Russia’s Three Major Gains Which Completely Changed Military Situation in Syria
[ Editor’s Note: It’s been quite a two years for Russia in Syria; and one month longer since VT’s last trip to Syria, where we gave and received briefings on the soon to be changing situation. It was a memorable trip, with our having meetings at a higher lever than ever before, in some of the most heavily guarded facilities in Syria.
Our last and most memorable meeting was with the Grand Mufti, whose people invited us to visit after word had filtered around that we were making a quiet tour. But it was on our last day, which required changing our travel and security detail plans, not an easy thing to do on short notice.
As it turned out, the Mufti also had a heavily guarded facility. Truck bombs were the biggest concern; and at the front door, there were combat-armed people all over the inside, ready to shoot it out with intruders who might get by the perimeter guard.
The Mufti was on a death list for being a “multi-faith” Muslim, and considered a heretic by the jihadis, and because he supported the Assad government, which also had been a multi-faith one, with a history of no religious friction in the country.
To spite their not being able to kill the Mufti, the jihadis killed his youngest son in college, on the day his wedding engagement was announced. The two young street punks hired to do it, for about $50 each, did not even know who the target was. The Mufti, in an act of forgiveness, went to the jail and asked that they be released, but the cops said no, that they were wanted on other charges.
We could not have foreseen, on our flight home, how completely the situation would be turned around in two years. It’s really incredible. The big lesson we learned is that there are real counter terrorism programs… and there are fake ones. The US Coalition was the latter, as it was playing both sides as part of what they thought was a slick smoke-and-mirrors psyops that no one would be able to see through.
We learned a lot, and will put the lessons to good use, as the proxy terror war sponsors are still in business, for now anyway. For our own security, we will need to find a way to eliminate them, just like the Russians did in Syria, but using different tools of course… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … October 02, 2017 –
Saturday, September 30 marked two years since the start of Russia’s military operation in Syria, conducted at the request of the country’s President Bashar Assad. French expert on international relations Xavier Moreau described three major Russian victories to Sputnik Radio which completely changed the military situation on the ground.
“If you remember, two years ago everyone was thinking that Bashar Assad, and not only him but the whole of Syria, was going to fall into anarchy because Syria was being attacked on the west by Al-Qaeda and on the east by Daesh (ISIS),” Moreau explained. He said this could have happened if not for Russia and the effectiveness of its military campaign: “within two years it completely changed the military situation. It has started the peace process which now seems to be getting more and more effective,” Moreau, told Sputnik.
He went on to name what he thinks were Russia’s most significant military victories. Russia’s first victory was when the Russian Aerospace Forces cut the flow of oil and money supplies through the Syrian border.
The second happened in Aleppo and the third occurred in Deir ez-Zor, he said, adding that Deir ez-Zor sounds like the end of Daesh in Syria. He also named the Astana peace talks as one of Russia’s major diplomatic gains.
“Of course, winning the war is important, but it is equally important to organize post-war life in Syria,” he said.
The US Should Stop Supporting Radicals in Syria
Xavier Moreau also compared the achievements of Russia and the US in the Middle Eastern country, calling Moscow an “expert in planning.” Its military operation had been very well organized from the very beginning, probably 6-8 months before the actual start of the campaign, which also included the political process.
The US, on the contrary, is involved in different military activities around the world without any plan at all, without knowing what they are going to do afterwards and without knowing who the major forces are on the ground.
That is why, the expert said, US campaigns result in chaos, while Russia’s result in order.The other countries which are involved in this campaign, such as France and the UK, have no other choice but to recognize Russia’s success. The forces which these countries have been supporting in Syria have completely discredited themselves and no longer decide anything or even matter, both militarily and politically.
That is why, he went on to say, the first thing the US must do is abandon the radical forces it had supported. This doesn’t simply pertain to Al-Qaeda, which he believes was once organized by western special forces by the West and Aleppo, but to similar Daesh activities in the east, in Deir ez-Zor. The US has to stop creating this pseudo-state, this Kurdish project, which would only bring about a new phase of the crisis, and not only in Syria, but in Iraq, Iran and Turkey, the expert said.
If the US does not interfere any longer, the crisis might be completely resolved as early as within six months, Xavier Moreau said. The last dangerous area occupied by the (non-Daesh) radicals is Idlib, he noted. If the west stops supporting these terrorists, it will take a maximum of one year to settle everything in the war-torn country.
In two years’ time, the Syrian army, backed by the Russian Air Force, has managed to liberate large parts of the country from the terrorists. According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s latest estimates, the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed almost one hundred thousand terrorist targets since the start of the operation.
Just earlier this month, the joint forces broke the three-year-old Daesh siege of the city of Deir ez-Zor. Moreover, Russia, Turkey and Iran managed to finally agree on the four de-escalation zones in Syria during talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.
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Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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