Syrian Civil War

The Battle of Aleppo: Assad's army has almost secured the staging grounds for the infantry assault on the rebel held Salaheddine district. Assad is trying to clear the last rebel toehold out of Damascus to cover his back. As he does this he is pouring everything he's got into the staging grounds. Once he has total control of Damascus, then a huge assault will sweep into Aleppo.

None of this violates the parallel I've been drawing between Aleppo and Stalingrad. I remind you that the Germans conquered 90% of Stalingrad before they were ultimately defeated.

The CIA had been holding back heavy weapons from the rebels because their ranks are infiltrated by Al-Qaeda. Now the heavy weapons are coming through. About 20 soldiers from both sides are dying every day, making this war far and away the biggest among all the global Long War campaigns. This will soon spike up when the big assault is launched.

Russia thinks the rebels might win. It is landing 360 Marines into its Syrian naval base. They will be used to evacuate Russian citizens from Syria if the rebels start winning. Syrians hate Russians and will try to kill them in the aftermath of the war.

Iran thinks the rebels might win. It is saying that it might provide the Afghan Taliban with surface to air missiles at some point in the future. Of course Iran doesn't say it will do this if the rebels win, but that's essentially the point.

Israel sees Iran going into a frenzied chest beating routine at the prospect of its ally Assad getting clobbered and freaks out. Israel is now making the most bellicose noise against Iran in quite some time. Somebody bombed a Palestinian camp in Syria. All the enemies of Israel such as Hezbollah are stirring.

The ripples from the Battle of Aleppo are already surging across the global Long War landscape in a messy and unpredictable fashion. Let us hope President Obama is truly committed to a hands off policy with the CIA because traditional civilian interference right now is a really bad idea.