With a lull in the fighting since the Syria "ceasefire," civil movements now re-emerge in the "free" areas, residents filling the streets under the slogan "The Revolution Continues."
A Turkish court released two journalists who were arrested last year after reporting that the Ankara government was running a smuggling operation to arm Islamist factions in Syria.
Amid confused fighting in northern Syria, accusations are mounting that the Rojava Kurds are collaborating with Russia—and, by extension, the genocidal Bashar Assad regime.
The Israeli security establishment and its neocon allies are divided between those who would destabilize Assad and those who would prop him with up as the Devil they know.
Syria's Rojava Kurds are accused of coordinating with Russian air-strikes to take territory held by Islamist factions—while Turkey warns them against any further advance.
The Syrian ceasefire announced in Munich does not apply to US or Russian air-strikes on "terrorists," and comes as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are preparing military intervention.
The US aids Syrian Kurds against ISIS even as it acquiesces in Turkey's counterinsurgency against allied Kurdish forces just across the border—undermining anti-ISIS unity.
With Turkey insisting that the Syrian Kurds be barred from upcoming Geneva peace talks, Russia is pressing for their participation—while pursuing its grisly campaign of aerial terror.
The State Department named "bringing peace" to Syria as a 2015 accomplishment—as Russian air-strikes continue on schools, and starvation sets in behind rebel lines.
The UN resolution on a democratic transition in Syria assumes this can happen under Assad's rule. The US is now openly blocking with Russia over support for the dictatorship.
Kurdish strongman Masoud Barzani has invited a Turkish military force into his territory, with the apparent aim of driving the PKK from northern Iraq.
Was the San Bernardino attack politically motivated terrorism or just someone's personal revenge? Either way, pundits right and left are going to be squirming…
