Author Archives: guyinachair

Unsurprisingly, The Guardian has a very good piece on the Putin Deal that is very thorough in explaining the nuts and bolts of how it works. Moreover, they also explain where there is still uncertainty of arrangements, and issues that remain to be decided, such as Assad’s offer of Amnesty for Kurdish fighters who rejoinedContinue reading “Oct 23 (1/4): Putin’s Hand”

So Fake news is creating problems in Syria. Here’s an example: In both Derbesiye & Qamishlo today, false rumors have spread via Facebook and word of mouth that a fresh Turkish assault is already underway, causing people to flee. The same happened a week ago in Qamishlo – among political shifts, civilians remain fearful ofContinue reading “Oct 22 (9/9): Unleash the InstaFace!!”

Welp, accidentally saw another few people get shot. Awesome. Fucking Twitter autoplay. Anyway, shit may be getting worse on the ground already. Not a rigorous review of evidence, but from my vantage point it seems like there is an uptick in the Turkish backed militia sharing violent atrocities in social media. They’d been doing itContinue reading “Oct 22 (8/9): Friends of Jews & Christians”

[REDACTED COMMENTS: PLACEHOLDER] Putin and Erdogan Announce Plan for Northeast Syria, Bolstering Russian Influence  Russia’s leader hosted his Turkish counterpart as a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Kurdish forces came to an end, underscoring Moscow’s emergence as a powerful player in the Middle East. Reverend Yuck. geoduck no quahog Next question: How can Putin shield Trump fromContinue reading “Oct 22 (7/9): Poker Facing Backwards”

BroodsSexton There is simply no way that this decision was in American interests. Which raises the question: if the President directs action that is so plainly not in American interests, who carries it out? I mean, if you’re the Secretary of Defense, and you get the order to burn the Kurds, is that something youContinue reading “Oct 22 (6/9): “Rebel Scum””

Continued: I can’t believe nobody’s made a mint making a movie about these people yet. I mean, how much did that silly Benghazi movie with Jim from The Office* rake in? Shit, YPJ make Wonder Woman** look like My Little Pony. *which I enjoyed. **also enjoyed. ZMart100 Just to be 100% sure, you are claiming to have enjoyed TheContinue reading “Oct 22 (5/9): Girls on Film”

OK, so it should be easy enough to figure out what’s going on, yeah? absintheofmalaise I couldn’t get my phone to link, but according to CNN, Iraq has not given us permission to station the troops from Syria in northern Iraq yet. They could rotate some of the existing US forces out and have theContinue reading “Oct 22 (4/9): A Recap of Sorts”

ZMart100 At least one ex US base is now allegedly being used for torture, at least according to a Turkish think tank.* After #Manbij shops strike sources from inside the city confirmed that the #Regime arrested today men in their 20’s, & took them to #Arima base the Ex #US base in the western sideContinue reading “Oct 22 (3/9): News from our old base?”

tl;dr: Calling them “the Kurds” comes about in the mental gymnastics, which may be unintentional, to attempt to avoid taking any political position that adhere to names that have political implications for political recognition. What’s been interesting is how much our government officials have been increasingly using the nomenclature of SDF, etc., but not Rojava,Continue reading “Oct 22 (2/9): “The Kurds””

In other news: Daily Briefing Stuff (DBS); some of which should be pretty self explanatory at this point. Here’s the daily report from the RIC: Situation report for past 24 hours from @RojavaIC – Families flee Dirbesiye in anticipation of new attacks – Turkey violated ceasefire 37 times, says SDF – Reports of widespread lootingContinue reading “Oct 22 (1/9): Good Fences…”