2014 in L'Alpe di Siusi, fresh from the US and Australia.
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“No matter how hard the failure is, if you have learned from it, then it is no longer a failure, but the next step up the mountain.”[2]
Sagittarius
The ‘arrow’
The process and the goal
The full moon
Current events
The poisoned chalice
The pardon
Biological research (?)
Thunderstruck
West Asia update
The road to Damascus
Some background
The story of the collapse
Lawrence and Syria
The revolution that isn’t
Why the fall?
Who dunnit?
After the fall-the beginning
The Mighty Wurlitzer
A tale of two egos
The Grinch who stole Christmas
What has Syria lost?
A trap – but whom?
Mackinder surprise
What of the Axis of Resistance, then?
The immediate flux
A Syrian reset?
And Assad?
In conclusion
Greetings Everyone!
I would ordinarily say ‘Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!’, but this year such a greeting would hardly seem appropriate, given recent events in the birthplace of Christendom. We will be looking at all that later on here. But we start with local news. The holiday season started here in Rovereto, as it does every year, with the Festa de Santa Catarina (Saint Catherine of Alexandria) on the 23rd and 24th of November this year. We will have more on her in a bit. The festival is probably the largest open-air street market we have all year in the city. It meanders all around the central city, outside of the main Christmas market here, which is inaugurated on the same day. And, to top it off, all the Christmas lights in the city are illuminated, including ours here at the house, to continue through to the Festival of the Befana on the 6th of January. Yes, it’s that one fabulous time of the year when we are reminded how much we dislike certain Christmas songs (musicians can relate). It is also one of the few times of the year where street food is available here. A big sandwich bun with wurstel, sauerkraut and mustard is my favorite.
This has been an interesting Christmas season thus far. Not far from here at a favorite vacation spot for the German-speaking crowd – a place on Italy’s largest lake called Riva del Garda – there was a large bust by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA), for reasons including, “…criminal conspiracy, bid rigging, illegal party financing, illicit influence peddling, fraud, misappropriation of public funds and numerous crimes against public administration, including corruption, undue inducement, disclosure of official secrets, omission of official duties, and tax violations related to the issuance of invoices for non-existent transactions.” Deep breath…yeah, it was big doin’s, as we say in the South. Seventy-seven people are under investigation, with the mayor of that fair city and eight others being placed under house arrest pending the investigation. And it was an international affair, with an Austrian ‘businessman’ at the center of it all. Seems these people liked to ‘bend the rules’ when it came to payments and bookkeeping. Tsk, tsk. Not a Merry Christmas for that lot. Caught up in it were technicians as well. It’s a good thing I am retired from electrical work now, though I would have never taken a ‘brown envelope’ for work. But we return to Santa Catarina, because there is a connection.
“According to tradition, Catherine was a beautiful young Egyptian girl and the Golden Legend specifies that she was the daughter of King Costa, who left her an orphan at a very young age, and that she was educated from childhood in the liberal arts. Catherine was asked to marry many important men, but she had a dream in which she saw the Madonna with the Child who put the ring on her finger, making her sponsa Christi.”
In other words, she was another virgin, later to be sainted, not that the former had anything to do with her sainthood. It was her purity that was her undoing. We won’t go into the legend here, except for the following bit:
It seems there was this Roman emperor presiding over Egypt at the time, one Maximinus Daia, before whom Catherine was brought to answer as to why she would not eat animal sacrifices and worship the local gods at the ongoing civil festival. “Catherine refused the sacrifices and asked the emperor to recognize Jesus Christ as the redeemer of humanity, arguing her invitation with philosophical depth.” She also refused the offers of marriage from many of the rich men present. Upon her final refusals of everything Daia decided to be done with her and condemned her to be executed on the wheel. It seems Christianity wasn’t that popular with the Romans at the time. When they started the execution it was said the sky suddenly blackened and a lightning bolt came down from the sky and split the wheel, halting the execution. So there was nothing left but to lop off her head. Upon doing so, instead of blood, milk flowed from the neck, a symbol of her purity. And there you have it. But what does this have to do with anti-Mafia investigations, Christmas markets and such? Well, it turns out Saint Catherine is the patron saint of philosophers. And the courts (judgements) and philosophy are represented in the zodiac by the sign Sagittarius. We will have more on Catherine and the anti-Mafia at the end of this letter. But for now, it is on to the more esoteric meaning of this sign that ‘starts our climb up the mountain’. By the way, in one of the legends about Catherine it was said her body was taken up to Mount Sinai, where the ‘Transfiguration Monastery’ was established.
Sagittarius is ruled in the orthodox by Jupiter, giving Sagittarians their naturally expansive and encompassing view of life and the universe. It rules the natural 9th house of the zodiac, associated with long journeys, arbitration, philosophy, the clergy, academia, faith, foreign affairs and trade, prayers and science, among many other items. But the idea is clear enough: Sagittarius is concerned with expanding the boundaries of human understanding. The sign is most associated with the abstract mind and true abstract thinkers, hence its connection with philosophy. This brings us to the more esoteric side of the sign, following on from our previous few letters this year. In the esoteric rulership of Sagittarius, the Earth itself comes into prominence.
