We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Saudi stops funding terror in Syria as the Arab League prepares to resume ties with Damascus--the time is not yet ripe for retaking Idlib

Click here to access article by Elijah J Magnier, an independent Kuwaiti journalist (if my memory serves me correctly) with very good sources. 

This will be a test of the expert author's take on the situation in Syria. I will follow up sometime in the future to evaluate his geopolitical forecast. 

If he is correct, Saudi Arabia has decided to abandon support for their jihadists, most of whom came from their prisons; meanwhile Syria, Russia, Turkey, and Iran have decided to wait for the jihadists to deteriorate from the lack of support; and the US-backed Kurdish forces will finally realize that the US can't be relied upon to serve their interests and the US forces will finally leave Syria. Other members of the Arab league will recognize this new political reality and will re-establish ties with Syria. On the other hand, US strategists have extensive experience in creating chaos and will, in my opinion, likely try to stir up more chaos to thwart this scenario. Magnier's geopolitical take on the present situation in Syria seems so sensible, but it also seems too good to be true.

If you are seriously interested in what is going on in the US-backed Kurdish controlled areas of Syria, you might be interested in reading an interview conducted by Sarah Abed, an independent journalist, with Syrian activist and nationalist Nidal Rahawi. See part 1 here, and part 2 here.