Here is the Russian MOD's map of Syria on September 30, 2015, the day Russia announced its mission in Syria and launched its first airstrikes:
Followed by the situation today, 22 months later:
No wonder the U.S. and its allies are backing off the regime change rhetoric while also attempting to
downplay Russian success in Syria.
Of course, this is a Russian source. Maybe they're exaggerating one or both of the representations, showing the Syrians with less territory at the start and more at present than was actually the case. For comparison, here's a neocon source, the 'Institute for
the Study of War' (ISW):
Pretty close. The Russians give the rebels more territory west of Damascus (shown as under SAA/Hezbollah control by ISW), and a bit less territory in the southwest near Deraa and on the highway from Damascus to Sayqal, but overall the shape of SAA control is similar. The Russians also paint the whole desert 'black' with ISIS, even though technically the ISW is more accurate - the desert is largely uninhabited. But the Russian maps still have a point. As long as ISIS controlled key strategic points, and the Syrians were limited to the west of the country, the desert was not under government control.
The latest ISW maps show the liberation of ISIS-held areas in the center/south, but don't convey the control of desert territory, and do not show the Syrians positions reaching the Euphrates near Raqqa or the control of border regions with Jordan and Iraq. Keep in mind that when the Russians want to show actual ISIS positions (as opposed to overall territory), they can do that too, as shown in this image from back in May:
Those two grey circles to the southwest of Palmyra are now under Syrian control, as are the ones west of Aleppo and south of Raqqa.
When both sets of maps are looked at together, they show how much of a difference the control of strategic regions can make. Two years ago, ISIS controlled the Syrian desert and was encroaching on the more-populated west of the country via their control of strategic positions around Palmyra and to the east of Damascus. They also held the north of the country in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces. Today, they have been pushed back to a central strip northwest, north, and east of Palmyra, to Deir ez-Zor in the east, and the Iraqi border past that, leaving the Syrians in control of the vast majority of land in the south, save for a pocket of rebels on border with Jordan and Iraq.
None of that would have been possible without the Russians,
and without Russian intervention in Syria, today Hillary Clinton might have been laughing at the lynching of Assad as she did with Gaddafi, and most of Syria would very likely be under the control of 'ISIS'.
As for those Russian MOD maps, here's the full briefing where they are shown:
And here are Russian military police monitoring the ceasefire near the Golan Heights. With any luck, that means Israel won't be offensively "defending itself" against the Syrian military anymore.
Harrison Koehli co-hosts SOTT Radio Network's
MindMatters, and is an editor for
Red Pill Press. He has been interviewed on several North American radio shows about his writings on the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists (commies too).
Reader Comments
Russia patrolling the Golan. PRICELESS!