What we are dealing with in the more esoteric considerations of Sagittarius for this year’s letters is the factor of one-pointedness, represented in the symbolism of the sign by the arrow, fired from the archer’s bow. In Virgo we saw the major factor for advancement on the path is meditation. For Libra the factor is contemplation. For Scorpio the factor is the kindling of the fires and their utilization to overcome obstacles in the physical nature, primarily, that will open the brain consciousness to realizations in the subtle realms. All three of the levels – Virgo, Libra and Scorpio – require one-pointed concentration. But with Sagittarius the situation requires one-pointed concentration ‘on the move’, so-to-speak. That means shutting out the world (usually done in a spiritual retreat, alone) and ranging far and wide in the ‘planes of the Earth’, meaning all three levels of the personality. But this has deeper meaning, in that it also means directing the movement of the fires through the various channels and nadis in the etheric body, where the body represents the Earth. ‘Earth’, in the esoteric sense of Sagittarius, means the whole of the personality.
The process and the goal: At each stage, when the desired goal is achieved, amazing new insights come, old boundaries overcome, blockages to enlightenment removed and new powers are realized, giving us the esoteric motto of Sagittarius: “I see the goal. I reach that goal and then I see another.”[3] In the later stages of the process, leading on ultimately to the Pisces experience the new powers are superhuman, totally surpassing the limitations of what is thought to be humanly and scientifically possible. That process is begun in Sagittarius. But with each new obstacle having been overcome, and with greater insight at hand, the end result of full enlightenment remains evasive. That engenders with time within the Sagittarian experience at this level a profound sense of dissatisfaction, leading to the search for another goal, the realization of another obstacle to enlightenment to be removed. We see here, perhaps, the reason science is associated with this sign. Any true scientist is only ever momentarily satisfied with each discovery. When the satisfaction wanes, the search is on for the next expansion of knowledge. It is the same with the aspiring disciple, at this stage already a lesser initiate of the 2nd degree, having already been ‘baptized by fire’. We will touch more upon these thoughts as we go along in this letter, but for now, we turn to the full moon and some rather pressing events that have captured our attention.
The full moon takes place on 15 Dec 2024 at 09:01 UTC (8:01 pm AEDT). The lunation axis forms an applying (strengthening) t-square with Neptune. This, coupled with the retrograde Mars opposite Pluto means there will be violence and a very concerted effort of ‘fog of war’, manufacturing consent for all sorts of policies that will probably not be to the benefit of the average public, as well as impulsive measures taken by some world leaders – those not so imbued with common sense – that will result in serious setbacks for their plans. For the general public this figure indicates that all we are being told is not as it seems and that we need to take time to be clear within ourselves about any decisions we need to make, especially meaning said decisions need to be made in the absence of strong emotions. The mainstream media is not to be trusted in this period, except when it comes to local news, the reasons why being outlined as we go along in this letter. Since this is the Sagittarius letter and since Washington’s personality is ruled by this sign, we have another set of Sabian symbols to consider:
The lunar symbol carries another meaning than the one stated, which is of happy children skating on a frozen pond. On a frozen pond there is always the danger of the ice being too thin in some spots. Since we are looking at the lunar symbol here, we are looking at frozen conditions from the past or situations which are being reflected back to us by others. Rudhyar surmises this symbol as being of, “the use of inhibiting circumstances for the development of character and a transcendent approach to the environment.” As we will see in our unfolding events here, there is indeed a great need to be able to take a transcendent approach to what we have presented to us across the spectrum of our lives. Much of what we will see in the months ahead has its roots in the past and it would serve us well to trace events back to their origins as much as is possible. We recently had a good example of what happens with a frozen conflict which had its origins over a century ago, wherein the actors have actually fallen through the ice. We speak here of events over the past two weeks in Syria. There will be an extended look at the events there in what follows.
Retrograde Mars will form a contra-parallel with a Sun/Pluto parallel in two weeks, just prior to going into its out-of-bounds (OOB) phase. Such a combination and dynamic point to the need for moderation in all efforts, whereas more uninhibited people will make effort to the point of breaking or collapse, sometimes resulting in ruthless application of tactics to achieve one’s ends. We will note this in our daily dealings with people as a general sense of nervous tension, sniping and snarky comments, with a real need to avoid confrontational interaction with people we meet or with whom we work. And finally, the dynamic just described is further highlighted by the midpoint, Uranus=Mars/Saturn in this lunation figure. That is an explosive combination, pointing to sudden ruptures. Since midpoints find very useful application in geopolitics, perhaps its indications are worth noting:
“Extraordinary and unusual powers of resistance, the ability to give as well as to take under provocation, the inclination to apply brute force. – A test of nervous strength, intervention by Higher Power or by Providence, a sudden illness, a sudden accident, separation or case of death.”[4]
The basic message from all these factors for the general public here is to BE CAREFUL – with everything, especially our loved ones, speed, machinery and sharp objects. It is precisely when one is distracted or upset that most accidents happen, and that includes within interpersonal relations. With all these points in mind, we move on to the more important events that have taken place since the last full moon.
