Headlines:
- Russia to al-Assad’s Rescue
- US Bombs Afghan Hospital
- US Continues in Attempts to Contain China
Russia to al-Assad’s Rescue
After weeks of moving military equipment into Syria, Russian began airstrikes on 30 September 2015. Russia officials have reached considerable lengths to explain the intervention is all about terrorism and ISIS. But all the attacks have been on rebel groups fighting the al-Assad regime rather than ISIS. Most of the Russian strikes have taken place in Idlib and central Homs, where recent rebel victories routed Syrian military forces. Walid al-Moallem, Syria’s foreign minister explained at the United Nations: “Russian air strikes in Syria, which came upon a request from the Syrian government and in coordination with the government, is an effective participation in the support for the Syrian efforts in combating terrorism.” The Russian intervention in reality came to preserve the Baathist regime, which is crumbling after 4 years of fighting due to defections, economic crisis and battle fatigue. In 2015 the al-Assad regime has seen defeats in Idlib, eastern Homs and Deraa, combined with renewed pressure in Aleppo and Deir el-Zour and the loss of gas fields to ISIS. These losses left the regime in a desperate position as it has lost most of the country. The US response on this Russian incursion was the complete opposite to its reaction to Ukraine, as the US supports the preservation of the Damascus regime, despite its rhetoric to the contrary. After 4 years of fighting Bashar al-Assad only remains due to the external support he receives, his army has been halved, Iran and Hezbollah have failed to halt the march of the rebel groups, so this Russian intervention came just in the nick of time.
US Bombs Afghan Hospital
After the embarrassing loss of the Northern Afghanistan town of Kunduz, US forces bombed a hospital in central Kunduz housing the intensive care unit, emergency rooms and physiotherapy ward. To make matters worse it was bombed repeatedly and hit very precisely during the aerial raid. The Pentagon insisted they would conduct a full investigation. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the situation is “confused,” but that they would hold anyone responsible if the bombing is “something they shouldn’t have done.” The Afghan government’s response was the hospital was “retaliation” and that the site was actually a “Taliban base.” The hospital was operated by the French ‘Doctors Without Borders,’ organisation, who rejected this claim as absurd, noting they’ve been at that site for some time, and it was well known it was a hospital. Then on the 5 October 2015 at a news conference the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said that Afghan forces had requested the airstrike that destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the city of Kunduz, conceding that the military had lied initially. At his news conference, General Campbell said that Afghan forces had come under fire near the hospital and then called for help. “This is different from the initial reports which indicated that US forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf,” he said.
Heman Nagarathnam, MSF Head of Programmes in northern Afghanistan explained what really happened: “The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round. There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames. Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds.” The bombing took place despite the fact that MSF had provided the GPS coordinates of the trauma hospital to coalition and Afghan military and civilian officials as recently as Tuesday 29 September, to avoid that the hospital be hit. As is routine practice for MSF in conflict areas, MSF had communicated the exact location of the hospital to all parties to the conflict.
US Continues in Attempts to Contain China
Ever since the US announced its pivot towards Asia in 2012, but very little progress has been made as China continues to dominate most regional organisations and institutions. But on the morning of the 6th October the US and 11 other nations announced they had reached a final agreement on the trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is remarkable in its scale and scope, in that it includes 40% of global trade. The US has bene working for some time to shape multilateral regional institutions in the Asia-pacific region, this was to unify some countries against China and to prevent a powerful regional coalition from taking shape that did not involve the US. The TTP has now given the US and institutional stake in the Asia-Pacific region. China remains the largest trade partner for all the nations involved in the trade bloc, but this agreement which includes patents and tariffs means the US can now make inroads into China trump card – economics.