Image is of Assad and his family.
After less than two weeks of retreating with few shots fired and little resistance, the SAA has retreated into, well, a state of non-existence. This thereby ends a conflict that has been simmering for over a decade. With the end of this conflict, another begins: the carving up of what used to be Syria between Israel and Turkey, with perhaps the odd Syrian faction getting a rump state here and there. Both Israel and Turkey have begun military operations, with Israel working on expanding their territory in Syria and bombing military bases to ensure as little resistance as possible.
Israeli success in Syria is interesting to contrast against their failures in Gaza and Lebanon. A short time ago, Israel failed to make significant territorial progress in Lebanon due to Hezbollah's resistance despite the heavy hits they had recently taken, and was forced into a ceasefire with little to show for the manpower and equipment lost and the settlers displaced. The war with Lebanon was fast, but still slow enough to allow a degree of analysis and prediction. In contrast, the sheer speed of Syria's collapse has made analysis near-impossible beyond obvious statements like "this is bad" and "Assad is fucking up"; by the time a major Syrian city had fallen, you barely had time to digest the implications before the next one was under threat.
There is still too much that we don't know about the potential responses (and non-responses) of other countries in the region - Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Russia, for example. I think that this week and the next will see a lot of statements made by various parties and an elucidation of how the conflict will progress. The only thing that seems clear is that we are in the next stage of the conflict, and perhaps have been, in retrospect, since Nasrallah's assassination. This stage has been and will be far more chaotic as the damage to Israel compounds and they are willing to take greater and greater risks to stay in power. It will also involve Israel causing destruction all throughout the region, rather than mostly localizing it in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Successful gambles like with Syria may or may not outweigh the unsuccessful ones like with Lebanon. This is a similar road to the one apartheid South Africa took, but there are also too many differences to say if the destination will be the same.
What is certain is that Assad's time in power can be summarized as a failure, both to be an effective leader and to create positive economic conditions. His policies were actively harmful to internal stability for no real payoff and by the end, all goodwill had been fully depleted. By the end, the SAA did not fight back; not because of some wunderwaffen on the side of HST, but because there was nothing to fight for, and internal cohesion rapidly disintegrated.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Looks like I'm at another breaking point. Time to make another despairpost that contributes nothing of value whatsoever. I've done this maybe just once or twice before, and I think people are already sick of it. My thoughts are incomplete because they are completely scattered and I can't remember everything I want to say, because my brain is broken
But yeah it should pretty obvious that I am talking crazy again.
spoiler
I don't know why I feel so strongly about all this. I don't have much skin in the game, most of this stuff won't personally affect me much if at all. I just despise colonialism and white supremacy and all the damage they've caused to the world and I want to see it all crushed and their followers completely humiliated. But instead they just keep getting rewarded, as they have throughout pretty much all of human history save for some flukes. And we'll never get a moment of peace. The U.S., the west, tthe fucking yakubian devils making big moves every day to secure their eternal hegemony, the constant anxiety is murdering me. Would it be better to just assume all is lost and stop being invested in anything?I read the essay SeventyTwoTrillion posted to try to get some perspective. The post itself wasn't enough, so I read the whole thing to try to calm down. It makes sense, yes, there are cracks in this system, and it's not invincible, and it's unsustainable in the long run... but damn is their opposition trying their damnest to make it look like it is. What changes are really taking place, besides the U.S. forming the world's first forever-empire? Going through the news thread just makes me go "Nope, I'm slipping again. Time to lose what little sanity I didn't realize I still had." Any time I feel like it's not impossible, I read the thread and the news and I just conclude it's completely hopeless.. Maybe it's life's way of beating into my head how absolutely hopeless everything is. It's trying to tell me how powerful the U.S. is and how fucking incompetent and passive their opposition is.
The Nazis are pointing and laughing at their victims' collective helplessness and their inevitable victory, the pessimists are running victory laps over how right they were the whole time. (I already blocked what I presume was a certain user's newest ban-evasion account based off the way they spoke and their account age, sorry I'd rather not get a brain aneurysm by being forced to even so much as glaze past their posts) What should we do? Just start calling the resistance stupid and incompetent? To call all of the U.S.'s opposition cowards, stupid, incompetent. That the world is doomed? To give up completely?
God can you imagine being a neoliberal? It must feel good, I mean think about it:
-Your side has then most ruthless and cunning chessmasters in Earth's entire history who will decisively make moves at a dizzying pace. They are playing 50D chess and are always 5000 steps ahead of everyone else. They know exactly what they need to do to win, and capitalize on every opportunity that presents itself without hesitation. The same can't be said for their enemies. Honestly they've already won, they're just humoring their opposition and making this more drawn out just for fun. Speaking of which...
-Your opposition barely even exists. You have them too scared to make any meaningful moves against you. China, Russia, and Iran are just letting you isolate them with no resistance whatsover. Maybe you'll dangle an opportunity for them here and there to see if they'll bite, and they never do! And BRICS? BRICS is irrelevant. Like, no neolib is fucking scared of BRICS because it's practically nothing. I guess.
