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.
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Last week’s thread is here.
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.
Anyone else feel like shit has well and truly come off the rails?
Al Arabiya’s Washington correspondent Joseph Haboush is reporting that the USA has conducted airstrikes within Yemen tonight against Ansarallah (known as the Houthis in most western media). Details apparently will be released in the next few hours. While Al Arabiya is usually a trash source, if anyone is going to have info on US bombings, it would be those dogs of the US empire and Saudi Arabia.
Also more massacres have occurred in Gaza, with some very graphic footage currently spreading on social media, reports of 20-25 fatalities from a single bombing, genocided by Israel. Tonight has been terrible, with US-Israeli aggression across multiple countries.
Bitcoin keeps going up.
Apparently because Trump wants an oil like strategic reserve for crypto. Public money being used directly to stabilize (and over time increase) price for such an useless commodity.
All of this implying that Bitcoin is kinda worthless without Dollars (and other fiat currencies) flowing into it.
Some more recent news from Syria.
This news summary states that ‘unknown gunmen’ (likely the re-organizing Tiger Forces) ambushed and killed several al-Queda “HTS” fighters in Jableh (a coastal city in Syria’s Latakia province). In addition, the summary also states that the Zionist invaders captured the southern Syrian settlements of Beit Jinn and Um Batina: https://southfront.press/military-situation-in-syria-on-december-15-2024-map-update/
The Zionist invaders are also, unsurprisingly, attempting to ethnically cleanse the indigenous population of the occupied southern Syrian settlements by cutting off power and water: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/12/15/739099/Israel-water-power-Syria-Quneitra
Washington’s al-Queda “HTS” puppets will not allow Palestinian resistance movements to have weapons, training camps, or headquarters in Syria: https://thecradle.co/articles/hts-officials-order-palestinian-resistance-factions-to-disarm-close-bases-in-syria-report
Israeli airstrikes on ex SAA military installations in Syria are continuing. A massive ammunition depot in Tartus was just hit, resulting in a huge amount of secondary explosions from the ammunition cooking off, explosions that may still be ongoing at this time, and hours from now, depending on how much ammunition was stored at the facility.
Image with zero reverse search results on TinEye
Videos showing secondary explosions, twitter source
Anyone living nearby should stay indoors for their own safety for the time being, being hit by a stray artillery round or rocket that went off or is going to go off is a possibility. Some videos of similar strikes in the past have shown rocket artillery cooking off and flying in all directions.
This video shows an impact alarmingly close to the camera person
Managed to geolocate the apparent target by finding some similar looking houses to the photo, and using some preliminary earthquake data posted on twitter (3.0 on the Richter scale apparently), looks like an air defence base/site (or a military installation this air defence system was protecting nearby) visible on Google maps, co ordinates 34.847786N 35.989365E
A lot of ammunition must’ve been stored there for such a massive explosion, with secondaries, to occur. I’m guessing the air defence system protecting this site was a S-125 variant based off of the missile shape. While a Soviet era system first produced in the 1960s with a range between 15-35km depending on the variant, it is notable that the S-125 was the system that shot down a stealth F-117 Nighthawk bomber in Yugoslavia, as well as having shot down multiple F-16s during various conflicts. So still capable against modern aircraft in certain situations. With it not being operational, we can see the end result…
Trying to keep up to date on Sahel states and their Anti-Colonial force. What are some good sources to keep updated from? Western media just refuses to acknowledge AES or anything they do unless it relates directly with ECOWAS.
The Sri Lankan Left Won Big in the Elections and Is Already Capitulating to the IMF Hexbear Post
The Sri Lankan Left won unprecedented success in recent legislative elections. Against the promises of his campaign, however, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is already walking hand in hand with the IMF and preparing severe austerity measures.
On November 21, in his first speech to parliament, AKD went back immediately on his campaign promise and announced that he would “focus on maintaining economic stability and reaffirming trust with the various stakeholders in the economic world.” The day after, the IMF welcomed the discussions held with the new administration and announced the agreement of an additional $333 million as part of an economic plan implemented in 2022.
Yukon could get new Indigenous protected area the size of Vancouver Island Hexbear Post
In a statement, Chief Dylan Loblaw said, “Ross River Dena Council is pleased to be advancing efforts to finalize our IPCA Declaration within our Ross River Area. This Declaration is issued pursuant to our Indigenous laws, and will help ensure our rights, interests and values are properly respected in this important area.”
The proposed protected area is home to the at-risk Finlayson caribou herd, which are part of the northern mountain woodland caribou listed as a species of special concern under the federal Species At Risk Act. The area also encompasses ancient village sites and a group trapline built in the 1800s, and many sites that are sacred to the nation.
