“Putin is a wily guy. He is showing he’s a statesman. Russia is also sending a message to Assad who has been sounding too confident.”
That’s from Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma, and a frequent commentator on Syria’s five-year conflict.
In September, a funny thing happened.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. Central Command and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth ended up in front of Congress to discuss how the now infamous “train and equip” program for Syrian rebels was going. Specifically, they were asked how many of the fighters that had participated in the program were still operating on the ground.
Austin’s answer: “four or five.”
Thousands took to the streets of Paris over the weekend to protest the French government’s ongoing “state of emergency” – accusing the government of allowing France to become a police state. Protestors on Saturday expressed concern that emergency measures introduced by President Francois Hollande following the November 13 Paris Attacks, have stripped away the rights of citizens and turned France into a tyrannical police state with no due process. Aljazeera.com reports:.
Putin has ordered his military to start the withdrawal of the main part of Russia’s forces from Syria on Monday, saying that the Russian military intervention had largely ‘achieved its objectives’.
Having collapsed just over a month ago, peace talks to end the Syrian strife resumed today amid the "fragile" truce brokered by US and Russia. So that makes the following even more intriguing: