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Obama And Kerry’s Plan: Let Aleppo Burn To The Ground

REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

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Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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The Obama administration is not seriously considering any plan to stop Russia and Syria’s ongoing total war on the city of Aleppo.

Reports indicate lower-level national security officials are reviving old plans to heavily arm rebel opposition groups, or to ground Bashar al-Assad’s air force. Neither of the plans are being seriously considered by the White House, which is all but resigning itself to Aleppo’s fate. President Barack Obama reportedly remains deeply skeptical of increasing any military aid to the opposition, and remains steadfast against striking Assad.

After a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Russia collapsed in September, Russia and the Assad regime have begun an all-out assault on rebel-held Aleppo. Iran, Russia, and Assad “believe that expelling opposition groups from Aleppo could deal a ‘knock-out blow’ to the rebellion and, at the very least, force a political settlement on their terms,” security advisory firm The Soufan Group noted Wednesday.

The regime and its allies are now using bunker busting bombs on civilian populations, while simultaneously massing thousands of fighters on the outskirts of the city. Russia and Syria’s continuous bombardment has killed hundreds of civilians in just two weeks, and they continue to obstruct any humanitarian aid to the besieged city. One U.S. intelligence analyst characterized the strategy to The Washington Post as “Surrender and you can eat again.”

The U.S. announced Monday it would cease all bilateral relations with Russia over Syria, because of its continued slaughter of civilians in Aleppo. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reneged on that promise when he called his Russian counterpart Wednesday to discuss the situation in Syria.

Russia is now deploying several missile corvette ships to the Mediterranean sea, which are equipped with cruise missile launchers. Russia has used cruise missiles in Syria previously, and is likely assembling as much firepower as possible to continue assaulting Aleppo.

“Even if the regime is able to eke out a victory in Aleppo, the opposition will not be easily defeated. They are simply too large to defeat,” a U.S. intelligence official lamented to The Washington Post. He continued “What’s ahead is not regime control, but guerrilla warfare.”

As the war in Aleppo drags on, Sen. John McCain warned in a Wednesday op-ed:

It will produce millions more refugees, undermining regional stability and straining the social fabric of Western nations. It will strengthen an anti-American alliance of Russia and Iran. U.S. credibility with our closest security partners in the Middle East will further erode. And it will provide ISIS, or its successor groups, fertile ground to radicalize Muslims, recruit and inspire them to fight, and provide them with dangerous battlefield experience.

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