Peter Wolf
@awarewolf.bsky.social
Scrivener manqué. Pâtissier. Alleged scoundrel. "Big Ay Caramba Energy."
Israeli intelligence reporting that, as far as they know, Assad is still in Damascus.
À la lanterne!
À la lanterne!
December 7, 2024 at 7:39 PM
Israeli intelligence reporting that, as far as they know, Assad is still in Damascus.
À la lanterne!
À la lanterne!
Some of it isn’t even Cold War, it’s just romantic, Theory™-addled anachronism.
The Israel of 2020 is not the Israel of 1960 or 1980.
And that’s without getting into the confusion over settler-colonialism and unhelpful comparisons to Algeria or South Africa.
The Israel of 2020 is not the Israel of 1960 or 1980.
And that’s without getting into the confusion over settler-colonialism and unhelpful comparisons to Algeria or South Africa.
December 7, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Some of it isn’t even Cold War, it’s just romantic, Theory™-addled anachronism.
The Israel of 2020 is not the Israel of 1960 or 1980.
And that’s without getting into the confusion over settler-colonialism and unhelpful comparisons to Algeria or South Africa.
The Israel of 2020 is not the Israel of 1960 or 1980.
And that’s without getting into the confusion over settler-colonialism and unhelpful comparisons to Algeria or South Africa.
I was glumly resigned to the fact that Harris’s main foreign policy advisor, Phil Gordon, thinks Obama never should have threatened Assad’s rule with his red line over WMDs, and advocated the recent (shameful) push to normalize relations between Assad and his neighbors.
Good riddance.
Good riddance.
December 7, 2024 at 4:25 PM
I was glumly resigned to the fact that Harris’s main foreign policy advisor, Phil Gordon, thinks Obama never should have threatened Assad’s rule with his red line over WMDs, and advocated the recent (shameful) push to normalize relations between Assad and his neighbors.
Good riddance.
Good riddance.
It was *THE* primary reason Obama left Assad alone; he didn’t want to upset their Iranian masters with whom he was desperate to cut a deal.
December 7, 2024 at 4:17 PM
It was *THE* primary reason Obama left Assad alone; he didn’t want to upset their Iranian masters with whom he was desperate to cut a deal.
Clintonite liberal internationalism had plenty of failings, but it was leagues ahead of the listless and idiotic stewardship of liberal institutionalism pursued by the Obama and Biden administrations.
December 7, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Clintonite liberal internationalism had plenty of failings, but it was leagues ahead of the listless and idiotic stewardship of liberal institutionalism pursued by the Obama and Biden administrations.
It’s depressingly hard to find a popular democratic movement or uprising against authoritarianism that the Western Left has supported in the past twenty years.
They have all but abandoned internationalism in favor of solipsistic isolationism or reactionary contra-imperialism.
They have all but abandoned internationalism in favor of solipsistic isolationism or reactionary contra-imperialism.
December 7, 2024 at 3:45 PM
It’s depressingly hard to find a popular democratic movement or uprising against authoritarianism that the Western Left has supported in the past twenty years.
They have all but abandoned internationalism in favor of solipsistic isolationism or reactionary contra-imperialism.
They have all but abandoned internationalism in favor of solipsistic isolationism or reactionary contra-imperialism.
Word is that the SDF has seized al-Jarrah Air Base from the Assad regime.
Sounds like the SDF-Ba’athist collab may finally, finally be over.
Sounds like the SDF-Ba’athist collab may finally, finally be over.
November 30, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Word is that the SDF has seized al-Jarrah Air Base from the Assad regime.
Sounds like the SDF-Ba’athist collab may finally, finally be over.
Sounds like the SDF-Ba’athist collab may finally, finally be over.
HTS-SDF condominium for a free Syrian Federal Republic would probably be the best (and, thus, most unlikely) outcome.
Staving off Turkish terror of an independent Kurdistan (especially one under PKK rule) is as key to any post-war Syria as it was for post-war Iraq.
bsky.app/profile/char...
