The Russian Federation has been trying to solve the Syrian crisis practically since it began, understanding that to aid and abet terrorists and stand back while Islamic State takes more and more territory, fighting against the maintenance of President Assad in power is a recipe for disaster.
In 2014, President Bashar al-Assad was elected in what the international observers from over 30 countries described as "free, fair and transparent", in a multi-candidate election with a turnout of 73.42 per cent. The result was Bashar al-Assad (Ba'ath Party) in first place with 10,319,723 votes, or 88.7% of the vote; second was Hassan al-Nouri of NIACS, with 500,279 votes or 4.3% and in third place was Maher Hajjar, an Independent, with 372,301 votes (3.2%).
Many in the West will be unaware there even was a democratic vote last year, due to the fact that the biased corporate media have spent the last years calling the Syrian President a dictator. But the reality is different. Bashar al-Assad is what stands between Islamic State, that terrorist group which formed under the noses of the USA and its Poodles in Iraq and Syria, and which now graces the shores of the southern Mediterranean in Egypt and Libya (another Western disaster). And given that international experts warn that Islamic State almost certainly now has some crude form of chemical weapons and is on the doorstep of developing biological warfare weapons, it does not make sense to attack the one person who is fighting a heroic battle to save his country, and whoever follows next.
It is time for the West to recognize that Russia's policy is right, and time for the West to take a step back and take a look at itself. Afghanistan was a disaster, from when the West sponsored the Mujaheddin which morphed into the Taliban to now when the West pays the Taliban not to attack; Iraq was a disaster; Libya was a disaster, Ukraine is a disaster and now Syria is a disaster and all of these disasters have the hallmark of Washington and its Poodles.
It is time for the West to sit down with Moscow and solve crises, not cause them and then blame Russia when Russia's interests are inevitably affected, and here the corporate media have once against been spreading lies easily guzzled down by a gullible readership.
Let us be honest: the refugees are not fleeing President Assad, who has been in office since July 2000 - they are fleeing Islamic State which for some reason is receiving supplies instead of bombs from some curiously unmarked aircraft, and which sees precision bombs dropped on either side of its concentrations of troops.
Nearly half of Syria's population is directly affected by the chaos of having thousands of Takfiri jihadists swarming like cockroaches into towns and villages, beheading people, shooting people, raping women, slicing the breasts off Shia women in the streets, sodomizing little boys and chaining little girls to a bed to watch their families being butchered before being beheaded themselves, after being raped...and before being raped again. These are not the Syrian Arab Army troops committing these atrocities, they are terrorists who in some way have been aided, directly or indirectly, by the West and their allies in the Gulf.
This is why we see a tsunami of people heading westwards and the ones we see at the borders of Hungary getting kicked by Fascists are the first few ripples of the tidal wave that is following behind through Serbia, through Macedonia, through Greece, through Turkey and across the Mediterranean Sea.
More will come, and along with them others, economic migrants, some opportunists and even a few terrorists - some possibly infected with disease that will take up to a month to incubate and Fortress Europa will have a fine mess to handle.
Is this perhaps what Washington wants, as Europe threatens to become a cohesive Unit, whenever the power of the Euro starts to bite? Create chaos in the old continent so that Washington and its trillion-dollar deficit can rule the roost and the waves?
The situation in Syria is entering its fifth year and it is not getting any better. True, some human rights violations have been carried out by the Government troops, as they were by NATO in Afghanistan, by NATO forces in Iraq, by NATO in Libya, by NATO in Serbia. But without the horrific acts of depravity mentioned above launched by Takfiri terrorist groups, the Syrian Armed Forces would not need to take action. But far worse acts have been perpetrated by those who wish to destroy the Syrian State.
So maybe it makes sense to listen to Moscow for once. Moscow, who told the West that Iraq would be a mistake; Moscow, who told the West that Libya would be a mistake; Moscow, who told the West that Kosovo would be a mistake; Moscow, who told the West that Ukraine would be a mistake; Moscow, who told the West that Syria would be a mistake.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.