Putin's Carnage In Aleppo

Russian and Syrian warplanes launched the heaviest bombing of rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria in months, effectively ending the ceasefire that was already shaken by last Monday's air attack on a column of relief for the city's residents. The bombing reflects a rejection by the Assad regime's Russian allies of pleas by the U.S. and its Western allies to hold to the ceasefire that began some two weeks ago. Despite Monday's attack on the aid convoy, which the U.S. has accused Russia of conducting, the U.N. announced today that it is planning to resume aid convoys to rebel-held areas of Aleppo, following a review of security arrangements. We'll see if that relief effort meets the same fate as Monday's.

The Assad regime exists largely because of the military assistance it receives from Russia. Their mutual strategy is to remove the threat of the Western-backed anti-Assad forces fighting the regime, as the U.S. and its allies take on ISIS in Syria, with Assad eventually being the last man standing. A President Trump, with his cozy relationship with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin and Russian financiers, would help facilitate Russia's inroads into the Middle East, bringing far greater instability to that region and harm to the U.S.