Elijah has been working as a newspaper journalist for some 30 years. He was war correspondent in the Yugoslavia wars, in Lebanon, in Iraq during the U.S. invasion and in Syria. The following text is based on factual knowledge and experience, not on political agendas or paid "analyst" propaganda. One hopes that younger journalists will learn from it.

Syria:

In Syria, Chechens, Moroccans, Tunisians, Chinese, Turkish, Saudi, Qatari, Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians (to name but a few) are called “Syrian moderate armed opposition”. But that is not limited to media only: we see US, UK, and French diplomats taking part in this bad taste comedy, calling every foreign fighter “Syrian opposition”, as long as these are fighting against Russia. The west promotes right values but doesn’t implement these values in this dirty war, where everything is permitted.

Another puzzle is eastern Aleppo and its hospitals: the number of destroyed hospitals in eastern Aleppo is about to set a Guinness record. According to the US State Department and to the western press, over 90 hospitals were totally destroyed in eastern Aleppo in the last months at the rate of almost one destroyed hospital per day. And every day we hear “the last hospital has been totally destroyed”. The only problem with this figure is the statistic released by the Syrian Ministry of Health stating that “on the entire Syrian territory, there are only 88 hospitals”.

If anyone dares to contradict this “last-hospital-destroyed” theory and propaganda, a personal accusation is ready: you must be an “Assadists” (referring to President Bashar al-Assad). “Neo-analysts” and on some occasions journalists, join in for lack of argument. We have seen professor Joshua Landis (who spent over 12 years in the Middle East and is one the most knowledgeable Syrian analyst) and Terrorism theorist professor Max Abrahms (to name a few), are accused of being “Assadists” as soon as they disagree with those sitting in a think tank and pretending to reflect on Syria or journalists looking to attract some attention to themselves. Actually this accusation becomes an easy way to break the conversation: when no argument is available from these shallow low-minded thinkers who have no hesitation promoting terrorists to rule Syria.

Moreover, Assad is no longer THE enemy but is replaced by Russia in the eyes of the US media. The reason is not difficult to imagine: Russia wants its share of a Middle East that is no longer exclusive to the Americans. According to U.S. media, all Russian shells and bombing destroy hospitals and kill civilians, while American shells kill only “Al-Qaeda” and ISIS. Of course, Russia doesn’t have the sophisticated US bombs equipped with smell-detection and able to recognise civilians and target only militants.