Current events: Before we begin here it would be worth one’s time to re-read the section on the full moon topic in last month’s letter. From the last full moon, we have the following:
The poisoned chalice: We begin our look at wider events with Washington, since Washington is ruled by Sagittarius in its personality.[5] The actions of Washington at present are also behind much of the chaos we are seeing in Europe and West Asia as well, which will be more fully covered in the following pages here. So, to begin, it is just a month before Trump takes office. Trump campaigned on ending wars so he could focus on the American domestic scene. So, what has happened? In what remains of Biden’s tenure (though he is probably not ordering it) we see Washington pushing for regime change in Georgia (the country), South Korea and Romania, cajoling Zelenskyy to draft 18 – 25 year-olds (of which there are few), pouring weapons and cash into Ukraine, seeking to provoke Russia into a large escalation (the Russians aren’t biting), continually pouring weapons into Ukraine and seeking in general to sow chaos from Belarus to the Chabahar Port in Iran, all in order to ‘bleed Russia’, stop the BRI, fracture BRICS, keep the region divided and to hand Trump so much disruption worldwide that he will be unable to focus upon any domestic agendas for his honeymoon period in office.
Washington uses proxies and splinter groups in targeted nations to affect its ends, like what we see in Ukraine and Georgia, and most recently in Syria. We have looked at the Machiavellian nature of Washington in past letters (Topic: “Washington and Cancer”, for example), with the baser Sagittarian nature being to constantly expand territories and to write its own rules – such as the so-called ‘rules-based international order’. The folks in Washington who push such policies would do well to read Machiavelli’s little book, The Prince – or perhaps they have. If they did they forgot the admonition by Machiavelli to avoid the use of mercenaries and proxies, as they do tend to turn on a leader if they get a better offer or feel they have been betrayed. The most disturbing theme of the book for the general public is his assertion that ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality are justified if they bring glory to the state. The end justifies the means, in other words. This defines Washington to a ‘T’.
States do not conform to social morality when it suits the states’ interests, in general. Such an idea may sound familiar now, given all we have examined in the past and in terms of current events. The Israelis go even further and care nothing for morality or how the world sees their actions. At least with Washington they feather their nest with high-sounding ideals, all the while they commit perfidy worldwide. The British and the main colonial European powers were practiced in such actions as well, with the British still so actively engaged. That brings us to the pardon of Hunter Biden, because that in turn takes us to the update on Ukraine, which is at a very critical moment, with the Ukrainian army on the verge of collapse.
Firstly, the Hunter Biden laptop was real, along with the 640 pages of photos published from it. Much of the information from that laptop was accumulated during Biden, the lesser’s time in Ukraine. Hunter’s involvement in Ukraine through the Burisma Holdings gas company was mired in corruption and drug abuse. It was Biden ‘the Big Guy’ who arranged Hunter’s time at Burisma during Biden’s tenure as VP under Obama, talk about connections. And here is the important part: Hunter, as it turns out, was the go-between in Ukraine for funnelling funds via Burisma into the Atlantic Council, NATO’s premier think tank in Washington. The Atlantic Council also received funding from the Turks, Gulf monarchies and the US State Department. The Atlantic Council was the think tank most involved in pushing for the war in Ukraine, which has hugely enriched the MICIMATT, beginning with sending arms to the nationalist factions in Ukraine, which continued unabated under Trump’s first tenure in the White House. That brings us to the main reason why Biden has pardoned Hunter – to prevent the disclosure (by further prosecuting and investigating him) of the financial ratline that has funded the campaigns of more than a few members of Congress in both the major parties. That funding is also the main reason why the Biden White House is seeking to keep the conflict in Ukraine alive by various means – sending land mines to the beleaguered nation, talking of sending nukes to Ukraine, lobbing longer range missiles into Russian territory, talk of sending NATO troops into Ukraine (a truly insane idea), demanding Zelenskyy draft kids (18 y/o) to fight and most likely die on the front lines, and so on. And now we have Trump’s selected envoy to Ukraine (Sebastian Gorka) spouting nonsense about sending an avalanche of weapons to Ukraine, which we don’t have, if Putin refuses to be coerced to negotiate an end to the war. The Russians are laughing at such nonsense. The Russians are the only ones in a position of strength in the conflict. Trump needs to dump Gorka.
Another main reason why Ukraine has been so coveted by Washington and Wall Street is due to the instability of the present neoliberal system of financialized economies. That system relies on a certain amount of actual resources to stay afloat, and Western control of those resources is under threat. It was one of the primary reasons the West has sought to maintain control over the Middle East (oil and gas) and why they have tried so hard to knock Russia out of Ukraine – because of Ukraine’s mineral wealth. This facet of the game was recently touched upon by Alastair Crooke in a recent piece:
“Well, western countries are deep in debt; their fiscal room for manoeuvre is shrinking fast, and bond-holders are beginning to mutiny. There is a race to find a new collateral for fiat currencies. It used to be gold; since the 1970s it was oil, but the petrodollar has faltered. The Anglo-Americans would love to have Iran’s oil again – as they did until the 1970s – to collateralise and build a new money system tied to the real value inherent in commodities. But Trump says he wants to ‘end wars’ and not start them. Does the re-drawing of the geo-political map make some global entente between east and west more, or less, likely?”
In answer to his last question, we don’t know. At this stage it is too early to draw any real conclusions. Then, there is one last significant piece to the question of the pardon.
