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Prior to yesterday I hadn't heard of it. Or if I had, I'd forgotten it. I was looking at maps of the area, and one map showed Syria with no named cities, although other countries had several named. The only named city in Syria I was familiar with is Damascus.

Compare that to Iraq - many cities are familiar: Baghdad, Tikrit, Mosul, Falluja, Karkuk.

Today Gary Johnson is taking serious heat for not knowing what Aleppo was. Has that city been in the news that much and it just didn't stick with me? Which got me to wondering - how many here who follow political events could have answered that question on Aleppo?

Does Johnson's lack of familiarity tank his campaign? If so, should it? Isn't Syria one of the big news/foreign policy subjects this year? Or do we expect too much policy wonkishness of our candidates and not enough vision/leadership?

The city of Aleppo has been in the news quite a bit over the past couple of months as a major humanitarian crisis. The city has been essentially surrounded by warring factions and under siege for months, bombed by the Syrian government with Russian support, trapping thousands of non-combatants without adequate food, shelter, etc. The city has recently (allegedly) been attacked with chemical weapons, possibly chlorine, which has also been reported on the news. The UN has tried to broker a cease fire to allow supplies in and/or let women/children/elderly out but whatever has been agreed to has been way too short to achieve much success. I saw the interview with Johnson this morning while getting dressed and I was really taken by surprise at his lack of knowledge. It's one thing if you or I don't recognize the name. It's another if a presidential candidate gives a completely blank look as if he's hearing about Aleppo for the first time. It was almost as if he heard the question as "what would you do about a leppo?" and he was wondering what "a leppo" was.

I've heard numerous news stories on Syria, as I'd imagine most of us have. Russian involvement, Assad should go or not, use of chemical weapons, civil war, rebels vs ISIS, civilian sites used as shields, etc. Likely more than one Syrian city has been mentioned during the past 2 years. It didn't stick. Although it seems many more cities that ISIS holds in Iraq have been in the press. So I'm wondering how many of us have a grasp of Syrian geography without looking at a map.

Off the top of my head, Aleppo was the financial center of Syria, like NY, NY is for the US. I'm guessing 4 years ago it was in the news because the government forces were loosing to the rebels. It's been hotly contested ever since. Only after Russia started fighting to prop up Al-Assad did the tide turn in favor of the government. Aleppo is the site of horrible war casualties. Al-Assad was ready to fall and might have fallen if Obama had bombed the runways and kept his planes out of the air when they crossed Obama's redline by using gas. This is when Obama made the then bold statement, Al-Assad must go. Russia was won, Al-Assad will stay.

gary johnson isn't anywhere near " in the race" anyway...should he have known? yes... does he matter? not at all...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... tions.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

City has been around for more than 5000 years....are you living in a cave?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Highway Star wrote:City has been around for more than 5000 years....are you living in a cave?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ah. The World travellin' man has spoken (or was that ramblin' man)?

madhatter wrote:http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... tions.html

That needs to be quoted:

Slate/NYT wrote:OK, so:

1. Thursday morning libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson went on MSNBC and responded to a question about Aleppo, Syria, by saying he didn't know what Aleppo was.

2. The New York Times ran a story about Johnson's gaffe that itself misidentified Aleppo as the "de facto capital of the Islamic State." (The actual de facto capital of the Islamic State is Raqqa.)

3. The Times then revised its story to identify Aleppo as an "ISIS stronghold." Unfortunately, this is also incorrect: Aleppo is the site of fighting between Syrian government forces and non-ISIS rebel groups. ISIS does not have a significant presence in the city.

4. The Times then, finally, revised its story to describe Aleppo simply as "wartorn," which is accurate. They added a correction at the bottom of the article.

Got it? That brings us to about an hour ago, when reporter Jenan Moussa noticed that the Times had added a mistake to its correction.

Now @nytimes correction has another mistake. Syria capital not #Aleppo but Damascus. Let's wait for next correction pic.twitter.com/s8YnUX4e8f

12:07 PM - 8 Sep 2016

Highway Star wrote:City has been around for more than 5000 years....are you living in a cave?

Nope, in fact I'm as fully informed as the New York Times is.

Mister Moose wrote:I've heard numerous news stories on Syria, as I'd imagine most of us have. Russian involvement, Assad should go or not, use of chemical weapons, civil war, rebels vs ISIS, civilian sites used as shields, etc. Likely more than one Syrian city has been mentioned during the past 2 years. It didn't stick. Although it seems many more cities that ISIS holds in Iraq have been in the press. So I'm wondering how many of us have a grasp of Syrian geography without looking at a map.

I didn't say I could pick it out on a map, only that I know it exists. My knowledge of Syrian geography extends from the Golan Heights overlooking Israel and the Sea of Galilee to knowing about where Damascus is to the fact that it also borders Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. After that, I'm pretty much lost, although you did inspire me to look at the map to find Aleppo in the north, near the Turkish border.

Who's Gary Johnson?

Mister Moose wrote:I've heard numerous news stories on Syria, as I'd imagine most of us have. Russian involvement, Assad should go or not, use of chemical weapons, civil war, rebels vs ISIS, civilian sites used as shields, etc. Likely more than one Syrian city has been mentioned during the past 2 years. It didn't stick. Although it seems many more cities that ISIS holds in Iraq have been in the press. So I'm wondering how many of us have a grasp of Syrian geography without looking at a map.

I was aware there was a city in Syria that was the epicenter of the conflict, but I didn't know it was called Aleppo. I listen to PBS News Hour almost daily and still didn't have any name recognition. The name just never stuck with me.

At least Johnson is now getting more press coverage. At this point, he needs all the publicity he can get.

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MSM jumping into action here.......enjoy your red pill.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/20 ... to-action/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sometimes you just have to laugh. However, it really sucks to be Gary Johnson right now.

Poll after poll is showing presidential candidate Gary Johnson in the race hurts Hillary Clinton more than Donald Trump. And you know what that means?

Yup, time for the MSM to wage a thermonuclear media operation against the guy.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... owing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;