Plenty of respectable people this morning pillorying The (socialist Daily Worker) Morning Star for seeming to “celebrate” the “liberation” of Aleppo by forces led by “fascist” Assad and supported by Iran and “imperialist” Russia and – whilst many of said forces now reported to be slaughering innocents.
@jonsnowC4 Today’s Morning Star celebrates “liberation” of Aleppo by fascist Assad & Russian imperialists. SICK! pic.twitter.com/72SzTXXLIT
— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) December 13, 2016
Dear NUJ colleagues at Morning Star: in what world does cheering on a war crime conform to union code of practice? Or any form of socialism?
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) December 13, 2016
(Note that Tatchell was probably also reacting to their criticism of his recent “stunt” – on that same front page.)
Slaugher is never to be celebrated, even if capturing the regional capital represents some kind of success in the strategic picture. Honestly have no idea what particular information the Star’s journo’s thought they were commenting on at they time they prepared the story. (Lyse Ducet reporting from Aleppo on @BBCR4Today this morning conveyed the awful facts amid the confusion.)
More significantly, we’ve no idea how much we can expect such forces to be led and coordinated given the context, but I’d presume there were plenty of opportunists tagging along to fight against … their enemies … whatever, terrorists, rebels. What’s in a label?
One thing is sure there can be no shortage of “sectarian” scores to settle on arrival. Expressing outrage at the needless killing is one thing, but choosing who to target for blame is a bit rich coming from Westerners who had no stomach to intervene.
Sectarianism. It is what it is.
— Sarah Wardlaw (@sarah_wardlaw) December 13, 2016
We have responsibilities for (and interests in) the mess known simply as “the Middle-East situation”. No coincidence Aleppo was one of T E Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom long before Sykes-Picot.
Fuck Assad and his regime. Fuck Russia/Iran/Hezbollah. And a sincere fuck you to the int’l community that let it come to this. #Aleppo https://t.co/jdaafRTw6R
— Lina – سيرين (@Lina_Serene) December 13, 2016
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[Post Note: Balanced piece from Robert Fisk in The Independent.]
[Post Note: And another balanced and typically blunt piece from Nicholas Taleb with a hat-tip to Fisk.]