Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

The Russian Air Force that retains a large number of aircraft in Syria conducted air strikes against rebel forces (Hayat Tahriral-Sham or HTS) holding positions in Aleppo. This is the first air action by the Russians since 2016 when they intervened in an on-going rebellion aimed at unseating Assad. The Iranians also chipped in with ground forces and military equipment in support of Assad.

HTS has a link going way back to Al Qaeda. They are now an armed and renamed group of Islamic jihadists aimed at forcefully spreading fundamentalist Islamic ideology and governance. They are no friends of the western alliance. There is also a lot of infighting reported within HTS with moderates and extremists vying for power. Just another example of Islamists seeking to govern throughout the ME and by so doing made a mess of things and created the instability present today.

I can't even begin to describe the complicated reasons why the Russians support Assad and how a simmering civil war has raged on for more than a decade. At baseline is Russia's sale of arms to the Syrian government. Its a cash cow as Assad pays for those arms with loans that were issued for humanitarian purposes but redirected for military purposes. It is also fundamental to Putin's FP to encourage chaos rather than stability there.

[Jeff Buchanan]

For those who like Donald Trump's immigration and likely foreign policy but fear that his often bizarre and authoritarian character have the potential of damaging America's version of democracy or in the extreme turning US governance into a dictatorship, this is an excellent article: https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...years-00191724

An excerpt:

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power is unnerving but, as I have argued previously, America will not turn into a dictatorship overnight — or in four years. Even the most determined strongmen face internal hurdles, from the bureaucracy to the media and the courts. It took Erdoğan well over a decade to fully consolidate his power. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice Party needed years to erode democratic norms and fortify their grip on state institutions.

I am not suggesting that the United States is immune to these patterns, but it’s important to remember that its decentralized system of governance — the network of state and local governments — offers enormous resilience.