Saleh Abdullah by an amnesty deal and Gaddafi most probably by a NATO bomb unless Jacob Zuma is able to negotiate an exit-exile strategy for him and his family. Omar Al Bashir of Sudan for the moment will escape due to Qatari intervention. However we have sen how fickle friends can be when you are no longer of use to them so no doubt those that survive old age or the assassins bullet may yet see the inside of  a courtroom.
Then we come to Palestine and the Goldstone report. Has the International community become so corrupt that it chose to ignore these war crimes just because Israel was involved?  Is this report now relegated to wipe our collective bottoms with? Has our humanity reached such depths of depravity that we allow the Children of Palestine to be ignored,or for that matter the Children of Syria to be continued to be massacred, some being tortured and flayed like young Hamza Al Khatteeb?
No doubt the universe has a way of correcting itself and Bashar Al Asaad and his bloodthirsty regime will be brought to task. Meanwhile his Uncle Rifaat is still swagging around the five star hotels of Europe casually boasting to those that care to listen about his role in the massacres in  Hama, Syria which claimed thirty eight thousand lives. Where is the ICC now?
A one rule approach is the only way to insure that these military gangsters know that the days of ethnic cleansing, genocide torture and repression are over.The carnage they have collectively wrought means they have to be brought to justice even when their expected conviction will not bring back the hundreds of thousands hurt, maimed, or killed in the slaughters there will be an emotional rejoicing in the knowledge that we are a people of laws.
Laws are what separate us from beasts let us not forget that. 

Armageddon and Hypocritical Diplomacy.

Rumours are abounding of a dangerous and ill conceived  secret Saudi Israeli deal being hatched for Saudi backing for a military option against Iran with America having negotiated the supply of armaments and weaponry including state of the art jet fighters and military bases in a sixty billion plus $US, this if verified ,brings the region ever closer to Armageddon .
As The Syrian regime plunges deeper into the chasms of brutality with the International Community remaining shamefully silent and Saudi Arabia pushing for a new Saudi ruled republic in southern Yemen it is astonishing to what degree America and Europe are willing to sacrifice their ideals for short term commercial pragmatism .
In Libya meanwhile Gaddafi is still ignoring the will of the International Community despite having finally lost the backing of Russia. The Cameron-Sarkozy visit to Benghazi supposedly to give backing to the transitional government will once again prove to be only a photo opportunity.
Whilst double standards and hypocritical approaches are applied to the desire for freedom and self determination then one can rule out any meaningful change in the region.
Israeli intransigence to finding a fair and equitable peace with the Palestinians will only add fuel to this fire.
Real freedom and peace must be universally applied. Hope has be able to triumph over adversity and commercialism otherwise our morality will be outflanked our perversions.

Look east .

The G8 wrapped up it's spring jamboree.The Presidents and prime ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States had met in the French resort of Deauville. The end result was another photo opportunity as they all congratulated themselves on what a good job they were doing.
The Good Doctor must be laughing in Damascus as he barely got a telling off for his continued brutality and talk of an exile strategy for Mad Mo and his psychotic family got an unimpressed Libyan response that the G8 was "an economic summit " and they were therefore " not concerned by its decisions".
With the usual rhetoric about democracy , freedom and the likes they cobbled together a paltry $forty billion as an incentive to democratize parts of the Middle East that are unimportant for them strategically but if that ever materializes no doubt it will be spent on goods from the donor countries and will not trickle down to the people whose aspirations they claim to be championing.
If that is the best the world has to offer in leadership then the decline of civilization as we know it is guaranteed.
Look east that is where the future is,the morally corrupt West is a lame duck.