O, Chess player, Are the two teams in Aleppo in equipoise? What has happened in Stalingrad …. And in the war of July?

Written by Nasser Kandil,

One of the kings has told his son who mourned the loss of his army in one of the battles, you play chess to learn the art of war, so is it possible to win a round without losing stones on the chessboard?  He replied no, then he asked him have you learnt to compare between the size of your loss and the loss of your opponent? If you lost the Pawn and if he lost the Rook then you approaches from victory, and if you lost the Knight and he lost the Bishop you are closer to victory, so the criterion of the victory is the death of the King, so compare between what you lost with what your enemy lost , then you will know if you approach from the victory without falling into mono focusing on what you lost alone. The king added; if the first lesson is not to expect a victory on a clean board where you lose nothing, and the second lesson is to compare between your losses with the losses of your opponent in order to know how closer you are from victory, then the third lesson is to learn how to take a risk by attracting your opponent to a loss from you in order to lure him into a ambush where he pays bigger loss. The professional player is the one who is putting the Pawn as a decoy to lure his opponent, to reveal his Knight and thus to hunt him, or to put his Knight as a decoy to affect the Rook or the Bishop, because the criterion of approaching the victory is the comparison between losses, and the victory is the approach from the King. The best player is the one who offered the Bishop as a decoy to affect the King and to protect his King from being exposed to danger, but the most important lesson is not to count the loss and the profit altogether, because you may lose the Knight in a moment where you opponent did not lose but just the Pawn, while he has already lost the Rook and the Bishop, so you still the closer to victory. This is the difference between the spectators and the players, the spectators applaud for who wins at the moment of profit but after a while they will applaud for his opponent at the moment of his profit without considering who is closer to victory. So if the spectators were divided between the players through their support and encouragement they will feel sad for their player if he lost his Knight  while presenting it as a decoy to undermine the Bishop of his opponent, to end the game with the magic word  which the players and the spectators wait for together “Checkmate” then they applaud without considering that his winning would not be occurred except for this loss which they felt sad for it, and maybe they accused him of stupidity because he took a risk for doing that. O, Son it saddens me if you wage a game with a spectator’s mind.

Mohammed Bin Salman is boasting that he is a chess player; the information says that he was at a hotline with the Democratic Candidate for the presidential presidency Hillary Clinton following the battles of Aleppo or they at most manage them. What is witnessing by the battles of Aleppo is applying on many aspects of the standards which the talk of the king and his son has defined. The accomplishment achieved by the armed groups followed the accomplishment of the army and its allies do not mean that we have to behave as spectators and be dazzled with the current situation and forget to compare in the value and the importance, falling into the naivety by saying and repeating. The destination of the battle in Aleppo has changed, while what has happened two months ago till now was that the armed groups have lost the Rook, while the army and the allies have lost the Knight. The loss would be a loss of the Bishop if the armed groups were able to achieve what they dreamt of, which means securing an alternative security corridor of AlKestlo to the besieged Eastern neighborhoods and tighten an opposite siege on the western neighborhoods. But it is certain and steady that this did not happen, and the alternative road to the western neighborhoods other than Al Ramouseh is safe and active from Bani Zeid and Alkestlo. While the road of the south and east of Aleppo across Al Ramouseh is neither safe nor active despite the convergence of view and the hypothesis of infiltration of pedestrians at night under the risk of fire.