Staving off Turkish terror of an independent Kurdistan (especially one under PKK rule) is as key to any post-war Syria as it was for post-war Iraq.
bsky.app/profile/char...
Rumors are emerging that the #SDF -- led by its Arab forces -- may be prepping an offensive on #Assad regime positions in #Raqqa, while Arab #SDF units in Deir ez Zour are also mobilizing, taking multiple villages from regime control along the #Euphrates.
November 30, 2024 at 9:25 PM
HTS-SDF condominium for a free Syrian Federal Republic would probably be the best (and, thus, most unlikely) outcome.
Staving off Turkish terror of an independent Kurdistan (especially one under PKK rule) is as key to any post-war Syria as it was for post-war Iraq.
bsky.app/profile/char...
Staving off Turkish terror of an independent Kurdistan (especially one under PKK rule) is as key to any post-war Syria as it was for post-war Iraq.
bsky.app/profile/char...
At this rate, he’ll be the next Fareed Zakaria; Master of the Softball and Relentless Seeker of the Middle Ground.
November 30, 2024 at 7:46 PM
At this rate, he’ll be the next Fareed Zakaria; Master of the Softball and Relentless Seeker of the Middle Ground.
Dar’aa has never been fully pacified, and a low-level insurgency (especially targeting former rebels “reconciled” to the regime) has been smoldering since the Ba’athists returned.
Restive Suwayda has avoided much beyond protests, and Assad can’t afford to war on the Druze.
bsky.app/profile/noel...
Restive Suwayda has avoided much beyond protests, and Assad can’t afford to war on the Druze.
bsky.app/profile/noel...
So it begins, again. Assad's SAA forces opened fire on a demonstration in the city of Inkhil in the northern countryside of Daraa.
November 30, 2024 at 7:38 PM
Dar’aa has never been fully pacified, and a low-level insurgency (especially targeting former rebels “reconciled” to the regime) has been smoldering since the Ba’athists returned.
Restive Suwayda has avoided much beyond protests, and Assad can’t afford to war on the Druze.
bsky.app/profile/noel...
Restive Suwayda has avoided much beyond protests, and Assad can’t afford to war on the Druze.
bsky.app/profile/noel...
The SDF is preoccupied with Turkey and its proxies’ next moves.
The SAA is disintegrating.
Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are all much weaker and too distracted to rescue Assad’s regime as they did in the 2010s.
Victory may not be around the corner, but “catastrophe” seems far off.
The SAA is disintegrating.
Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are all much weaker and too distracted to rescue Assad’s regime as they did in the 2010s.
Victory may not be around the corner, but “catastrophe” seems far off.
November 30, 2024 at 7:34 PM
The SDF is preoccupied with Turkey and its proxies’ next moves.
The SAA is disintegrating.
Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are all much weaker and too distracted to rescue Assad’s regime as they did in the 2010s.
Victory may not be around the corner, but “catastrophe” seems far off.
The SAA is disintegrating.
Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are all much weaker and too distracted to rescue Assad’s regime as they did in the 2010s.
Victory may not be around the corner, but “catastrophe” seems far off.
Say HTS waaay over-extends and is forced to pull back to Aleppo.
Whatever local force gives HTS such trouble that it withdraws won’t have the regime’s arsenal behind it. And Assad’s reavers are unlikely to be welcomed back. So, at worst, a patchwork of local militias.
A far cry from “catastrophe.”
Whatever local force gives HTS such trouble that it withdraws won’t have the regime’s arsenal behind it. And Assad’s reavers are unlikely to be welcomed back. So, at worst, a patchwork of local militias.
A far cry from “catastrophe.”
November 30, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Say HTS waaay over-extends and is forced to pull back to Aleppo.
Whatever local force gives HTS such trouble that it withdraws won’t have the regime’s arsenal behind it. And Assad’s reavers are unlikely to be welcomed back. So, at worst, a patchwork of local militias.
A far cry from “catastrophe.”
Whatever local force gives HTS such trouble that it withdraws won’t have the regime’s arsenal behind it. And Assad’s reavers are unlikely to be welcomed back. So, at worst, a patchwork of local militias.
A far cry from “catastrophe.”