If established, the protected area would protect about eight per cent of Yukon’s land mass. Currently, Yukon has protected and conserved 21.1 per cent of lands. The federal government’s goal is to protect 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030, meaning Tū Łī́dlini could bring Yukon to the cusp of meeting the 30 by 30 goal on its own terms.
Cops Are Making Their Own Crack Cocaine! - Left Voice Hexbear Post
Florida’s Broward County is poised to erase the criminal convictions of thousands of people who were arrested for purchasing drugs, particularly crack cocaine. Why, you may ask? Did the holiday season lead Broward county’s Supreme Court to suddenly grow a heart, Grinch-style, realizing punitive measures to address drug use and addiction will never help people? No, it’s because it was found that those drugs were produced by the cops themselves in the Sheriff’s office. You sure did read that right. As reported by Democracy Now, “For years, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office produced crack cocaine to be sold by undercover police to the public.” The cops in Florida produced their own crack cocaine, then sold it to the public who they then targeted for arrest.
President Maduro Welcomes Heads of State at 24th ALBA-TCP Summit in Venezuela (+Guatemala, Palestine & Haiti) – Orinoco Tribune Hexbear Post
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, welcomed the heads of state and government of the ALBA countries as well as all the delegations that will participate at the 24th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) at the Simón Bolívar Convention Center in La Carlota, Caracas, on Saturday, December 14.
Earlier on Friday, in a preparatory meeting at the Foreign Ministry headquarters, >Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said, “At the heart of the revolutionary, anti-imperialist and Bolivarian Caracas, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty, the vital nucleus of the independence, dignity and sovereignty of the Great Homeland … Two visionaries like Commanders Chávez and Fidel were able to unite their capabilities and take the bold step, full of convictions and morals, to urge Latin America and the Caribbean that we must move forward, build together and unite all the forces of a heroic continent that has achieved so many feats for centuries, for its definitive liberation.”
Yunus indicates election by late 2025 or mid 2026
Yunus also reiterated the government’s commitment to enabling Bangladeshi expatriates to vote, a promise that has been made repeatedly in the past but never implemented.
Whatever happened to election in 3 months?
Assad finally made a statement
The CIRB ruling is putting Canada Post back to work tomorrow. Canada’s legalized strike-breaking record is unbroken.
This isn’t like previous back-to-work legislation though. Rather than just making striking illegal, they had the relations board kick the can down the road until May.
Some Donbass news for today.
Russian forces liberated the Donetsk People’s Republic settlements of Uspenovka and Annovka, south of Kurakhovo: https://sputnikglobe.com/20241215/russian-troops-hoist-russian-flag-in-villages-south-of-kurakhovo-1121171054.html
Russian forces encircled around 700 Kiev regime troops, south of Kurakhovo: https://en.news-front.su/2024/12/15/afu-detachment-of-700-men-with-special-forces-got-surrounded-south-of-kurakhovo-rogov/
Russian strikes destroyed four US-built “Patriot” launchers, the combat control vehicle, and an AN/MPQ-65 radar station: https://sputnikglobe.com/20241215/russian-forces-destroy-four-us-made-patriot-launchers-in-special-operation-zone-1121176366.html
Russian FPV drone destroys a Kiev regime Humvee in the DPR (combat video): https://news-pravda.com/ukraine/2024/12/15/921661.html
now that UFOs are trending what do you guys think of this footage taken in China? this incident shut down the airport https://youtu.be/VRwEkaygUHU
Interesting commentary by a Vietnamese communist:
https://xcancel.com/darrion_nguyen/status/1865962973455634668What happened in Syria vindicated Ho Chi Minh famous teaching “A nation who does not want to fight for its independence does not deserve it”. That’s why even though we got support from our allies (materials, technical), it was the Vietnamese to decide our struggle.
We got “negotiated” by big nation (incl. so called allies like the USSR / China) during Geneva and we learned our lesson. Le Duan famously said if we want unification, we must not fear the US, and also not fear the USSR and China, which means if our allies don’t agree to our course of action (let’s say fully liberate the south), be prepared to get supply cut off and fought on our own term if we want unification.
Reality shows that was correct decision, culminating in Paris 1972 where we negotiate directly with the US. In the last days of south Vietnam, the West called the USSR and China to talk to Hanoi to halt our operation, but it was all in vain.
Reminds me how Iran didn’t want Ansarallah to seize Sanaa, but Ansarallah did it anyways.
i actually don’t care if people not ideologically aligned with the left are putting CEOs in body bags