The exaggeration in estimating what was accomplished by the armed groups  stems from the assumption that they will surrender after tighten the siege from Alkestlo, and the failure of the five attacks of raising the blockade there. This estimation is not true because as much as the battle of Aleppo is pivotal and crucial regionally and internationally, this means that all the capacities and assumptions are tested in it. The naivety alone leads to say that one battle resolves a war and leads the opponent to admit of the inability and the failure, especially when the victory and the loss have implications as what is indicated and summarized by the consequences of the battles of Aleppo. While the source of the impact is in not expecting the loss of the Syrian army and its allies of such of these important sites, despite the expectation of fierce attacks as that which occurred. This is an exaggerated romance for at least three reasons; First the military knowledge shows a distinction between the conditions of attack and defense that grant the confrontation an opportunity for mobilizing what is needed relatively for the attack, and to hide from the defender the opportunities of security all his sites at once and at the same level with what is necessary to repel any attack whatever were the crowds which were allocated to it. The victory in Alkestlo and Leiramoun shows this reversely. Second, there is an assumptive imagination that rules the impact that is derived from the period of the truce and what is proceeding it, its basis is when the Russian aviation offers the necessary support the victories will roll, and when they do not roll then it is a problem, this is untrue because the difference is big between the battle before the truce and the current battle, the former was a preparation and the latter is the crucial, while the aviation has its main action, but was it able to ensure the winning of the Russian army in Afghanistan?  Has it secured the ability of infringement for the Americans in Raqqa by depending on a ground force which is the Democratic forces of Syria? Third, the integration between the infantry and the aviation is not achieved in the battles of the coalescence, where the coalescence is a tool for the one who does not have an air force to disrupt the ability of the one who has. the defense in a coordination with the aviation on one hand and disrupting the opportunities that enable the attacking numerical abundance from exterminating the defensive minority requires the retreat to solid defense lines, in which the withdrawing force is entrenched, secures its capacities, and allows the aviation and the fiery force to deal with the newly stationed attackers in sites where they have not yet full control, in preparation for a reverse attack.

With the comparison between the achievements of the armed groups and the achievements of the Syrian army and its allies, or in accordance to the chess’s rules, the lessons of the king, and the losses of the two teams, not according to the excitement at the moment of losing and winning and the estimation of both of them since this round started. It seems that the army and the allies have achieved real absolute blockade on the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo through having control over Alkestlo, while the road to the western neighborhoods is still passable for vehicles, fuels, supplies, ammunitions, army and the provisions despite blocking AlRamouseh road through an alternative road Alkestlo –Bani Zeid. It seems that blocking AlRamouseh road has been applied by the two teams where at least non party can depend on it for the supplement, the movement of the people, supplies, fuels, ammunitions and vehicles in a secure and smooth way. The limit of its use is the infiltration of a limited number of individuals walking at night in dangerous under crossfire areas. Therefore the army has lost the Knight, while the armed groups have lost the Bishop. While regarding the losses of the forces it is enough what is confirmed by the sites of the armed groups about the losses of these battles which lasted for a month and a half and which led to more than hundreds dead, while the losses of the army and the allies are no more than tens of martyrs.

With returning to the nearby memory nearly ten years ago, in such days the Israeli army has entered in the war of July to Beinjbeil , its tanks proceeded in AlHujeir valley and Alkhiyam plain, so how has the resistance dealt with it ?  Did not allow it to go through where it can confront it easily and terminated the attacking force, leaving the first impression that suggested the victory of the Israeli. While in the far memory when we say that Aleppo is Stalingrad the twenty-first century, we remember that Stalingrad has been broken through till it seemed that it has been fallen totally. And that the reverse attack to liberate it which has the name of Uranus has been exposed to siege by the Germans, till the breaking through of the siege has been occurred by another attack entitled Saturn, but it has been exposed to dispersion, thus was a third attack entitled the Little Saturn which has succeeded in achieving the occlusion, thus the path of war has changed, it lasted for three crucial months after the war which has lasted for three years. Within these three months more than hundred attacks and wraps, but after the scale has turned and got stable, the rolling started and the Russian army rushed till the gates of Berlin.

What is going on in Aleppo is the thirty-fourth day of the war of July 2006, but it has been delayed for ten years to be waged on behalf of the Israeli army by the reserve force which is more efficient than it in bearing sacrifices and presenting victims, accompanied with money and weapons from an alliance that starts from Riyadh and ends in Washington, where Hillary Clinton is waging the preparation war for her presidential project in the remaining time of the mandate of Barack Obama. Surely the resolving is coming, surely the equation is clear. Before the end of August with the celebration of the of the victory in the war of July, on the fourteenth of August the people will remember the meaning of the Truthful Promise, the speech of the leader of the resistance, and the meaning of his immortal speech …“As I have always promised you with victory ..Now I promise you with victory once again”.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

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