Biological research (?): COVID and a host of other nasty biological agents were tested in Ukraine, too, seeking gene-specific diseases. The Japanese were doing this in WWII in Manchukuo (occupied China), and on American prisoners, as well as many thousands of others. And wouldn’t you know it? – after WWII Washington covered it up so they could coax the Japanese researchers in Unit 731 do reveal all their findings to the Americans. The Japanese war criminals were given immunity from prosecution for their crimes against humanity. Coming back to COVID, the virus was tested in US-funded biolabs in Ukraine, which was uncovered when the Russians intervened there and found the evidence. All of this was exposed in the UN by Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov of the Russian Federation. For his efforts, he was just assassinated by a patsy in Moscow under the direction of the Ukrainian SBU (secret services) meaning probably CIA/MI6 involvement as well. This was a grave error and provocation, meant to provoke a Russian overreaction that would be used to ‘justify’ sharp increases in military spending and possible NATO involvement in Ukraine. The Russians will not bite and will take time to consider their options. But it also means any official from an enemy state as Russia it is now a legitimate target. This event is covered in one of Pepe Escobar’s videos linked at the end of this letter. Big Pharma is also thought to be involved.
All of this, regarding Ukrainian bio-labs, needs to be investigated. If it is not true, then so be it, but it is now fairly commonly felt in the general public that when the American press and social media companies call something a conspiracy theory, the ‘conspiracies’ are more than likely actually true, or at least there is a large element of truth in them. Unless we are prepared to dig into ‘conspiracies’ in an effort to ferret out the truth, people will believe what they want to believe, and a firm belief is a very difficult thing to dislodge. There was also Ukrainian involvement in the Russia-gate fraud that was perpetrated to undermine Trump and to reinforce the ‘Russian disinformation’ meme in the American and EU public. But since we have focused upon Ukraine thus far, we will have a quick update on that sad situation.
Thunderstruck: Zelenskyy can hear them: Hell’s bells are tolling for his regime as the Russians steadily flick the switch on Ukraine’s energy grid, taking out all the high voltage generation and transmission sites. Desperate for more big guns to prop him up, and at the same time unwilling to play ball with Washington’s ‘request’ to dragoon 18 year-olds, Zelenskyy is resorting to dirty deeds, such as firing long range missiles at Russian territory, hoping to escalate tensions between NATO and Russia to the point of NATO intervention in Ukraine. Such missile strikes (which have all failed thus far) are as much a ‘shoot to thrill’ game as they are a shot in the dark in desperation to save his own skin. In response to the ATACMS (long range) missile strikes, Ukraine is being thunderstruck, most recently by a Russian volley of 60 missiles and 200 drones, most hitting western Ukraine and disabling up to 70% of Ukraine’s power supply. The Western press was hoping to see another hazelnut land on the territory, only to witness the latest Russian strike instead. The Ukrainian army stands on the razor’s edge of collapse, with large desertions at the front, the most recent being a French-trained division of about 1000 Ukrainian troops simply vanishing when they arrived at the front, surrendering to the Russians. Apparently, anything goes in Ukraine now.
Instead of North Korean guns for hire embedded with Russian troops, the Russian Ministry of Defence is reporting around 1,000 people a day in Russia signing up for military service. ‘Let me hear your money talk’ is a big motivator for the volunteers, along with a healthy dose of patriotism. For Ukraine, Washington and London keep saying Ukrainians have to keep a stiff upper lip and continue to bleed Russia (they aren’t), while the women in Ukraine are saying “Baby, please don’t go to the front!” Stay out of sight until the war is over. The danger for all Ukrainian troops now is they will not be returning home. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Ukrainians are going to cities like Mariupol, which have returned to Russia, rather than living under the regime in Kiev. Washington is fighting tooth and nail to hang on to Ukraine, but it is increasingly clear to the Western elites that the game is up. So now they want us all to spend big on ‘defense’, all the while Russia presents no threat to the population of the EU. Once there is regime change in Kiev – the Russians hope via a domestic uprising – then Europeans can sit at the table and work things out with Russia. Trump wants to hand Ukraine over to the Europeans anyway. The gravy train for the EU elites is about to be derailed. Then, perhaps, we will see some much-needed changes in Europe, resulting in more sovereignty for the nations of Europe. It will be a long battle yet. However, now that Ukraine is being lost, attention is turning instead to West Asia.
The road to Damascus runs southward from the province of Idlib along the M5 Highway. This is the modern version of the ‘road to Damascus’. On 6 December an Army of some 15-20,000 Salafist forces based in Idlib first took the city of Aleppo with little resistance. Upon finding that the resistance to their attack dissolved they decided to move southward along the M5 taking in succession the cities of Hama, Homs and eventually Damascus. How did Syria fall so quickly? This has taken everyone, even the most knowledgeable experts in Middle Eastern affairs, completely by surprise. The invasion of Aleppo was supposed to be a limited operation, which instead turned into a total collapse of the Syrian state. The geopolitical entity known as Syria has ceased to exist. The best we can do for analysis of this in our short space here is to give a thumbnail of the timeline and the reasons, after which we will have to wait for what likely lies ahead for what remains of Syria and the region.
Some background is in order, because what we are actually seeing in both of the wars – Ukraine and Israel – are battles for hegemony, regional and geopolitical. The US seeks to maintain its overall unipolar hegemony that it briefly enjoyed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Israel, as the proxy of the United States, along with several of the Gulf monarchies, want control of West Asia, whereas the residents – Christians, Muslim and native Jewish on the whole – want to live in peace, as they have for many centuries, with Western influence and the Zionist regime in Israel gone. Yes, Israel is a proxy military colony, planned first by the British and the French after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, thereafter taking on a life of its own via American oligarchs and corporations, in what has become a very toxic co-dependency. It was the British and the French with Russian and Italian approval who set the boundaries for the nations of Southwestern Asia. Israel was finally fully armed and enabled by the British and Americans. The plans for the continued West Asian hegemony by Israel have been upended in this century by The Resistance, which has its core and started with the ousting of the Shah of Iran in 1979, thereby establishing the primarily Shia Islamic Republic of Iran. There is very much to this, about which we can only touch upon here, but this is the basic outline of the power struggle in the region. The Israelis have continually sought to divide and conquer the region, much as the US (meaning Washington and Wall Street) has done worldwide. Now we have the focus once again on Syria.
