A strategic town is about to be taken by “the bad guys”.  The town is full of civilians.  An “impending massacre” needs to be stopped.  Does that ring a bell?  Is that Bosnia in 1995?  Nope.  This is Syria in 2013.

Please read this article by the BBC.

Here are the key quotes from it with my comments in blue:

Following a day of heavy bombardment by aircraft and artillery, the army launched an offensive to recapture the town on Sunday. (The BBC has no idea what a ‘heavy’ artillery/air bombardment looks like, but in order to suggest, on one hand, disproportionality and, on the other, to explain away why to putative “bad guys” are winning, they always exaggerate the issue of firepower).  By the evening, they had taken the municipality building in the town centre and were advancing, according to state media. The claim was denied by opposition activists (who never admit any defeat on principle), although they admitted the rebels had suffered very heavy casualties. They posted video on the internet showing chaotic scenes at what they said was a field hospital filled with wounded fighters and civilians trapped in the town (that suggests that some action must be taken to assist those civilians and stop the massacre) Our correspondent says it is not clear how many civilians remain trapped in Qusair. Opposition sources estimate that at least 40,000 are still there, though it is thought many may have fled long ago, he adds (as we know from Bosnia and, even more so, Kosovo, those figures of civilians at risk usually turn out to be complete fabrications).  State television said that the army had set up a protected corridor for civilians to escape the fighting, but activists said many people feared persecution and torture once they entered government-controlled areas (typical damned if you do, damned if you don’t; either way you are a monster).  The main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, warned of an impending “massacre” (yeah, right! and the way to prevent that impending massacre?  To prevent the government forces from capturing the town, of course), and called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League.   What appears to be a concerted government attempt to recapture Qusair from the rebels had been in the making for some time. In a sense, Qusair had already fallen militarily, since the rebels appear to have lost control of most of the surrounding villages and countryside adjacent to the Lebanese border. It adds to a string of setbacks rebels have suffered in recent weeks, especially along the Lebanese and Jordanian borders and around Damascus itself. Rebel commanders blame their recent losses on the drying-up of arms supplies from outside (And who do we right this wrong?  By sending weapons to the insurgency, of course!)

If this was not so disgusting it actually would be comical.  Almost 20 years after the Srebrenica strategic psyop the Anglo media does exactly the same in Syria.

Here is how this works:

All towns have civilians.  If a strategic town is about to fall, warn of an impending massacre.  Once the town falls, speak of an actual massacre.  And since all civil wars include summary executions, you can very easily turn a government military victory into a PR disaster.  All you need to do is take some true facts and then re-package them with enough hearsay and exaggerations to completely change the nature of the narrative.  (Example: I am quite certain that when the Iraqis entered Kuwait they did commit a large number of atrocious human rights violations, but they never tossed Kuwaiti babies out from incubators.)

Last week we had ‘Chechen deja vu‘.  This week begins with ‘Bosnian deja vu’.

We are clearly reaching some kind of turning point in this war.

The Saker

PS:  I wonder if there ever will be a major Muslim political figure or spiritual leader who will not only understand the nature of how the US/NATO fight their wars, but who will have the courage to admit that in the case of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo the Muslim community worldwide was suckered into supporting the very same Empire that is now attacking it.  Would such a person ever find the courage and honesty in himself and express if not outright excuses to the Serbian people, at least some degree of contrition for getting the Balkan wars so wrong?  How long will this topic still remain “crimethink” amongst Muslims?  Forever?