Austria is investigating the conduct of its UN peacekeepers during an ambush of Syrian policemen that they filmed in the Golan Heights in 2012.
A video of the incident, published online by Austria's Falter weekly, shows gunmen preparing the ambush and the police vehicle coming under fire.
A special Austrian Defence Ministry inquiry was launched on Saturday.
Falter described the gunmen as Syrian "smugglers". The Austrians apparently failed to warn the police of the trap.
In the video one Austrian peacekeeper is heard saying: "Normally we should tell them [the Syrian police]".
Seconds later, as the police pickup truck nears the ambush, another Austrian says: "It's about to start, you'll see."
Still from Falter video of ambushImage copyrightFALTER/SCREENSHOT
Image caption
The video broadcast by Falter shows gunmen preparing an ambush
Syrian forces ambushedImage copyrightFALTER/SCREENSHOT
Image caption
Moments later the vehicle comes under fire and some occupants are hit
A UN force has patrolled the buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Syrian Golan Heights since 1974 in the wake of the previous year's war.
The 2012 video dates from a period when fighting was intensifying between Syrian government forces and rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
A UN spokesman said nine members of the Syrian security forces were killed by 13 rebels in the incident, in the Mount Hermon area.
The spokesman called the video "disturbing" and said the UN would investigate it with the Austrian authorities. He was quoted by the Austrian news agency APA (in German) but not named.
The question is whether the Austrians had a duty to warn the Syrian government forces, even if that was not explicitly part of their Golan mission's mandate.

Mike_L wrote:Hi, tuco! :wave:

tuco wrote:

Syria plan by @DPletka & @Gen_JackKeane: Build Arab force rivaling YPG in Rojava, drive out Russia, seize Syria's airspace, invent new rebels, march on Damascus, make democracy. If Turkey objects, expel it from NATO. May require a few thousand more troops.

- https://twitter.com/aronlund/status/989622596605022209

commenting on:

How Trump Should Define Success in Syria - http://nationalinterest.org/feature/how ... yria-25538

Sounds legit.

For those with higher threshold neat blog with analysis of the topic: https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/

Those all proceed from the assumption that Syria and Iran should be US-Israel stomping-grounds. The last one at least concedes that Iran and Russia won't allow that to happen without a major war.

Jeffrey Sachs: "US should get out of Syria"...



They won't, though. From Syria it's on to Iran. The long term US-Israel-Saudi plan is to "break" the Shia Crescent. But that's in conflict with Russia's regional interests... hence the growing risk of a direct US-Russia clash, which could escalate and "go nuclear".

Accepting that Assad has won the war is the starting point imo. It's not a matter of right/wrong or like/don't like but a matter of accepting realities.

mrjonno wrote:

Accepting that Assad has won the war is the starting point imo. It's not a matter of right/wrong or like/don't like but a matter of accepting realities.

It's not about Assad or even Syria, its about Russia and Putin.

He is a threat to Europe and even more importantly me, better to fight him in Syria than nearer home

Mike_L wrote:Only when Russian jackboots have finished stomping Theresa May's petunia patch and Donald Trump's rose garden will the world be a safer place.

mrjonno wrote:

Accepting that Assad has won the war is the starting point imo. It's not a matter of right/wrong or like/don't like but a matter of accepting realities.

It's not about Assad or even Syria, its about Russia and Putin.

He is a threat to Europe and even more importantly me, better to fight him in Syria than nearer home

It's the Syrian civil war so it is about the Syrians. I know it doesn't work that way, but the welfare of the Syrians should be the only consideration to do anything in Syria.

aban57 wrote:It's that kind of selfishness that causes our world to be the shitload it is now (and has always been).

mrjonno wrote:...stopping Russia

Mike_L wrote:Only when Russian jackboots have finished stomping Theresa May's petunia patch and Donald Trump's rose garden will the world be a safer place.

ronmcd wrote:

Mike_L wrote:Only when Russian jackboots have finished stomping Theresa May's petunia patch and Donald Trump's rose garden will the world be a safer place.

Yeah. I for one welcome our new horse riding bare chested journalist murdering opposition murdering paranoid bald Roland Rat lookalike overlord.

Despotic. I forgot despotic.

Mike_L wrote:
At last you've come to embrace the truth... that well-ordered tyranny is preferable to anarcho-tyranny.

Nice link. Sounds like a right wing extremist. That's where you end up if you follow Putin.

Mike_L wrote:Actually, the path to extremism of every stripe leads not through Moscow, but through Washington... whether it's support for jihadist 'rebels' in Syria, or meddling in Ukraine to the advantage of Neo-Nazis.

Its purpose is to challenge the propaganda narratives presented by the mainstream media, which serve to manufacture consent for government policies

mrjonno wrote:I would support funding ISIS is it meant stopping Russia (which we currently don't need to do), ISIS can blow my bus up on the way to work Russia can blow up the entire city

LucidFlight wrote:

mrjonno wrote:I would support funding ISIS is it meant stopping Russia (which we currently don't need to do), ISIS can blow my bus up on the way to work Russia can blow up the entire city

An interesting take on the trolley problem.