Lawrence and Syria: The real story of present day Syria began just over a century ago with the implementation of the Sykes-Picot Act, dividing the old Ottoman Empire. The borders of present-day Syria were established from that act. What is not generally known is that the Arabs, which included many within Syria, were fighting against the Ottoman Empire (note the map) also and thought they would have a say in the final outcome. This is where the story of Lawrence of Arabia originated. Lawrence was a British agent who had fallen in love with Arabic culture and sided with the Arabs in their fight against the Ottomans. But he also knew about the plans for Sykes-Picot, and was torn by his allegiances. When the war finally ended and the Ottoman Empire was divvied up, the Arabs were betrayed and the French took initial control over the newly formed Syrian state.
The revolution that isn’t: Coming to the present, what the West is trying to call the current ‘Syrian revolution’ was actually an invasion. The invading force was essentially rebranded ISIS, now called Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), cobbled together from groups across Central Asia, and all Salafist Muslim converts and mercenaries. These were used to great effect in the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, which was when Assad effectively came to be demonized by the press as he sought to suppress the uprising. Instead of allowing any sort of political solution to the crisis in Syria at the time, which in effect was a regime change operation, Assad cracked down brutally on the opposition. And while it is true the government, regime, whatever you want to call it, was brutal at times, Syria still was largely secular. Syria pre-2011 allowed freedom of worship across the nation, women had freedom and education pretty much equal to that of men, and prior to the Civil War Syria was at times held up as a modern Middle Eastern state.
Given the collapse in Syria now, all we hear about are the past brutalities of Assad, some of which no doubt have been simple propaganda. Nonetheless, when the prisoners were released once Damascus had fallen, some of those people had been there upwards of 20 years. Just so you know, the dungeons of Syria were also used by the CIA in their program of ‘extraordinary rendition’ after the ‘war on terror’ was instigated after 9/11. Some of those prisoners released may in fact have been some of those thus ‘rendered’. Yes, many Syrians have reason to celebrate now that there is a chance of a proper accounting of all parties in government instead of the single party dictatorship that was the Assad regime, as Washington liked to call it. But the celebrations may be short-lived. But we should note, too, that for everyone celebrating the ousting of Assad, they are also inadvertently celebrating the collapse of a key node of The Resistance, which has placed the Palestinians in greater peril now and greatly enabled the Zionists. So, why did Syria fall so quickly?
Why the fall?: Syria had been sanctioned primarily by Washington but the West in general since the 1980s for Hafez al-Assad’s support of groups like Hezbollah and the PLO against Israel. The sanctions were steadily growing over time. With the implementation of the Caesar sanctions in 2020, the situation had gone from bad to worse. As a result of the Turkish invasions in the north which has claimed the industrial hubs of Idlib and parts along the northern border of Syria during the period of the Civil War, and the American seizure of the Kurdish lands in the Northeast of Syria, Syrians had lost their primary means of support. Syria before the war was self-sufficient. The rump state that remained after being seized by the Americans and the Turks lost their industry, lost access to its oil fields, from which it derived a major part of its income, and its agricultural lands, the latter all now controlled by the Americans and the Kurds. The situation financially became so bad that the average footsoldier in the Syrian army was being paid seven dollars a month, with a general receiving the princely sum of $40 a month. There was no potable water, the black market thrived, and corruption was the order of the day as people did their best to try to survive. Along with the loss of their major sources of income, Assad had imposed heavy taxes on the population, which was unnecessary. Why?
At the end of the Astana Process in 2020 the Russians had presented a plan to Assad: We can train and equip your army on credit, we can arrange for industry to establish itself in Syria which will produce jobs and income, and we can help the state re-establish itself. Assad refused. It should be mentioned at this point that Assad was not cut out for his job. He was not a politician, he had no real military training. And he was a ‘hands-off’ dictator, meaning he turned a blind eye to much of the corruption and abuse in the country. He was taken away from his study of ophthalmology in England, after the death of his brother. Bashar’s father instead put him through intensive but minimal military training as a parachutist and put him in charge of the military. That in itself did not inspire confidence in the military leadership. The only thing Assad knew about government he learned from his father. This is not to whitewash his crimes, but to give some perspective as to why things may have become so untenable in Syria, leading to the current invasion.
Why did the Army dissolve? Well, when one is only paid seven dollars a month, cannot support their family, and sees there is no hope, what do we expect? The average footsoldier in the invading force, on the other hand, was paid $2000 a month. That is a princely sum to the Syrian soldier. Military commanders were bribed. There are reports that commanders, officials and soldiers were paid off in advance of the invasion, and that the soldiers were ordered to retreat and offer no resistance. Live to fight another day. There are also emerging reports that Syrian Intelligence had been reporting the movements of Iran within Syria, a treasonous act. So from previous comments, laying the blame for the collapse of the state at the feet of Assad, that is basically true. We have no news as to what Assad is actually doing, and frankly most people will want to see him arrested and brought before the ICC. That is not going to happen now. Putin will not give him up. All said and done, Assad was not the man for the job in Syria, to put the matter bluntly. But now that he’s gone, what do we have?
