White Helmets [Edit: I mistakenly identified these rescue workers as White Helmets.] headed to Ras al-Ain (a.k.a. Sari Kani or Serekaniye in Kurdish) even though it’s still a combat zone to help with medical, evac, S&R, etc.
BroodsSexton
This really is the blueprint for some crazy postmodern WWIII. Everyone fighting someone. No one fighting everyone. Someone fighting no one. And no one to drive the car.
The Aristocrats!
Funny you mention it..
Part of the fucking center of Qamishli, the capital of Rojava, has been held by Syria for a couple of years. And I mean the center: a couple neighborhoods, services like hospitals, schools, mosques, etc.
They hold the fucking airport for fucks sake. And the border crossing. It’s like if China occupied East Boston and part of Southie and maybe a couple of the bridges and everyone was just sorta fine with it and went about their business.
I’ve tried to figure out how the government worked and it appears that nobody has any fucking idea. It looks basically impossible.
norm from cheers
I have seen reports saying it was more then POTUS is saying here.. I also can’t imagine Erdogan and the Kurds liking Trump comparing them and their military to kids who you let fight for a bit before pulling them apart.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Just spoke to President @RTErdogan of Turkey. He told me there was minor sniper and mortar fire that was quickly eliminated. He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work. Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen. Too bad there wasn’t…..
…..this thinking years ago. Instead, it was always held together with very weak bandaids, & in an artificial manner. There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success. The U.S. has secured the Oil, & the ISIS Fighters are double secured by Kurds & Turkey….
….I have just been notified that some European Nations are now willing, for the first time, to take the ISIS Fighters that came from their nations. This is good news, but should have been done after WE captured them. Anyway, big progress being made!!!!
Reverend
You mean is it true the violence since the cease fire was announced is isolated sniper fire and mortars?
It doesn’t seem so. In fact, there was enough fighting around Ras al-Ain and Ain Issa to have territory switch hands. And there appear to be consistent reports on shelling of some kind—FOXNews was the first LameStream media source after the wire services in the US to run the story, and it appears they waited for photographic evidence
How much extensive the shelling is is another story. Like, it wasn’t an on-slaught or anything. But enough to cause damage and sow chaos. And it appears they managed to mostly resurround Ras al-Ain again
Personal theory: Turkey wants to use this time to exacerbate the humanitarian/refugee crisis to create a new more favorable starting point for any negotiations.
All this comes with the caveat that it’s hard to confirm anything on the ground, obviously. Lots of unsourced pics and videos going around and some are bs. But also, in many cases, there is nobody to do any verification even if it is true.
Like, what should we make of this guy?
On its own, hard to know what to think. But the differing accounts generally shake out after a few hours; like, at the end of the day, it’s hard to lie about, say, who’s occupying a city without people finding out. Or smoke plumes and stuff.
Marciano490
What were the borders of the ancient Kingdom of Israel? Did they incorporate this corridor in Syria?
I’m trying to figure out if the Evangelicals were right after all.
dhappy42
It it’s height, the Kingdom of Israel was roughly what is now Israel, the West Bank, western Jordan and bits of Lebanon and southwest Syria. Kurdish Syria is in the northeast corner of the country about 500 miles away.
Too soon to tell.
Reverend
That’s a very contentious and delicate question, according to contemporary archeologists. I think the most ambitious accounts have it, in the north, as including all of Lebanon to the northern border and outward east into parts of southern Syria.
As I mentioned to teddywingman pointed out earlier in the thread that Dabiq is in northwest Syrian territory held by the SNA. ISIS captures it in 2014, and the. Turkish backed SNA took it in 2016. It’s one of the few areas in the west flanked by SDF in multiple sides, possibly due to its “strategic” value…
Dabiq is one of two possible locations (the other being, aptly named, Amuk, in Turkey.) that, in Muslim eschatology, will be the location of the final battle between Islam and Rome that leads to the return of Jesus. The then called FSA forces that took the city in 2016 at the time openly mocked ISIS for the fact that Jesus was a no-show.
I haven’t seen any contemporary chatter about this angle, but I also don’t really know where to look. But it’s not an accident that ISIS’s newsletter or whatever was named, “Dabiq.”
But yeah, if you’re into the whole millennialist thing, then yeah, there is a lot to work with here.
What were you thinking of within the Christian last days possibilities? I mean, Dabiq is less than 250 km from the northern border of Lebanon. But I’m not fully up on what the American Christian end-of-times types currently believe will be the signs.
Something to chew on, though:
Christian and Islamic eschatology have a TON of overlap. So if Christians see signs of the end of times, it may often be because elements of ISIS are actively trying to enact the end of times prophesies, and a Christian millennialist may recognize the events as resonating with their own vision of the world. So either it’s true, or it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy (which might still be true if you’re into the whole fate thing.), but it’s no surprise it looks like that.
tl;dr There are elements on the ground in Syria who are engaging in activity that will be identifiable to a millennialist believer as signs of the end of times.
Whether or not Christians in America are talking about this, I don’t know. But Christian and Islamic millennialists are looking out for a lot of the same things to happen. So I guess what happens if someone starts doing them on purpose?
Too soon to tell? Mostly, yeah. With some refinement though.
Most of the Kurdish held land in the east of Syria, but their presence extends out west on the northern border. Notably, they are active to the west of Manbij and around Dubiq—they are the orange and yellow in this map of northwest Syria; Assad’s forces are red and SNA is green. I indicated Dabiq with an “X”.
This is all subject to a reorganization of the SAA and SDF units under whatever their new alliance shakes out to be. But for the moment, and for some time now, both SAA and SDF have been fighting sorta together in the west.
Assad also has his own front in the west against SNA but that’s been going on for awhile independent of the stuff going on further east, though that will probably all get rolled together now.
And yeah, too soon to tell. But I’m sure people are trying to read the signs, eh?
Pat Robertson’s admonition about losing the “Mandate of Heaven” may be on point here.
YTF
Just spoke to President @RTErdogan of Turkey. He told me there was minor sniper and mortar fire that was quickly eliminated. He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work.
He’s already walking back the ceasefire. It’s wall vs fence all over again. A fence isn’t a wall and a pause isn’t a ceasefire, but he’ll intermingle the two terms as if they are.
Reverend
Update: Today in Biblical prophecy. Here are your big players:
- Isaiah 17: the destruction of Damascus; people start wondering if there might be something to this God of Israel after all.
- Ezekiel 38-39: After reuniting the factions of Israel in their ancestral lands (Ezekiel 37), Israel fights everyone, after which the Temple is restored.
Damascus and Dabiq are like a 5 or 6 hour drive from one another, to give a sense of locality.
Rojava to Rock 