Geography Archives: Syria

This is not a dispatch, editorial, or an article, but a brief note.

Hours after the Feb. 3 U.S. military raid in northern Syria that left the leader of ISIS and multiple family members dead, President Biden delivered a triumphant White House address.

The outbreak of full-fledged war with the Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a deep turning point in the world order.  As such it cannot be ignored by the geographers assembled (alas by zoom) at our annual meeting, I therefore offer some non-expert comments as a basis for discussion.

Syria’s entry into China’s Belt and Road Initiative is to support its economic integration into West Asia and fortify its post-conflict recovery.

Theodore Postol, a physicist with a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, he is Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a former top policy adviser to the chief of naval operations.

The UN Commission on Syria does not consider as proven the alleged chemical weapons attack in April 2018.

Washington and London’s latest war against Syria was incubated in CIA and MI6 offices long before the manufactured “uprising” erupted in 2011.

Supposedly “independent” website Bellingcat raked in money from scandal-ridden Western intelligence firms that wreaked havoc – and reaped massive profits – in Syria.

A new open-source study concludes that Syrian insurgents carried out the Ghouta sarin chemical attack in August 2013. The explosive findings add to a growing body of public evidence that undermines U.S.-led efforts to blame the Syrian government, which almost led to U.S. military intervention.

Comments by the former British ambassador to Syria came hours after the chairwoman of the Syrian mission to the OPCW said the U.S. and its allies had lowered the status of the international watchdog, and turned it into a political tool to level baseless accusations against Damascus and exert pressure on it.

A PBS Frontline special is the latest vehicle in a PR campaign to legitimize rebranded Syrian al-Qaeda, HTS, and market its leader Mohammad Jolani as a competent American “asset.”

Biden’s Feb. 26 strike in Syria was a crime, and risks major war with three countries.

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the ruling pigs led by Napoleon constantly rewrote history in order to justify and reinforce their own continuing power. The rewriting by the western powers of the history of the ongoing conflict in Syria leaps out of Orwell. 

The initial coalition against Syria has collapsed, with Turkey frustrated over the U.S.’ sustained support for the Kurds and the Arabs pivoting back to Syria.

The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria.

Thousands of people displaced in the last eight years have returned to their towns liberated from terrorism in the coastal region of Latakia province, 337 kilometers north-west of Damascus.

On orders of President Biden, the United States has launched an airstrike on a facility in Syria. As of this writing the exact number of killed and injured is unknown, with early reports claiming “a handful” of people were killed.

The most recent denunciation from Syria confirms the support of Western powers to the alleged humanitarian organization of the White Helmets which is also a fraud of crude media manipulation.

“Clearly the U.S. and its allies do not want transparency and open debate about the OPCW Douma investigation, and one can only conclude that this is the case because they know full well that their claims cannot be substantiated. Smears and censorship are the only tactics they have left.” – Propaganda Expert Piers Robinson

Noam Chomsky says that the OPCW’s cover-up, under U.S. pressure, of a Syria chemical weapons probe raises “very severe suspicions.”