Robert Fisk's report from Douma (Syria) is not worth buying

Image from article:  "The search for truth in the rubble of Douma ...." by Robert Fisk.

British journalist Robert Fisk thinks there was no gas attack in Douma. He says a 58-year-old Syrian doctor told him that the residents of Douma suffered from hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) caused by dust clouds. The insinuation is that dust clouds permeated into basements and homes from government bombings. Both claims sound erroneous. Confirmed beyond doubt from residents and various firsthand sources that poison gas was definitely used .. BUT BY WHOM ??  That's the real issue which conformists are eluding, including Fisk, and thus his unnecessary blather discreetly exonerating the "rebels" that they did not carry out the gas attack supplied by their foreign allies.    A few survivors here and there may have gotten ill due to oxygen deficiency.  But the reported figure of 70 that died and hundreds injured were all sufferers of hypoxia ??   Sounds completely senseless.

Truth seekers aren't interested in the debris, rubble and tunnels of Douma. We already know that; and government airstrikes were extensive. They had to be. Douma has been occupied by foreign (yes foreign) terrorists for the past six years. They were the targets, not the residents of Douma, though avoidance of botched strikes is impossible when armed terrorists take over residential neighborhoods and use civilians as human shields.

If the "rebels" were genuinely local Syria-based fighters interested in a change within the country with no ambitions of a wider power structure beyond its borders, Russia would never have bothered to get itself involved in this war.

All of these aspects have been conveniently ignored by Fisk.  Additionally, his keynote in this largely self-serving narrative is to promote the old British folklore that in Douma too, as elsewhere in the Middle-East, people are delighted to see "foreigners" (implying westerners) step in.

Like many others of his kind, this bozo won't speak on matters that are relevant. Douma wasn't the first FALSE FLAG site by terrorists in Syria. There were similar orchestrations earlier to frame the government ..... at Khan al-Asl in March 2013, eastern Ghouta agricultural belt in August 2013 and Khan Sheikhoun (Idlib province) in April 2017. If Bashar Assad had really authorized the use of nerve gas attack in Douma (the fact that he doesn't have any as confirmed by UN in 2014 is yet another story), Russia would be a million times more disgruntled than the West. Russia's strategy against terrorists in Syria depends much on U.S. cooperation. Bashar's involvement in a gas attack would have pissed off Putin and the aftermath would have been terrible for the Syrian president. Bashar is no political goof. Would he do that when he is so close to winning a long and destructive war waged on his country by foreign powers?

Fisk is quite a clever old wolf in lamb's clothing.   He is no investigative journalist, he is no Seymour Hersh.  He's a  stickler.   Every line he writes needs plenty of discernment by reviewers and peepers.  Fortunately, for ingenious readers he may not be slick enough to successfully mask his admiration for colonialism.