So it seems Jeremy Corbyn – and the other minority of MPs who voted against airstrikes in Syria – were right.
The strikes against ISIS in Syria are not only a failure – but they are also being strongly criticised by anti-ISIS activists inside the Raqqa region.
Figures released by US Central Command show that – because of a lack of targets – the UK has carried out just 3 bombing missions against ISIS in Syria.
But the much argued-over airstrikes are worse than a failure. They’re actually doing great harm to civilians – most of whom are prisoners of ISIS.
An organisation known as RBBS – which has already received an International Press Freedom Award for its work – is a fearless group of around 18 citizen journalists in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, who risk their lives sending out regular anti-ISIS reports and producing an anti-ISIS magazine inside the city itself.
In a report smuggled out on Christmas Day – one of the RBBS journalists says the airstrikes have damaged the city hospital (English translation):
“Increases every day the number of air strikes on the city, and the misfortune of civilians. Most of the strikes targeted the National Hospital, the largest hospital in the city and the lifeline for all; today the National Hospital became completely out of service, and disease has become a calamity.”
Of course – a man who spent 10 months with the terrorist group has already warned that the Syria airstrikes are a trap set by ISIS.
But when it comes to jingoist attempts by our politicians to win votes – who listens to experts any more?
Pride's Purge 
The article linked to in this text “but they are also being strongly criticised by anti-ISIS activists inside the Raqqa region” does not seem to justify your description Tom (although this might be my bad as translation to English seems to have been done by Google).
[The quote about the city hospital being destroyed by the airstrikes comes from that article. It’s quite long – you need to read further.] -TOM
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David Hameron, the pig f*cking PM, also said there would be no boots on the ground… yet there is talk of sending the SAS and others (up to 1000) in to fight alongside the US cowboys. So much for that promise eh!
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More destruction & disease….I can’t understand why our risible government was do keen….maybe just weapons sales??
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Hang on. Read the article that is linked properly. It does not say that the hospital has been bombed into not functioning, but that Isis have outlawed drugs and access to medical care in neighbouring city. Not saying I agree with air strikes, but the article, although hard to interpret seems to have been misrepresented.
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“Most of the strikes targeted the National Hospital, the largest hospital in the city and the lifeline for all; today the National Hospital became completely out of service, and disease has become a calamity.”
A direct quote from the report. Read it again.
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Reblogged this on paulh121.
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Being a tad cynical I thought, when hearing of these operations, something along the lines of, “It gives them something to do, doesn’t it?”
It is a little like the British response to the post-war threat from the communists – which was to have various military units ( such as the Royal Artillery, my dad was a sergeant ) charging about the Luneburger Heath ( in the middle of what was then Western Germany ) in ten ton lorries hauling forty pound cannons and occasionally stopping to loose of some shots at targets. For most of the time they were pretty good at this but most of the soldiers involved were well aware that if push came to shove and the whole shebang went ‘active’ that they would be performing nothing more than a holding exercise. They would give the Eastern Bloc pause for thought and nothing more.
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Tom, your posts are always informative, I often feel I’d like to share them with others and post them on Facebook, but don’t see a facility for doing so. Do you have a policy of deciding yourself what to post beyond your blog?
[Silvana -if you press one of the buttons at the bottom of the blog post you can share it. There’s a button for Facebook, Twitter and others. Or just copy the link into a facebook post. Thanks for the support by the way.] – TOM
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Silvana – if you press one of the buttons at the bottom of the blog post you can share it. There’s a button for Facebook, Twitter and others. Or just copy the link into a facebook post. Thanks for the support by the way.
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Nicolas Hénin didn’t just warn against airstrikes, he said that getting rid of Assad was the priority, and that ISIS would be much easier to get rid of if that was done.
‘
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
This former ISIS hostage has an unexpected message: don’t be afraid of the ISIS
This former ISIS hostage has an unexpected message: don
‘ The Syrian people, as well as the Iraqis, would never accept the leadership of the Islamic State. It is an organization fraught with infighting and deceit. It cannot provide a viable Government in either country. It simply does not have the structural efficiency to. Additionally, the fear of the ISIS seems more potent than it is because of their ingenious PR campaign. We find ourselves shaken by their videos. We replay them time and again on television, further feeding into the deliberately cultivated fear. We are concerned that a future fighter of the ISIS may be among us. And in all this, we fail to recognize the sporadic, disorganized violence for what it is.
The real threat remains Assad. In his absence, the Sunni majority will not feel compelled to align with the fanatic jihadis. The moderates will rise again. The conflicts will begin to resolve themselves. But the first step is to dethrone the ISIS from the status of “super-terrorists”. It’s what they want. And they are not a credible threat to the world.’
[http://notris.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/this-former-isis-hostage-has-unexpected.html]
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This whole Syria bombing thing had nothing to do with Syria and ISIS and everything to do with a Blairite-Cameron plot against Corbyn, hoping it would seriously affect the Oldham by-election the day after the vote. It didn’t.
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Reblogged this on lawrencerowntree.
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Tom Pride here shows that not only was Britain late on the scene to bomb Syria, most of the victims of the bombing campaign are civilians, including the local hospital.
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