Islamic state

Robert Jackson, the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, once denounced aggressive war as “the greatest menace of our time.” With much of Europe laying in smoldering ruin, he said in 1945 that “to initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime: it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of whole.”

ISIS has always been a big concern for Russia, just as they have been a concern for most of the civilized (and reality based) world. Russian concern and desire to eliminate this group is strong because they operate only a few hundred miles from Russian territory now. So as the activity of the group ramps up in Afghanistan, despite the American presence in the region, the concern grows.

EUPHRATES RIVER VALLEY, SYRIA (Analysis) — While President Trump has recently hailed the defeat of ISIS, the group has been able to stave-off a complete defeat by retreating to a few, small remaining pockets in Syria.

By all accounts, wherever the Islamic State has gained and held territory, its residents suffer terrible oppression and deprivation. Unless you are on their wavelength, you most likely agree that ISIS rule has been calamitous for its subjects. Both Obama and Trump have pointed out their badass nature on numerous occasions, not so much in sympathy for those they oppress but to raise fear levels of ISIS-inspired badassery here at home.

Entire cities have been destroyed by seven years of intense warfare in Syria [Xinhua]
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has called the West’s method of democratization by force a mistake and said that change must happen over time.
“Military interventions like we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to impose democracy through fire failed to achieve their objectives,” Philippe said at the opening of the 2018 World Government Summit in Dubai.

The Kurds find themselves caught in the middle of a power struggle between the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria — a familiar situation that follows decades of geopolitical strife in their region, explains Ted Snider. By Ted Snider The only thing…Read more →

(MEE) — For more than two years, unmarked Israeli drones, helicopters and jets have carried out a covert air campaign, conducting more than 100 air strikes inside Egypt with the approval of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, according to a media report. Enemies in three wars, then antagonists in an uneasy peace, Egypt and Israel are now secret […]

Originally appeared at RussiaFeed.com
A Russian Su-25 warplane was shot down over Syria’s Idlib province in northwestern Syria on Saturday. The pilot safely ejected from his plane, but he was killed by militants on the ground.  This report, corroborated by the Russian Defense Ministry and RIA Novosti specifies events this way (translated and edited from Russian):

WASHINGTON (Opinion) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson presented remarks on The Way Forward for the United States Regarding Syria to the Hoover Institute at Stanford on January 17.
To start, Tillerson proved his mettle in lying for the U.S. Empire by blaming Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for the rise of ISIS. First Tillerson implied Assad had the nerve to fight a war and win and then he says that’s why ISIS moved in:

The Islamic State branch in the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday called on its supporters to attack Hamas in a gruesome execution video as long-simmering tensions between the rival Islamic terror groups erupted into the open.
The 22-minute long video culminated with the execution of one of its members, shot in the back of the head for allegedly smuggling weapons to Hamas.