© TASSA Russian surface-to-air S-300 missile system during a military drill by Russian forces last year.
First, a brief recap of events leading up developments in the last couple of days. The September 9th ceasefire failed because the U.S. couldn't or wouldn't convince its moderate jihadis to separate from its radical jihadis. Those same jihadis:
- refused to accept the ceasefire,
- refused to accept humanitarian aid unless it was on their terms (not those outlined in the U.S.-Russia agreement),
- reaffirmed their allegiance to al-Qaeda, and
- continued their attacks on Syrian troops and civilians.
On top of this, the U.S. bombed Syrian troops, and it (or its jihadis) bombed a humanitarian aid convoy, both of which they then blamed on the Syrian and/or Russian military.
All of this proved two things:
- the U.S. and their proxies were responsible for the failure of the ceasefire,
- the moderates are no different than the extremists.
Both of which justified the revivified offensive on eastern Aleppo, which is held by designated terrorist group al-Nusra/al-Qaeda, and their affiliates. Like it or not, this is the logic of war. If one side refuses a truce, the other side cannot be expected to unilaterally cease fire and expose themselves and their civilians to undefended attacks.
Rather than take responsibility, the U.S. then went on the information warfare offensive, conveniently sidestepping the fact that its own failure justified the renewed offensive. Instead, it focused on allegations that the Russians and Syrians targeted civilians in eastern Aleppo, in the vain hope that moral outrage would be enough to demonize Russia and Syria... and make them stop? By doing so, the Americans also conveniently deflected attention from their own double standards, hypocrisy, and deliberate omissions and falsifications.
Comment: Further reading: The case for the controlled breakup of Ukraine