© P Photo/Muzaffar SalmanIn this Sunday, March 4, 2013 file photo, photos of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin are propped against a wall during a pro-Syrian government protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Damascus, Syria.
Posters of Putin are popping up on cars and billboards elsewhere in parts of Syria and Iraq, praising the Russian military intervention in Syria as one that will redress the balance of power in the region.
The Russian leader is winning accolades from many in Iraq and Syria, who see Russian airstrikes in Syria as a turning point after more than a year of largely ineffectual efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to dislodge the Islamic State militants who have occupied significant parts of the two countries.
The reactions underscore that while the West may criticize Putin for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, there is some relief in the region at the emergence of a player with a coherent — if controversial — strategy.
"Putin does more than just speak," said Sohban Elewi of Damascus, summing up the views of Syrians on opposing camps who regard U.S. policy in Syria and Iraq as fumbled and confused.
Comment: In the anthropocentric worldview upheld by Western liberals, man is always responsible for 'nature going wrong' - in this case, causing earthquakes. It's very ironic because, in the old days, man's 'sins' were blamed by the Church for causing environmental calamities, a stance that is pooh-poohed as 'archaic' today... even though the same stance also predominates today, only now it's shrouded in mumbo-jumbo scientifico-speak.
While it is plausible that gas production in the Netherlands is having knock-on effects that have led to the recent spate of earthquakes and tremors there, it should be noted that these quakes only began causing damage to homes about 5 years ago, while the Dutch government has since cut production "by 58% to its lowest level in 30 years."
It's too early to tell because Shell and Exxon Mobil only recently 'took their foot off the pedal', but if earthquakes there were to now increase in spite of the drastic reduction in gas extraction, the scapegoaters may need to go back to the drawing board and come up with an alternative narrative for why people's homes are crumbling.