After the fall-the beginning: Vanessa Beeley had been living in Damascus up until the invasion. She barely made it out with her life. She especially would have been hunted down. She has been covering Syria for many years. If you want the inside view of what has happened, her Telegram channel is a good source. The Cradle also is giving good reporting, along with Kevork Alamassian and The Electronic Intifada. As it stands, exactly what most people who follow these people had expected has already happened. No sooner had these mercenaries entered Damascus then there was widespread looting, the prisons were emptied, shrines and monuments are being smashed. Buildings are being stripped. And minorities are being hunted down and brutally executed. I’ve seen the videos. I will not post them here. If you go on to the Telegram channels cited you will find them. Christians, Alawites, Shia, and other minorities are being hunted down as well as all the SAA soldiers. Soldiers are being executed in hospital beds. Again, I’ve seen the videos. Apparently, freedom and democracy has returned to Syria, forgive my cynicism. Now they are calling for the Syrian ex-pats to return home. Well, freedom and democracy has returned, why not go back? I’ve heard reports of people who do not want to believe what is happening in Syria at the moment. My advice would be to stay put and wait and see. The initial reports are not promising.
As soon as the fall of Assad had been declared, the Israeli military immediately began bombing everything that resembled military capability within Syria. They moved in past the Golan Heights to establish what they claim to be a buffer zone. Tanks and artillery are now mere kilometers away from Damascus. Whatever fleet was left at Latakia are just smoldering hulks now. There is no longer an Air Force, all the air defense systems have been destroyed, and the remaining soldiers that are found are being killed off – in short Syria has been rendered a toothless state and will in all likelihood become Balkanized. In fact it already has been. So in the Western media the headlines say that Israel has ‘moved in’ to Syria – note the wording – whereas Russia ‘invaded’ Ukraine. Unless I’m wrong, Syria is still considered to be a sovereign state, and Israel has no business moving in. This is just sheer opportunism. It wasn’t expected, of course, but it simply adds to the malfeasance of the Israeli state. So, why did Russia and Iran do nothing to stop this?
The Russians and the Iranians saw the situation had gone too far, saw it was of no use to continue to intervene once they saw the SAA dissolving and also saw that staying would have been a trap for them. The Turks betrayed them, tearing up the Astana Process. Instead, the Russians and Iranians let the Turks make a trap for the Brits, Americans, themselves and Israelis. We will understand why in a bit. For the immediate future, Iran and Russia have other fish to fry. Looking at the incoming Trump administration, the belligerence of Israel, and the instability in the region, they know the war is coming to their borders in time. It is urgent to make due preparation. They cannot do that while Syria is still a concern. Iraq is staring down that same barrel. Iraq was one of the countries, one of the seven that was supposed to be taken out.
A tale of two egos: Netanyahu can hardly believe his luck. Finally, after many years, he has visions of Eretz Yisrael HaShlema finally coming to fruition, at least the start of it. With Syria pacified, with Hezbollah having lost its main supply routes, he can now turn his attention to his main prize, so he thinks – Iran. He is claiming the biggest part of the success of the operation for himself, citing the bombing of Lebanon, Gaza and Syria over the years and has his imaginary victory against Hamas as the deciding factor that enabled the collapse of Syria. His ego is matched only by that of Erdogon in Turkiye. On his side, the Sultan claims there are only two leaders of the world – himself and Vladimir Putin. Now, here’s the thing: Erdogan has revanchist designs on re-forming the Ottoman Empire, which if we recall from our history used to encompass all of what Talmudic Israelis claim as their chosen land. Then with the Salafist invading forces there are two videos where they claim that they are coming to liberate Hamas and Jerusalem. The Turks are already busy going to war with the YPG (Kurds) in the American-controlled northeast of Syria, with reports of many of the YPG soldiers defecting from the American side joining the more tribal forces in the region. The almost 30 groups that comprise the invading force are often at odds with each other and have been fighting each other for years. Given all this, what could possibly go wrong? That brings us to this Golani character.
The Grinch who stole Christmas: And he wears green, too! This guy Golani (supposedly he was born in the Golan Heights) was one of the cofounders of ISIS. Golani/Jolani is not his real name. It is his nom de guerre. He used to delight in killing Americans. He is a hard-core Wahhabi Islamist, and he and his ilk had been causing mayhem in Syria and Iraq for years. Unknown to the general public the CIA, MI6 and Mossad had been funding and training these people for years as a mercenary force, as a terrorist force to be sent into regions they want destabilized. Now there are over 100,000 in the in the area – comprised also of tens-of-thousands of Uighurs – with another 50,000 ISIS terrorists locked away in Kurdish prisons in Syria’s Northeast. We can probably imagine those 50,000 prisoners are about to be released.
