Paul Craig Roberts

Where there is no vision the people are lost.

The latest report is that Israel has carried out 480 air strikes on territory of the former Syria and Israeli troops are moving deeper into the country. Netanyahu claims credit for Syria’s overthrow which he said is “a historic day in the history of the Middle East.” It certainly opens up the Middle East to Greater Israel.

Israel said that Syria’s fall has isolated and weakened Iran’s position and now is the time for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. https://www.rt.com/news/609279-israel-iran-strikes-report/

The NATO secretary-general has instructed NATO members to cut spending on social services and divert the money to military spending. Security matters more than social welfare , said the secretary-general, and Europe must prepare to defend itself from aggressive Russia. Of course, it is Russia that is failing to defend herself and her allies from the aggressive West.

The Russian foreign ministry again declared Ukrainian membership in NATO to be unacceptable, but Russia has given no indication of what it can do to block it.

President-elect Trump has criticized the Biden regime for the major escalation of firing missiles into Russia. But the policy of softening up Russia for negotiations is likely to continue under Trump. Now that the Russian, Iranian, and Chinese governments have demonstrated that they are unable to act even in their own interests, it will be difficult for Trump to slow the momentum toward wider war.

Russia is negotiating with HTS, the latest name for the terrorists used by the US and Israel to overthrow Syria, for the protection of the Russian military bases in Syria. Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said the Russian forces will play an important role in the fight against terrorism. Apparently, Bogdanov doesn’t realize that it is the terrorist regime from whom he is asking protection for Russians. It seems that HTS is both the “Syrian democratic opposition” and “the terrorists. ”In liberating Syria they were the democratic opposition. Now that they have Syria they are terrorists, Israel’s war with which covers Israel’s annexation of Syria into Greater Israel.

Peter Ford, the former British ambassador to Syria, said that the West intends a “master-client relationship” with those who “yesterday were al-Qaeda and ISIS,” but today are the Syrian democratic opposition. “For Western powers, the optics of doing business with gangs and warlords designated as terrorist groups presents a problem. This can be got round, however, by pretending to have a ‘transition.'”

I have been wondering where tiny Israel would find the manpower to occupy Syria, Lebanon, and Greater Israel. It looks like they are going to use the Arabs themselves, the Shia to occupy the Sunni or vice versa.

Things change fast. It was only 5 days ago that Russian foreign minister Larvrov was warning of the HTS terrorists and declared Russia will oppose attempts by the militants to alter the situation on the ground in Syria. Clearly, the Russian foreign ministry had no idea that Syria was disintegrating while Lavrov was speaking. Now Syria is in the hands of the HTS terrorists/democratic opposition. The Astana agreement that Russia supported repeated the utter folly of the Minsk Agreement and destroyed Syria. Disdaining force, Russia called for “restraint.” Russia and Iran restrained, but not their enemies, or is it their “partners”?

“We are absolutely convinced of the inadmissibility of using terrorists like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to achieve geopolitical goals, as is happening now with the organization of this offensive from the Idlib de-escalation zone,” Lavrov explained during a session at the Doha Forum ( source: Sputnik). Perhaps Lavrov has forgot that the Idlib de-escalation zone is a produce of Russia’s Astana agreement.

Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, reports that Syria’s disappearance was orchestrated in the Zionist commend rooms of the United States and the Israeli Zionist regime. He did not explain why Iran stood aside and accepted the destruction of its ally and buffer and route to the resupply of Hezbollah, the only force preventing Israel’s occupation of Lebanon.

Were Syria’s allies, Iran and Russia, unaware of the plot? Why did Khamenei join Putin in sitting on their butts while Washington and Israel overthrew their ally and handed them a dramatic strategic defeat. Now all they can do is to complain. But they never blame themselves.

My conclusion has been that neither Russia nor Iran has an intelligence service. Iran relies on God, and the Russian government relies on a 19th century gentleman’s diplomacy that exists today only in the heads of Putin and Lavrov. To such people it is important not to give offense, so they are incapable of acting. Strategic vision is far beyond their capability. This makes them sitting ducks. However, John Helmer reports that Russian intelligence was fully aware of what was afoot, and Putin prevented the Russian military from defending Syria. https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-john-374

John Helmer reporting from Moscow supports my conclusion that Putin’s unwillingness to use force has discredited Russia as the leader of an alternative world to the Western-dominated one:

Having opposed but obeyed Putin’s orders forbidding them to fire on Israeli aircraft attacking Syria, or on Turkish ground operations in and around Idlib, Moscow sources believe the General Staff have now told Putin much more than the refrain, he’s heard many times before, “We told you so”. This time the General Staff assessment of the invasion of Syria, refusal of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to fight, and the replacement of the Assad regime in Damascus is that grave damage has been done to the protective alliances which Russia has been promoting in Africa, the Americas, China, and North Korea.

“We just have to accept that Iran and Russia have been comprehensively defeated in their non-fight, “a well-informed Moscow source says. “It is the worst defeat of Russia by the Turks in history. If Putin goes on now to make significant concessions in an Istanbul II negotiation with [President Donald] Trump, that will be the cherry on top of the Turkish halva. We are thinking this; no one is saying it. In the end, a defeat of Ukraine is all we care about. If Putin fails to deliver that, then he has a much bigger problem than the one he has just retreated from. Yes, this is a huge dishonour for us, but nothing is served by talking of it. Still, the situation can be redeemed in the Ukraine. This means the complete and comprehensive defeat of the enemy there.”

A non-Russian military source says the Russians he knows are “in denial. The Turks can now say we have them where we want them. This means the Israelis and the Americans can say the same. That means leverage above and beyond the Levant, in Africa, Asia and no less in Ukraine. What do the Russians have to offer their African or Asian friends now? Do they say — we’ll be there for you, of course, until the end – we mean your end. Of course, when the going gets tough, and potentially that means fighting the Americans or one of its proxy armies, the Russians now show they will blame their unwillingness to fight on their friends’ refusal to do what the Russians advise; their military incompetence; their corruption; or their racial inferiority compared to Russians.”

Amazing that Putin enables the neoconservatives’ discrediting of him. With the Washington/Israeli victory in Syria, less attention will be paid to anything Putin says.

https://www.unz.com/article/the-kremlins-oprichniki-versus-the-general-staffs-prigozhniki-in-the-new-time-of-troubles/

In this very important statement, John Helmer describes Putin’s acceptance of the partition of Syria by Israel, Turkey, and Washington:

https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-john-374

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Russia and Iran Lack Strategic Vision
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/12/13/russia-and-iran-lack-strategic-vision/