'Everyone is dying. I will soon die, too'

[Sunlei]

Source: usatoday

"Where are our supporters?" asked Radhwan Salem, 60. "Believers in humanity, I don't understand how can the entire world (can) watch this and do nothing. Oh, God, help us."

"We are not afraid of death, and we have no demands," said Salem. "We only want freedom for us, and to rob it from (Syrian President Bashar) Assad. I have lived my life in this city, I raised my children and their children here. I am ready to give my life defending my family."

Abdulla Saleem, 39, a doctor who is living in the bombed out remains of a building, said via WhatsApp, "They are killing everyone. ... My friends are doctors, who were providing the only possible medical care to the injured. Now they are butchered. Everyone is dying. I will soon die, too."
"All the doctors at Al-Hayat (field medical clinic) have been executed," said Abu Zubair, 29. "My friends have given their blood. They have fought the fight they chose, for the humanity."

"My wife was killed separately in a bomb, but before that my children were killed in an attack," said Zubair. "They died because we couldn't pull them out of the rubble."
"My friends will defend Aleppo to the death," said Mohsin Salem, 33. "To the world outside of Aleppo, to the United States, I don't want to say anything more than stand by Aleppo. And if we all die, remember us."


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/12/13/reports-civilian-executions-besieged-aleppo/95365222/

---

"To the world outside of Aleppo, to the United States, I don't want to say anything more than stand by Aleppo. And if we all die, remember us."

[cilla4progress]

1. We will pay for our sins

in not stopping this.

I realize we don't know as individuals how or what to do.

But instead of the Trump charade, the world should be focused on banding together against this genocide.

And Russia, at its root...

[Sunlei]

5. all we can do is hear their last words.It's horrible to be the 'general public' watching a genocide.

and then to be mocked by people like putin and trump.

[laserhaas]

7. Concur

Very pathetic, sad, state of affairs.

We are The Empire - wrong, in almost every way

[christx30]

8. Putin is the only one that can stop it

without sparking WWIII.
I won't be holding my breath.

[Warpy]

30. Exactly. Checkmate.

Not that you or I can do anything about most of the organized evil in the world. We couldn't even stop Trump, no matter how hard we all tried.

I guess we'll all have to start thinking locally for a while, start there. I won't forget the brave doctors of Aleppo, though. They have been magnificent.

[still_one]

51. The only thing the U.S. could do is try to evacuate the civillians, but they need some

place to go, and it looks like the U.S. will be blocking any refugees coming here in 2017

I would hope there are countries in the region who are trying to help along with the UN.

[Botany]

2. The world should know that these pro Assad troops are backed by Putin

We are looking at dark times

[Frustratedlady]

6. Within the next 4 years, will we be making simllar pleas?

How can so few sick brains affect so many?

[democrank]

3. So utterly awful

[yallerdawg]

4. We had a moment. We had a line in the sand!

Congress and the American people said, "Fuck them."

We have to live with our sins.

The whole world does.

[Ford_Prefect]

17. The only line we had was back when Congress authorized Bush to invade.

Nearly everything else since has been built on that approval, the regime change premise, and the neo-cons of both parties who believe in regime change as foreign policy who went into government under Bush who were allowed to stay under Obama.

The Saudis and the Israeli Right Wing have driven much of what has followed, especially in Syria. We voters have rarely had access to the levers that tipped things so far into the war zone. Further military action on our part will sadly make it worse rather than resolve it. Unless your plan is to export the entire remaining population of Aleppo to say the west side of Huston, or Upstate NY, or you pick the venues, we can't really do much. That stinks but with the current divisions between Neo-Con militarists and genuine diplomats inside the State Department and Intel organizations it is unlikely to change.

[yallerdawg]

18. When the Assad regime used chemical weapons...

on civilians that was a line. A red line. A red line drawn by the nations of the world.

Ask any Republican. They'll tell you what a failure this was for Obama. While telling him, "No."

We stand by all the time while those who can commit genocide on those who can't defend themselves.

We are all complicit. It's not just Hillary and Obama.

[Ford_Prefect]

21. I'm sorry to say we are not all complicit as you suppose.

The terrible things happening to the people of Aleppo began with the Iraq invasion and did not begin or end with ISIS. We did not so far as I know vote to encourage anyone to start a civil war in Syria. It is clear that someone in the Saudi Government did.

I did not vote to continue Assad's brutality either. What exactly would you have us do in this case, Attack the Russian Air Force? Bomb Assad's forces or his headquarters?

Are there other means you'd like to suggest? I'd certainly like to hear something that would work.

I don't for one minute advocate the deaths that are happening now nor those who've died previously as justified nor should we ignore the events that generated them.

[yallerdawg]

24. I'm saying, because we find genocide tolerable...

we are complicit.

Except you. OK now?

[Ford_Prefect]

25. We have objected to it for at least the last 15 years and "they"do not listen to us.

I worry that it may take just short of it HERE to end them doing it.

[Fast Walker 52]

34. it was not so clear cut what was going and at that time, no one wanted a new war.

In any case, the killing here is not being done by us, even if we bear some responsibility for giving arms to rebels.

Assad's regime bears most of the blame.

[DonCoquixote]

43. the last time we invaded a baath party held state

and deposed the dictator that used chem weapons was Iraq.

While we should have done more (like put in reporters and aid, and shamed the hell out if the UN) the last thing needed was more American troops.

[Sunlei]

28. two mentions about the situation in syria & poison issue, in todays WH live questions,

from a very long daily press question and answer session, worth reading daily if you want the most current 'trump' issues & hacking issues" our President is responsible for until 1/20/17 REF- https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/12/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-121216

12:55 P.M. EDT

MR. EARNEST: Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Monday. I hope you all had a good weekend. I do not have any comments at the start, so we can go straight to questions.

Josh, would you like to start?

Q Sure. Thanks, Josh. Why don't we start with Aleppo? Does the U.S. government still think it's possible to prevent Aleppo from falling to the Syrian government, or is it possible to concede at this point that it's a lost cause?

MR. EARNEST: Josh, the United States government continues to be deeply concerned about the situation in Aleppo, and the violence there is only increasing. The risk facing innocent civilians has been grave for some time. It continues to worsen. Despite our best diplomatic efforts to reduce the violence and increase the flow of humanitarian assistance, the Assad government, backed by the Russians, continues to try to bomb innocent civilians into submission. And it's a terrible situation that does not appear to be getting better.

Q And the U.S. is saying that Russia has turned down a U.S. offer for a ceasefire. What were the terms of that ceasefire? And given that it seems that Russia and its Syrian partners are on the verge of winning 98 percent control of the area in Aleppo, according to the Syrian forces, why would Russia agree to our terms at this point?

MR. EARNEST: Well, I can't speak to the intricacies of the conversations that were taking place between Secretary Kerry and some of our top diplomats and their Russian counterparts. There were other countries that were involved in these conversations as well. So I can't speak to intricacies of the proposed arrangement, but I can certainly tell you what the goals were. The goal was to try to end the bombing, and the few innocent civilians that remain -- try to get them out of harm’s way, and try to allow the flow of humanitarian assistance to these communities that have been shut off from the outside world for a long time.

So those were the goals all along. And in the months and years that we've been negotiating to try to find a diplomatic solution, we've been rebuffed by the Syrians because, with the backing of the Russians and the Iranians, they’ve continued to wage this war with virtual impunity.

Q Are you still pursuing a ceasefire effort with Russia at this point?

MR. EARNEST: Well, listen, the door remains open and we continue to be interested in trying to find a diplomatic solution to the situation not just in Aleppo but in Syria because we know that there’s not a military solution that can be imposed on the situation. So, yes, we are still interested in diplomacy. We still are open to and interested in trying to find a diplomatic solution. But optimism is not high.

and Syria/Russia chemical weapon removal discussed near the end mixed in with a lot of Russia hacker questions. .

......There are also individual examples with regard to our relationship. Obviously the United States was able to work effectively with Russia to destroy the declared chemical weapons stockpile of the Assad regime. That would not have occurred had the United States and Russia not been able to work effectively together. And because we did that there are tons of chemical weapons that are not floating on the battlefield in Syria that could potentially fall into the hands of ISIL terrorists. Those chemicals have been destroyed because the United States and Russia worked together.

It doesn’t mean that we patched up all our differences with Russia. It means that we identified a common interest and didn’t let our differences interfere with our ability to achieve it in a way that makes the world safer.
......................

[Fast Walker 52]

35. thanks

[Sunlei]

38. you're welcome. I will miss those constant, sometimes several a day WH questions from the press.

Our government will be much less transparent soon. On the positive side, Obama will be a free man soon and we'll have lots of detailed live interviews from him.

[Fast Walker 52]

39. I hope Obama will be active as a counter to Trump's horror.

[David__77]

9. The US not intervening in support of the insurgents was the right thing.

President Obama was right in not militarily intervening.

[Sunlei]

11. russia and asaad won't even let humanitarian aid workers survive.

[atreides1]

14. Maybe

But if the US hadn't kept insisting that Assad had to go, things might not have reached this level!

[David__77]

16. I think that some in the opposition might have imagined a Libya-type scenario.

That is, they may have imagined that Western military intervention would help clear the path to a military victory by some opposition forces. I think that, if so, this may have made military opposition relatively more attractive as compared with non-military opposition.

[JI7]

22. no assad is a problem. he has supported ISIS also to benefit himself

Against rebels.

After reading about that i can see why many feel he needs to go.

[Sunlei]

32. good points! IMO, russia also backs some IS/local terrorist attacks to help destabilize countries,

like Turkeys airport terrorist attack and other recent large attacks in Turkey. along with hacking. That's my opinion.

[Fast Walker 52]

40. but we can see how horrible Assad is now and why the US wanted him gone, frankly

[LanternWaste]

15. That's one premise... of many.

That's one premise... of many.

[JI7]

23. this isn't just about military support. but just getting humanitarian aid to them

[Devil Child]

27. Correct.

If we had started a military intervention the situation in Syria and refugee situation would be significantly worse. It was a crime enough to flood Syria with weapons.

[Fast Walker 52]

41. did we really flood Syria with weapons? There are so many conflicting stories on how much we armed

the rebels there.

[Devil Child]

44. Sure

When I say we I look at the collective effort by United States and aligned nations. Our direct armament was minuscule in comparison to arms provided by third parties. In this case Gulf States and Turkey provided the mast majority of arms with tacit or encouraged support.

[Fast Walker 52]

49. ok, thanks

[wordpix]

33. easy for Americans to say, blogging on their easy chairs

Sorry but this situation can be likened to Nazis systematically murdering Jews and anti-Hitler individuals. It appears the last inhabitants in Aleppo are cornered and being slaughtered.

Not saying we should go in with boots on the ground but we should help people get out and provide humanitarian aid.

Russia is not a good player in this and at some point, we have to make a move to help people. How big a confrontation that involves is the question.

[David__77]

42. I do not liken this situation to that of Hitler.

I do not agree that the "last inhabitants in Aleppo are cornered and being slaughtered." There is a very large population in the city, and the large majority of it is not in districts formerly held by armed insurgents. I see no indication that the last inhabitants of Aleppo are being killed.

[wordpix]

46. this doctor in Aleppo who said other doctors have been slaughtered would disagree

[David__77]

48. OK.

I understand that there is a very large population in the city, and the large majority of it is not in districts formerly held by armed insurgents.

[leftynyc]

45. This isn't hitler at all

There is a humanitarian crisis because BOTH sides suck so badly in this CIVIL WAR. That is not what happened in WWII.

[Fast Walker 52]

36. I agree. Syria is a fucking mess, and us getting involved would not have helped.

[niyad]

10. tears

[Wuddles440]

12. Absolutely soul crushing.....

[AwakeAtLast]

13. +1000! n/t

[moondust]

19. The new FARC?

Last edited Tue Dec 13, 2016, 02:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Will these "rebels" and civilians who "will defend Aleppo to the death" lay down their weapons, set aside their hostilities, and peacefully embrace the regime that has killed their families and friends by the thousands? Or will they continue a guerilla war against Assad and Putin for years until Assad goes away and somebody like Santos in Columbia comes along and makes peace with reconciliation, democratic reforms, and/or the partitioning of Syria?

[BigRig]

20. So sorry to all the innocent people being slaughtered, but our new President's hands are tied due to

his business ties to Russia. At least half of the united states citizens are appalled by this.

[wordpix]

47. appalled by what? Drumpf's business ties to Russia or that the "new pres's hands are tied"?

Not sure if you're decrying the business ties or that "1/2 of US citizens are appalled" by them.

No one is tying Drumpf's hands due to his business ties. That's all his own doing.

[BigRig]

50. alluding to his many conflicts of interests

[AngryAmish]

26. And if the Sunnis would have won they would have genocide the Alawites.

In Syria everyone is the bad guy.

[Fast Walker 52]

37. Yes-- there were never any easy answers for Syria. I feel horrible for these people but ultimately

the people doing the fighting there have to take responsibility for this senseless slaughter.

[hamsterjill]

29. There are no words.

Many of us wish there was something we could do, but we simply don't know what that is.

[wordpix]

31. this is so sad---what can be done? US is in the area with "advisors"

and materiel. Can't we do something for these poor people? They have nothing