The Syrian rebels have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. They appear to be wanting to add to the total.

It says a lot about the reporting that the Bana Alabed twitter disappears for a day and makes headlines but someone deliberately blowing up an anonymous little girl in Damascus is barely a footnote, lumped together with the unsubstantiated claims of “burning children alive”.

At the same time, the rebel ‘activists’ and Bana are bussed to safety.

Have to admire the brave SARC and green bus drivers, not a job I’d want.

It's the correct way to do the war thing. Civilians are meant to be protected, so the evil Assad regime and their Russian masters have tried many times to set up evacuation corridors so people who want to leave, can. Assuming the 'moderate terrorists' let them and aren't busy lobbing stuff like this-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNaEgn8kWfw

in their general direction. Or fighting over who gets to control and sell food & other aid that's managed to make it's way into rebel areas. And once the 'moderate terrorists' have been seperated from their human shields, those that haven't disarmed themselves can be disarmed by the Syrian forces, helped by Russian drones, ground attack jets and helicopters.

Which is kinda the next phase of this conflict. So lots of jihadis have been lured into Syria and Iraq with the promise of fame, fortune, women and martydom. Hopefully the West will co-operate and co-ordinate with Syria and Russia to ensure they never leave.

The west backed "the rebels" and all rebels the west back are cuddly ones seeking to inflict peace and love on their fellow countrymen. It's quite appalling the presentation and reporting by the west and it's media on this.

Yup. But why? Especially when there's a thing for supposed alt-right/fake news going on at the moment. That's always been a part of war, ie propaganda, but in recent conflicts there seems to have been precious little fact checking.

So we've for some reason ended up with a rather one-sided view of the Syrian conflict, where casualties are caused by the 'Assad Regime'.. but the improvised gas cylinder mortars are presumably only used to send supplies of propane to suffering people in beseiged areas.

There's been plenty of footage from the rebels themselves showing them using heavy & indiscriminate weapons inside cities, yet the casualties they've likely caused get glossed over. At the higher level, I suspect reluctance to acknowledge this is because politicians are reluctant to admit they were wrong. It should have been obvious from the first months of the civil war that the rebels didn't have popular support.

I was never fully sold on little Bana. I suppose my biggest suspicions started over the family's legal status in Syria. Add to this the fact that the mother doesn't speak Arabic very well to the point where she prefers English to Arabic (and yet is a teacher - who again can't speak English well..) - unheard of for native Syrians of any religion or culture not to be fluent in Arabic.. I started to suspect they were not native to Syria but came over during the conflict. They have given exclusive interviews to Turkish news agencies and Bana's mother often tags Erdogan and the Turkish foreign minister in her tweets..

The White Helmets are not real? Wow, that is one major MSM lie I fell for. I did feel there was something not right about them but did not realise the lies were so audacious.

I am more confused than ever about the situation in Aleppo. You have people like this journalist saying one thing, which makes total sense.

But I also know a Syrian family. The mum posts on Facebook about Aleppo, and she seems to think Assad is to blame for everything and that he should be removed from power. I have not asked her more about it as it might be a touchy subject.

Don't want to make it worse for you, but one of the White Helmets 'rescued' children was rescued 'three times', 'three different months', 'three different locations' and on two occasions wearing the same clothes (iirc)...ie: caught faking/setting up 'rescues'. Have a google regarding them, they've been rumbled peddling a few falsehoods and the MSM has either been complicit, or more likely not checking the facts and images that pop up on their Twatbook feeds.

They are 'real' in a sense, although these ones aren't scaleybacks on motorbikes. These ones have had an OBE for one of their founders, and a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize. Or they've had donations of >$100m, including from the UK taxpayers. They've also only been known to operate inside rebel areas, and have been seen in some questionable videos.. so they certainly don't appear to be neutral.


Different version of Bartlett here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AisvBNXPdG8

which also links to the full UN panel. Bartlett is saying one thing in response to a slobby journalist. His first question asked whether the Syrian people had been surveyed, or polled... Not entirely sure that's practical. The way Bartlett handled his second question was simpler. The MSM isn't in Aleppo, and so is reliant on potentially biased sources, ie Rami the rag man from the front lines of Coventry. But Bartlett has been there, so can at least provide some eye witness testimony.

Now that civilians are being freed from rebel held areas, more evidence and testimony will become available. There'll also be war crimes investigators, which may include UK military or civilian police & coroners looking at evidence. There'll be weapons specialists looking for signs of chemical weapon usage, and sources of equipment that's been used.

That's something that really should be co-ordinated by an independent organisation, but given the way the situation is so politically charged, that may not happen. So expect more accusations to be hurled around, often not backed up by any credible evidence.

Be careful not to confuse independent with unbiased. For example, Katie Hopkins in independent, but she is not unbiased.

Good point. Which has just him home to me that I actually no longer have a clue who is even remotely unbiased any more. For example i expect some biased reporting from the western media as Assad is neither the nicest of blokes and more importantly not the man the west want in charge of Syria, but media reporting has become a cruel joke as it bears zero reflection of reality. But much more disconcertingly, even the various International Humanitarian Aid charities only seem to be highlighting all the inhumane conditions and deaths/casualties to civilians one just on side of the conflict. Even innocent civilians are completely unequal in this conflict, depending upon which "side" the Humanitarian Aid charity comes from.

MSF seems the only charity i could confidently donate to regard helping the suffering in Syria, but even then because of everything else i've been misinformed about i still can't be 100% certain. Absolutely depressing.

Indeed. That's always the danger if/when organisations become politicised. So the 'White Helmets' may be doing a fine job, but only doing it inside rebel areas raises questions.

The proper investigations (ie war crimes in the Balkans etc) are usually carried out independently, even if the results may end up being spun.