Does international law say that an unelected dictator is allowed to invite foreign sectarian militants and a foreign air force to come bomb his own citizens?
Almost. First of all, the international law does not make any differences between elected and unelected rulers. Then, international law does not restrict the right to invite into the own territory. In no way. This is named sovereignty. Bombing the own territory, if necessary to fight terrorists, rebels, or whatever military forces opposing their own military. Simply bombing own citizens is the only thing which is restricted, given R2P, this would allow the UN to start some action following an UNSC resolution. But this is irrelevant here because it exists only in Western propaganda fantasies. As long as there are some military forces opposing the government forces in the bombed region, everything is in agreement with international law. Which is natural, the US would oppose anything which restricts its right to bomb whole regions without caring about the population.
Well Turkey already fought a few skirmishes with Assad during the early years of the war, but I guess this is the ADHD media era, so...
In any case, how come Schmelzer's informative maps don't contain any info about these developments?
I mention the Turkish observation points when they appear in the region of actual fighting. I have mentioned the encirclement of such observation points several time. Officially, all those convoys support only those observation points, or create some new ones.
Up to now, this is in my opinion mainly political show by Erdogan. In those regions, you have to present yourself as strong to be taken seriously. From a military point of view, the observation points have not played any role. The Syrian forces have simply gone around them and encircled them.
Actually, this has been done with the observation point in Al Eis:
The point has been encircled by now too.
Plus you only give information that's favourable to hardline Putin supporters such as yourself while neglecting and summarily dismissing everything else without justification.
You are free to distribute the information you think is accurate. (Like the one that the Syrian army is able to fight only minor border skirmishes
.) In fact, the actual maps do not need much justification simply because there is not that much disagreement about the actual frontline. I try to restrict myself to information which can be checked.
They're not censoring information, just paid Kremlin propaganda.
I have not said there is any actual censorship. I have simply mentioned that the admins have, of course, the right to censor here whatever they like to censor.
All of the maps are maps the Russian government specifically wants everyone to see.
LOL, as CptBork has been told by his sources in the Kremlin. As if the Russian government would care about such things.
You only report on a fraction of rebel advances, the ones that are quickly halted and reversed.
There have been others during the last years? If you get information about such "rebel advances", you are invited to give the information about them here.
The fact that you summarily label everyone opposed to Assad as terrorist is telling,
I name those terrorists who are either Al Qaida (also named Al Nusra, Hatesh) themselves, or fight together and in coordination with them. This is in full agreement with the UN lists of terror organizations. I have never named the YPG/SDF terrorists, even if Erdogan names them this way, and even if they cooperate against the government with an external occupying force, the US.
given that nearly all the civilian deaths in the conflict are documented as being caused by the Assad regime (unless you find it plausible that bombing and shelling populated areas around the clock for 7 years doesn't cause significant casualties).
These are your propaganda fantasies. There is no bombing and shelling of populated areas around the clock for 7 years. There are airstrikes against reconnoitered objects, and there is intense bombing near the frontline. Such bombing near the frontline is completely harmless given that the civilian population leaves these regions if the frontline moves in their direction, and come back after this. The big towns have been taken in a particular way which minimizes harm for the population too - they are almost completely encircled, then usually left by the terrorists without fighting.
The US has used other techniques in Mossul and Raqqa. Namely, carpet bombing of the towns themselves.
Hmmm am I going to believe some random ...
Feel free to believe whatever you like, beyond the standard CIA propaganda. Nobody cares.
Where do you get your figures for Muslim vs non-Muslim Russians serving in Syria?
From Russian sources you will certainly not accept as reliable sources. Quite officially, such military police units often come in particular from Chechnya, Kadyrov is very engaged in Syria.
How about you demonstrate why Kremlin news agencies should be considered reputable first before you spam their trash here?
This is not how information works. If you want only sources which are "reputable" according to your criteria, ignore the information I give here. Feel free to believe the "rebels" make a lot of great advances which I don't report, and believe that all the Syrian army is able to do are minor border skirmishes.
I cannot start discussions alone. All I can do alone is to provide information. Feel free to discuss whatever you like about the military events in Syrian and Iraq.
Who specifically wants to know about the outhouse Syrian troops captured last night and what is it they wish to discuss about this outhouse? What effect is this "information" intended to have on the audience?
Syria was and remains the place on Earth where the two greatest military players US and Russia as well as some other big and important ones, Iran, Turkey and Israel, are directly involved on different sides of the battle line. If something goes completely wrong there, even a world war could be the result. Therefore I think it is important enough to follow the details. If you don't think so, ignore this thread.
There are also a lot of speculative political questions worth to be discussed, like the Turkish intentions, which are far from clear. I would expect another ceasefire during the next time. Erdogan has made some ultimatums, where he gives Assad time up to the end of February to fulfill his wishes. Erdogan's wishes are, of course, completely off. But if this ultimatum ends with some ceasefire at the end of February, this would be good enough for him. Are there indications in this direction? Yes, there are. And the development of the frontline is an indication. Namely, after the liberation of Seraqib it would have been, from a military point of view, more reasonable to encircle Idlib itself. Instead, they now move along the M5 toward Aleppo.
