Amid the social media frenzy that emerged in recent days, there is some cool headed analysis of what is happening in Syria.
From the outset of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Jacques Baud, a retired colonel in the Swiss intelligence service, provided cogent analysis on that conflict which has been borne out by subsequent events.
In this interview, Jacques provides contextual history and his assessment of why Bashar Al-Assad capitulated rather than risk another bloody war in which the civilian population suffer most. The combination of sanctions and various Western and Turkish backed insurgents, predominantly foreign mercenaries, was more than the Syrian government could overcome.
Jacques’ analysis comes from a conventional geopolitical perspective and rings true on many levels.
However, there may be a deeper game afoot in which Russia and Iran with possible complicity of Turkey are looking to ensnare the US and NATO into a conflict of attrition.
The US had to flee the quagmire of Vietnam in 1976. Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser to US presidents LyndoHowever, wn B Johnson and Jimmy Carter, planned a similar fate for Russia in Afghanistan which was drawn into supporting the Afghanistan government against the US backed Mujahideen insurgency in 1979. This led ultimately to the collapse of the Soviet Union ten years later.
A plausible explanation for why Russia, Iran and Bashar Al-Assad abandoned Syria is given by Alex Krainer.
These geopolitical games are a function of institutional hierarchy and the incentives to accumulate wealth and power, at the expense of the majority of men, women, boys and girls and our environment.
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift of millennial proportions. If we want to accelerate that shift and stop wars, death and destruction. We need to remove our energy and resources from those in the game, governments, corporations, NGOs etc. We are feeding these conflicts and our own subjugation; if we want it all to stop, we have the power to make that choice. Don’t feed the beast, i.e. the structure.
Paradigm Shift – Keep Talking at the TeaHouse 5.12.2024 (video 9 minutes)
- Update – Pennie sent this perspective to add to our understanding: