By The Saker
March 02, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
The murder of the Iranian hero-martyr General
Soleimani created a situation in which a war between
Iran and the Axis of Kindness (USA/Israel/KSA)
became a real possibility but, at the very last
minute, Uncle Shmuel decided that he had no stomach
for a full-scale war against Iran. Wise decision.
This, however, does not at
all imply that the AngloZionist Empire decided to
stand by idly, far from it. The need to take quick
and determined action became particularly acute
following the huge anti-US demonstrations in Iraq (well
over one million people in the streets!)
which directly put at risk the US occupation (the
MSM would call it “presence”) in both Iraq and
Syria.
At the same time, Turkish
President Erdogan’s refusal to remove all the “bad
terrorists” from the Idlib province eventually
resulted in a joint Syrian-Russian offensive to
liberate the province. That offensive, in turn,
clearly infuriated the Turks who warned of a major
military operation to prevent the Syrians from
liberating their own country.
This begs the question: are
Russia and Turkey really on a collision course?
There are certainly some very
worrying warning signs including a number of very
harsh statements by Erdogan himself, and a suddenly
re-kindled Turkish interest for the US “Patriots”.
On the ground in Idlib, the
Turks have clearly provided the “bad terrorists”
with a lot of support including equipment, MANPADs,
tanks and armored personnel carriers. The Turks
actually went as far as sending special forces to
assist the “bad terrorists” directly. Finally, from
footage taken by Russian and Syrian drones, and even
the “bad terrorists” themselves, it appears
undeniable that Turkish MLRS and regular artillery
provided the “bad terrorists” with fire support.
Both sides also agree that a
number of Turkish personnel were killed (they only
disagree on how many and what these Turks were doing
in Syria).
Finally, and most ominously,
there is even a video circulating on the
Internet which appears to show a US “Stinger” being
fired by the “bad terrorists” at a Russian aircraft
which, thank God, managed to evade it (unlike 2
Syrian Army helicopters which were shot down).
So the first conclusion that
we can come to is that the Turks are already engaged
in combat operations against the Syrians. For the
time being, these combat operations are just below
the threshold of “credible deniability”, but not by
much. For example, if the Turks had shot down a
Russian aircraft you can be pretty certain that the
Russian public opinion (which has still not forgiven
Erdogan for the downed Su-24) would have demanded
that the Russian Aerospace Forces massively
retaliate (just as they have every time Russian
military personnel have been killed) kill scores of
Turks.