Golani, when it comes to it, was only supposed to lead the invasion of Aleppo. Now he finds himself the accidental ruler of Syria, at least the Turkish-controlled part. As it stands at the moment, the post-Ottoman Syria is being balkanized, with the Turks in control in the West and the north, the Americans in control in the northwest and Al Tanf, pockets of ISIS remaining in remote desert regions, the Israelis (at least for now) in the south and with the remains of the SAA in the mountains lining the Syrian Mediterranean coast. For the immediate future the Russians still have their two bases in the latter region, but they will likely abandon them for Libya in the months ahead. There are already transports going from the Syrian bases to Libya. The Russians will be focussing more on Africa, while the remaining forces that have invaded Syria will be left to fight it out among themselves. What of Syria, then?
What has Syria lost? To start, we have the following from Richard Medhurst, born and baptized in Syria:
“Syria was self-sufficient in oil, gas, wheat, cotton, grain. Syria had no foreign debt. Its Central Bank, its monetary policy were independent. They were not controlled by the West. Syria had free healthcare, free education, social welfare programs, social safety nets, improved literacy rate, improved infrastructure. I saw all of that with my own eyes…”
This was, of course, before the regime change war of 2011, the so-called ‘Syrian Civil War’. There was also freedom of religion. What Medhurst outlines is the saddest part of what the West has done to Syria. What he described is unlikely to ever return to the region, at least given current trajectories. The media have been lying to us about Syria for the past 13 years. The fact Syrians were not controlled by the West made Syria a target for regime change. In fact, since the Assad dynasty took power 50+ years ago the CIA has had it in for the Assads. Now they have their wish – or do they?
A trap – but whom?: Having had time now to stand back, read and listen, seeking to discern the facts as they stand, there is something rather strange about this invasion and the fall of Syria. And it goes something like this: How is it that at an army that had resisted such a thing for 13 years, an army of 270,000 and probably patriotic Syrian soldiers against an invading force of an estimated 10 to 15,000 mercenaries, however well-armed, simply melts away and allows this invading force to completely topple the government, and more than that, allow the other vulture states to come in and feed on the Syrian carcass? This does not make any sense to a rational thinker. No, there is something else that is at play here. And it makes sense according to one analyst’s opining of the situation – this was a setup, a trap in other words. Some comments I’ve seen from people knowledgeable in Washington affairs say this invasion was meant to further tie down Russian forces, thereby weakening their efforts in Ukraine. The pundits in Washington still have this rather odd idea that Russia has been weakened by the war in Ukraine, while quite the opposite is the truth. And why is it that Iran and Russia and Hezbollah simply melted away? It is not because of the military supremacy of the invading force. The Russians killed 2000 of them by some estimates in the first few days. And why stop now when Israel has been at its weakest since 1948, when victory over the Zionists was coming within sight? Again, there is something else at play here.
On the other side, too, to engage in such a war again, with Syria in such a weakened state, would cause that much more death and destruction within Syrian territory. For the Iranians, they know that war is probably coming to their border and they need to prepare, which would have been the case whether they had stayed in Syria or not. For the Russians, they still have their two military bases on the Syrian coast, at least for the time being, and they seem to have negotiated some sort of arrangement for staying there. Despite the way the Western press is spinning it, this was not a defeat for Russia. Russia has many options, and there seems to have been some sort of arrangement made between Turkey, Russia and Iran for the Russians and Iranians just to stand down.
What of the Axis of Resistance, then? Syria was the main supply route for Hezbollah from Iran, with many comments to the effect of that the old supply route has been cut by this invasion. But has it? If you look at a map of Syria it is mostly a vast open desert. Smuggling has been going on in that region for millennia. And Beirut still has a port. We’ll see what happens when Israel begins bombing Lebanon again. In the meantime Hezbollah is regrouping and resting itself. Then there is the factor of the two large egos and those of the US State Department, drunk with their perceived victory. This is such a time when serious mistakes can be made, when the various parties feel they have free rein, that no one can oppose them and all their plans were given a fresh start. We’ve heard that the Israeli military is more cautiously optimistic and senses something is not right. What is not being considered is how the situation can turn sour very quickly for the occupiers when the people of the region realize they have not been liberated but instead have been taken still further backward.
Instead of overthrowing what some groups in the nation considered to be a cruel dictator, how will they feel when they have to live under fundamentalist sharia law, as some of the officials in the interim government are actively stating? Looking ahead, it is quite feasible that a new resistance will arise in Syria, this time against the imperialist invaders – Turkey, Israel, and the US. And word is that in the coastal mountains of Syria there still survives a full division of the SAA who have vowed to fight on, a region that is most opposed to the invading force and which will be probably the most brutalized by the incoming regime. That SAA division is in close proximity to the Russian bases. And then, Iran has still to deliver on True Promise 3, and they will at a time that suits the situation. Before too long we might expect that Syria will become ungovernable and too difficult to occupy. Of course this is all speculation now, but the eventual plan by the West is to topple all the Arab regimes.
“So, what is Turkey set to gain from this? Territory it doesn’t need and won’t be able to control? Severe reputational and diplomatic implications (seriously? Choosing to now stand with Israel’s genocide???) The hate of Muslims the world over, and the eternal rage of its neighbors? More tyranny at home, instead of more freedom? An assured economic disaster? A destabilized population, exposed to terrorism, economic hardship, and loss of young men in a stupid war? …With no possible upsides and a guaranteed huge diplomatic, economic and military drawbacks, Turkey’s Syria move must be the dumbest ever.”
This attack on Syria has the appearance of being a move of desperation on the part of the Turk/Israeli/US axis, backing terrorists, which is what these invading forces are.