-Your ideology has infected the minds of millions worldwide like a nasty brain fungus. You practically have an army of sleeper agents you can activate at any time to topple your enemies' governments.
-As long as you have the U.S. on your side you are unstoppable. The U.S. doesn't even need to use nukes, the president just needs to wave a dollar bill around, and it will emit a shockwave that causes every world leader to collapse to their knees. And hell evne if they use nukes it's starting to look like no one will respond with their own,. YOU'RE FREE! YOU HAVE FULL AND TOTAL IMPUNITY
-Your enemies are expected to follow your rules, but you can break your rules anytime you want. Why? You make them, you have full reign to break them if need be!
-Who cares if any anti-colonialist struggle wins in the end? You just punish them by economically strangling them until they break and call it a day.
-You just have to pinky promise your enemies that you won't break the terms of your agreements and they will fall for it every single time. It's like a fucking cheat code!!!
Can't even see hope in any good news now. It all just seems transient, temporary. They will turn their eyes towards the AES and crush it without much effort, and China won't do anything in response.
Optimism and reassurance doesn't mean much if reality ends up proving them wrong. ESPECIALLY if reality proves them wrong. It's easier to believe now that the fall of Syria is the first domino to fall before the total collapse of the resistance than it is to believe it's only one defeat in a wider war.
If the Axis of Resistance is truly doomed, then just turn away. Avert your eyes. Don't witness the slaughter that will take place. It's over. Just let it be over. Close your eyes until it's over. Write your essays now on all their mistakes and what the final nail in the coffin was. The failure is predetermined now.
People's analysis will say that China or Russia or whatever literally any other country that resists U.S. hegemony needs to do x if they want to win, but they never do. THEY NEVER DO. THEY NEVER RESPOND. THEY NEVER FUCKING DO ANYTHING RIGHT! THEY NEVER MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS, AND THEY NEVER WILL FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE! WHY EVNE PAY ATTENTION ANYMORE!? THIS GENERAETION IS LOST! THIS CENTURY IS LOST! THE REST OF HUMAN HISTORY IS THE HISTORY OF WHITE SUPREMACY AND COLONIALISM REIGNIGN SUPREME FOREVER ANDE FEFR. I CAN'T NAME A TIME THE OPOPPPOSTION EVER MADE ANBY EGIESKF OIJUTOMIUFHFYU84325srgwsehywby5e43w
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I mean, Hexbear analysts ar ethe most reliable source of information int ehwrold right???? of coruse theey are.
Fascists gonna have a field day, now, forever, they'll be happy forever laughing at people who hoped the world could get better.
Neoliberalism and fascism, white supremacy has continuously cemented itself as the one and only truth in the world. Material conditions? Fuckj that. The Europeans discovered the one and only truth of the world is to genocide entire peoples' and be the most ruthless and inhumane demons the world has ever seen is the truth of the world.
Liberal ideology is basically another form of mind control. The most subtle, insidious, and successful.
Hahahahahaaha, the end of history is real, it just suffered some delays it seems.
Do I just turn away from it all? Just stop looking at the news, stop looking at the thread, just focus on doing what I enjoy? That feels privileged and selfish.
Oh if Russia and China can't or won't free the world from U.S. dominance, then it is clearly up to the PEOPLE of the U.S. to rise up and do so!!!!!! The people... who are probably too afraid of losing what little they do have to do anything to challenge U.S. hegemony.
Who or what should be blamed? If anything should be cursed, it's the Bubonic Plague for not doing its job right. Now we have the Europeans and their spawns enslaving and destroying the world.
how many people are considering just giving up entirely? Just give up give up give up and it won't hurt anymore. Give up give up give up give up. Even more, how many are considering switching to neoliberalism, so tired of being burned by the side they support never making the right decisions to win, while the neolibs consistently one-ups them at every opportunity. Maybe fully embracing neoliberalism will make them feel happy won't it? All it will cost is their humanity.
I feel like I'm actually close to completely giving up. Let the fascist hyenas hoot and holler and celebrate, licking the tears of the less fortunate. This world is evil and rewards demons like them. I don't want to read the news anymore. I don't want to read any of these threads anymore. I don't know if I even want to visit the site anymore. (Who am I kidding I totally will). It's nothing but a death spiral repeating what has already become clear over and over: The U.S. is unstoppable, their opposition is stupid and incompetent and is just pretending to oppose them, they never learn their lesson, never make the right decisions, and there's no way things will ever change.
True liberation is a fantasy that only exists in fiction. Any "victories" in real life are just temporary, but defeats are eternal. The US shows that it can just crush any opposition with the flick of a finger.
I try to have resolve, I try not to let things break me, I try to remind myself this is a generation-long process... but in the end I'm still weak-willed.
...America hasn't even ruled for 200 years yet, relax. Posadas was always right, enjoy a salad or something.