What's Aleppo?

Gary Johnson, being quizzed by 4 hostile journalists, was asked (out of the blue) "What about Aleppo?" He responded with "What's ... Aleppo?" Negative 10 points for tired and misunderstanding a question. When clarified, he went on to say that Syria is none of our business.

Negative 20 points to the media for turning the question into "Where is Aleppo", editing off the front and back of the hostile interview, and talking up their misrepresentation as Governor Johnson's ignorance. 4 (or 8) years of Trump (far worse than negative points) to the American voters who let the media do their thinking for them.

What's Aleppo?

Aleppo is the former capital of the Aleppo province. It was the west end of the Silk Road, and very wealthy until world trade moved to the oceans. After that, it remained the governing center of a rich agricultural region, which produces most of the world's pistachios. It was conquered by the Ottoman empire and remained part of that loose confederation until the weak empire forced into the losing side of World War One.

After that awful war (which killed my grandmother's brother), the Ottoman empire was taken apart by the British-French Sykes-Picot agreement to become the Balkan states, Iraq and Palestine (owned by the British), and Syria and Lebanon (owned by the French). A small remnant of the empire became Turkey.

Aleppo province was dismembered; part of it went to Turkey, part of it to Lebanon, and most (including the city of Aleppo) went to the French colony of Syria. The residents of 1923 Aleppo had zero influence on this decision. Syria became independent on 24 October 1945. The Ba'ath Party took power in 1963, and its president Hafez al-Assad ruled until 2000, when his son Bashar al-Assad took over.

In 2012, civil war broke out, and Aleppo was split between pro-Ba'ath government forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces, and ISIL. Perhaps 32,000 were killed, and many more fled the war-ravaged city. Perhaps 400,000 have died in the nationwide civil war.

Perhaps 1.7 million have died in the Afghan war, 1.6 million in central Africa, 500,000 in the Somali Civil War, and millions of others have died of conflicts around the world over the last decade.

By comparison, perhaps 5 million Americans died of smoking over the last decade, and 6 million died from watching television and consuming the unhealthy products advertised.

Where is Aleppo?

Glad you asked (unlike Governor Johnson, who asked what). Aleppo's Great Mosque is at 36.199N, 37.157E, which serves as the center of this mostly-Muslim city. It is long, long way away from anything that matters to most Americans.

Russia is much closer to Syria, and has strong ties to Syria's current government. Let the Russians fight and die there. After they lose 14,000 soldiers like they did in Afghanistan, they will go home and change leadership. We do not need to follow their footsteps (the leadership change would be nice, though).

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