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How the Lights Have Gone Out For the People of Syria (bbc.co.uk)
dryriver shares an excerpt from a report via the BBC that shows what the impact of the Syrian war looks like from space: Six years of war in Syria have had a devastating effect on millions of its people. One of the most catastrophic impacts has been on the country's electricity network. Images from NASA, obtained by BBC Arabic, show clearly how the lights have gone out during the course of the conflict, leaving people to survive with little to no power. Each timelapse frame shows an average of the light emitted at night every month from 2012, one year after the war began. They show that the areas where Syrians can turn lights on at night, power their daily lives and get access to life-saving medical equipment, have shrunk dramatically. The city of Aleppo was Syria's powerhouse and home to over two million people. But the country's industrial hub became a battleground and remained so for more than four years. Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebels began in October 2015 and the timelapse shows the city in almost complete darkness at night throughout 2016, when the battle for Aleppo was at its peak. As mains power supplies dropped off, ordinary people had to be creative in finding alternative sources for light and power.
Russia to have prevented this so this proves Trump is wrong. We need to fight Russia.
which proves she is on the right side. Trump is seeking a diplomatic solution so he is in the wrong.
Just give up. Muslims should be treated this way.
Ending the war is simple - the "rebels" should surrender. They have no chance of winning, not anymore.
Who needs light when you have the twitter.
Reliable electricity as a concern usually plays second fiddle to having food on the table and not waking up dead from a barrel bomb dropped on your house by your own people. But what do I know? First world privilege and all that.
hey, while war sucks, and it is important to recognize,
THIS IS NOT CNN OR LIFE MAG.
pull your head out quit destroying the credibility of this place..
NOT NEWS 4 NERDS
various groups of people HERE could derive more from a wet fart in an elevator..
people whom frequent CNN or Other, would probably say something else.
why dont u go write for them??
I hate to sound like a prepper (I'm not) but people should be ready for something like this.
Even if you just need to learn how to use a motor in reverse as a generator. Learn how to convert an old exercise bike into a power generator.
I just feel like some of this is stupidity. Pretend water stops coming out of your faucet. What would you do? Same for electricity.
If you live in a 3rd world country it's not like you have guaranteed utilities. Be ready for it instead of it hitting you when you aren't.
The south Korean puppet warmongers, taken aback by the DPRK's rapidly increased military muscle, are getting hell-bent on the introduction and development of various types of weapons and military equipment, pursuant to the U.S. scheme for "special operation" and "preemptive strike on the north".
Such moves are nothing but last-ditch effort to make up for their military inferiority and get rid of the abyss of ruin, seized with extreme horror and uneasiness in face of the tremendous might of the DPRK which emerged a nuclear power in the East and the world's military power.
The U.S. and south Korean puppet forces tout much about "nuclear and missile threat from the north". It is preposterous and shameless sophism aimed to justify their reckless aggression scheme and ignite a new war.
The puppet group of traitors is a hideous enemy of the nation who should be no longer allowed to survive as it is only keen on the nuclear war moves against the north, in conspiracy with foreign forces, challenging the desire and aspiration of all the fellow countrymen for peace and reunification.
The DPRK has the will and capability to cope with any war and operation chosen by the U.S. and is fully ready for any mode of attack from the enemies.
The puppet warmongers should be mindful that they will face a miserable destruction, though they zealously act a shock brigade for realizing the U.S. scheme for "special operation" and "preemptive strike on the north" while introducing lethal weapons and war equipment.
Sim Chol Yong
Fake news, fake summary, political agenda much?
It goes dark in 2013, way before the Russian involvement as the article tries to suggest was the reason of it going dark.
Who is the shill today? Beau?
Nothing more, nothing less. Western Exceptionalists, try and explain why Syria was targeted before the Arab Spring, or why the United States continued to sell weapons to the dictatorship of Bahrain. Which was busy, and violently, putting down it's Arab Spring protests at the same time as the U.S. was bombing Libya because Qaddafi was 'oppressing Arab Spring protesters'.
So much less light pollution, the night sky is probably stunning! Except for the glare from the occasional rockets, I mean.
Didn't this happen in Lawrence of Arabia ?
Nullius in verba
Look, ask yourself WHY Assad dropped VX Nerve gas on his people when 'he's' winning the war.
Russia has really bombed the crap out of the Kurds, and Rebels and ISIS, the three factions that oppose Assad, and he then drops nerve gas, to minimal military effect. It doesn't kill some vast army or destroy their weapons, it mostly kills the weak and sick civilians trapped there.