So, what is happening in West Asia now? The Arab elite leaders in the region are in a very precarious position as a result of the fall of Syria. Whole populations are united in their support for Palestine and their hatred of the West and Israel. Those Arab regimes are deeply tied to the US and the West. They have their assets there. They send their children to school there. They take vacations there and have large property holdings there. But in terms of popular support in their own nations they have no legitimacy. Then, Trump has selected the most pro-Israel cabinet in the history of the United States. There are great concerns that he will be pushed into a war with Iran, which would be a disaster for the world, all to satisfy egos in Washington and Israel. But is that a ‘given’? There are doubts, as there are two wild cards – Iraq and Iran. We have heard nothing from Iraq thus far. The new government in Iran is seeking relief from sanctions from the West (apparently they are still naïve) and then there is the recent normalization between Iran and neighboring Arab states. We have the following arrangement of loyalties:
A Syrian reset?: I remember for the first few days upon hearing of the fall of Damascus the general feeling was one of despair and horror on the part of anyone who supported the Palestinian cause over what had happened. Palestine appeared to be doomed, the Palestinians dispersed to the four winds, or worse. However, having had time to sit down and examine everything, what we know as a result and what has emerged is that The Resistance is far from being finished off, that anything at all can happen, and that the parties who are claiming their spoils in Syria will have a very difficult period from here onward. Factional infighting has already begun. Syria has become the quagmire for the Turks, the West and Israel that they instead desired for Iran and Russia. For their part, it is not inconceivable that the latter two will watch from the sidelines for a time while the diverse factions battle it out, waiting for a renewed resistance to arise, at which point they may again intervene on the side of The Resistance. It is far from assured the Israelis will keep the territory they think they have gained. And just consider – the neo-Ottomans have inadvertently come face-to-face with the Zionist fanatics in Syria, both of whom will now be squabbling over who gets what in Syria, if either of them manage to even stake a claim there going into the future. From the ensuing chaos will arise a new order, and probably not as the neocons in Washington envisioned.
And Assad?: Not that some readers might care, but Assad stayed in Syria until it was clear all hope was lost. He avoided the fate of Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein. The Russians pulled Assad out early in the morning of the 8th of December, as HTS was entering Damascus and surrounding the Damascus airport. His plane was tracked on Flight Radar, with rumors it had been shot down – except instead the plane had turned off the transponder and headed for Hmeimim Air Base, and from there to Moscow. And the proof? – there was no wreckage of such a plane, no bodies, and Assad was spotted in Moscow in the days after. The Kremlin confirmed his presence there. The Western press painted his departure as running like a coward. Instead, he stayed as long as he could. It is unclear if his family was with him. Like him or loathe him, these are the facts as far as we know. However, now that the dictator is gone and some Syrians are celebrating, both in Syria and expat, it seems apparent now that Syria has been forced to take a step back, with the possibility of living under sharia law. We will just have to wait and see.
Returning to the start of this letter, we recall the legend of Santa Catarina, as she heralds the commencement of the Christmas season here, one of our uniquely Christian festivals. But Santa Catarina’s story is also uniquely Sagittarian, and the legend can be read esoterically. She represents the moral purity necessary to approach ‘the mountaintop’, as well as the schooled use of the mind in support of her faith – the union of heart and head necessary to approach what is the first major initiation, the latter recounted for us in Capricorn. She was tested as to her knowledge and her faith, the tests being existential for her, for she faced death on both sides – a return to her earthly life and denial of spiritual advancement if she chose to turn her back on her faith, or the real death and release into eternal life if she stood by her principles, ideals and faith. She chose the latter. In so doing she was (still) bound to a wheel, facing the tortuous ultimate test, but the wheel was shattered by a bolt of spiritual light that shattered the bonds to, as well as the very wheel of life, death and rebirth itself. In so doing, she ‘lost her head’, allegory for transcending the rational mind and dwelling thereafter in the light of intuition. Thereafter her body was carried up the mountain, allegory for the purificatory practices and trials that free the body from the pull of the world, thereby establishing the basis for the ‘Mount of Transfiguration’. The rest, as we know, is spiritual history, which we will cover in the next letter.
Every year we remember Santa Catarina here in the Catholic world, at least among the faithful. For the rest of the populace it is a day of worshipping the gods (of football/calcio), eating of animal sacrifices (wurstel buns with kraut and mustard) and revelling in the sheer materiality of it all, satisfying our desires for everything that catches one’s eye at the market stalls and enjoying the lighting and baubles that always entice and bring us enjoyment in the Christmas season. And like a life, in a short time it will all be gone, with another year of work and human life ahead of us. We pray and hold our thoughts for the people of Syria and for all the suffering beings everywhere. Christmas reminds us of why we are here: to learn to love more fully, to honor and help raise the virtue in ourselves and everyone we touch, and to follow in the wisdom held exemplary for us in the story of the life of Jesus. That’s the Christian way, anyway, but it is also universal. In closing this final letter for this year, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season, as much as possible. Although the times seem difficult at the moment, we always remember there is purpose behind what we see, and that outer events are but a veil for truth. It remains for us to find and experience that truth, each in our own way. Peace will come. Of that, remain assured. Hold steady the light and love within and let it radiate to the world. No evil will be able to stand against it so long as we stand united in that effort. Let it be so. May peace prevail on Earth. Merry Christmas, All!
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