Forty years ago I lived and worked on a farm. One late autumn evening K. invited me to participate in an attack on the barn. He put two cartridges in his shotgun and we walked as quietly as we could across the yard. On a signal, I threw open the barn door and nipped inside to switch on the light. Rats fled in all directions. I caught a glimpse of the legendary Chester. He really was as big as a well-fed domestic cat. Two explosions had no effect whatsoever on the rat population. Sometime later, during the day, I found a rat that had fallen into an empty oil drum. I felt obliged to dispose of the enemy. He didn’t give up his life easily.
I dread to think what the carnage would have been like in Idlib if Syrian and Russian forces had entered the city to clear out the nest of terrorists. Estimates are that there are between 10,000 and 100,000 human rats there that must be removed if the sovereign nation is to resume its formerly peaceful existence. President Trump warned Syria and Russia not to attack the city, giving the impression that he cared for the civilians who would be caught up in the fighting. He doesn’t, of course, care about the slaughter of women, children and old men. (See Gaza and Yemen where his “friends” have committed war crimes routinely and show no inclination of stopping.)
Presidents al-Assad and Putin heeded the warning though, and with their Turkish counterpart Erdogan came up with a plan to create a demilitarized zone around the centre of Idlib city which would be slowly but steadily cleared of terrorists. The idea was, I think, to clear this rats’ nest by October without a shot being fired and a single civilian killed.
I’m sure shots continue to be fired. There is nothing an Islamic terrorist enjoys more than brutalizing civilians. They are not going to give up easily. If one tunes into the UK’s propaganda media, all is currently quiet in Syria.
The FUKUS and Israeli Warhawks didn’t like the Putin-Erdogan plan and within hours launched an attack on Syria that resulted in the destruction of an Il-20 reconnaissance plane and its complement of fifteen Russian servicemen. That, like the Trump warning, brought an unexpected response from Putin. I will possibly give my thoughts about that tomorrow.
If President Trump has any sense he will listen to what Senator Richard Black had to say to Alex Christoforou on The Duran recently.