Why do it??
IMHO, dictators like Assad need an enemy to face off in order to keep power. Their justification for having dictator power is the enemy they face. The worst thing for him is if ISIS loses. He needs them to be there, an extremist threat just over the horizon, yet so weak as to not really be a military threat in reality but still there to talk up as a threat in propaganda.
He NEEDS TO DRIVE EXTREMISM. Using conventional weapons against military targets doesn't achieve that, so he did a nerve gas strike at a time he's essentially got it all. Nerve gas to keep the extremists funded and supplied with volunteers.
Without ISIS, why would Russia be there to prop him up? They'd downgrade the forces to the minimum and move onto the next target.
"Turkey would invade an independent Kurdistan and commit a genocide there. Will America keep their dog on a leach?"
Are you joking?
The new Trump Towers Istanbul project is really a name license to Trump. i.e. nothing but money from Turkey to Trump for the right to use the name. He'll block any action against Turkey.
Did you miss the news about how Erdogan body guards attacked protestors right in front of the police? Many of those protestors were American, yet those body guards have immunity and won't ever be prosecuted. Literally a mini military force came to American and beat the crap out of Americans right in front of the police. Trump of course says nothing about it.
China's done the same, granted him a right to the Trump brand name, which in turn will let him 'license' the 'name' Trump to some Chinese 'commercial' company.
I'm using the quotes deliberately, these companies Trump deals with usually are politically connected millionaires and it amounts to simply sending money to Trump for being 'Trump'.
It's very very very blatant.
No Trump would stop American action against any of Trumps co partners.
I guess their greenhouse gas emissions would have gone down...
Pun intended!
IMHO Russia would certainly have been aware of the chemical weapons attack planned, it had aircraft at the base it was launched from and would have at the minimum watched them being loaded. It's next to impossible to believe they don't have direct taps into all of Assads comms.
Where we differ I think is this: I think Assad and Russian interests are slightly misaligned. Russia wants to commit as little to keep those links, port and ties as it possibly can. Assad wants as much Russian military there are he can to secure his position.
Keeping military abroad is expensive, and Putin does not have the money.
Keeping the threat big, gives Russia cover, and another possible win they can get there (e.g. bomb the Kurds, as a deal with Erdogan which gives them Turkey moving away from NATO due to their guy Erdogan in control of Turkey.).
So I can see Assad thinking... well it will bring me problems... and it will bring me Russian military, and one outweighs the other.
I don't think Trump's bombing of a bit of tarmac makes any difference, Russia were warned, so Assad was warned, so they're be laughing at Trump behind his back.
The lights went out when Islam arrived
Quite interesting to see the population increase from 2000 to 2010 in Syria , from about 16 millions in 2000 to 20 millions in 2010 (before the war)...
Keep it running for a few more years and you will see how Assad got all the lights back on.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
3. Refuse to acknowledge that Assad is winning the war and has no reason whatsoever to agree to #2.
The obvious solution is a partition.
GOTO 3.
Assad, or people of Syria loyal to him, has no reason whatsoever to agree to any kind of a partition of their country.
Even should they be losing the war.
That was all a joke, right?
But besides that... partition doesn't solve the ISIS issue.
Or the issue of dozens of other "armed groups" taking part in the war.
There's even a diagram of who's fighting, supporting or opposing who.
Sadly, it can't show all the factions and groups or all the political relations involved. Cause such a diagram would look closer to something like this.
Only with more colors involved.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
DOn't arm "rebels".
Don't overthrow governments.
DOn't have SF and CIA in almost every country
Don't have military bases in every country.
Stop thinking proxy wars are a magical long term solution with no consequences.
Take care of your existing troops.
So many of today's problems are past actions by our own government. When will we realize that no person, or government, can predict the fallout from their actions. But this time "it is different"!!!! Right?
Well, that's what you get, when you have a war.
When the Bronze age cultures in the Eastern Med collapsed in 1177 BC due to piracy, invasion, technology (Iron!) and famine, it took most of the Western world into the first of the Dark Ages. Will the slow disintegration of civilization in Syria spread to Europe and beyond?
Hey, who turned out the lights?
-Dave
The simplest way to take out a country is just to affect the water supply.
Why not just target all the water supplies and add anti psychotic drugs into them? Why bother harming the infrastructure?