Syrian War Victims Want No
One With Blood on Their Hands
Rime Allaf "Most Syrians are fleeing into neighboring countries in increasing numbers mainly because of the regime’s massive military and air campaign. Yet, ridiculous claims that things will get worse if Assad goes continue to circulate, while planted leaks now test the grotesque idea of his remaining in power even after Geneva.
We don’t need a referendum to know that most Syrians want the carnage to stop immediately. Most realize, however, that violence won’t end if the Assad clan is allowed to stay as a de facto winner, continuing to impose collective punishments on those guilty of nothing more than civil disobedience or intellectual opposition. This would push armed opposition even more to a “death or liberty” mode, straight into the arms of better-organized extremists."

Art, revolution and Ali FerzatHe maintains hope for a breakthrough his country and that the essence of the revolution will eventually emerge from the distortions.
“Let me put it this way. ... For 50 years, Syria has been similar to a deserted home with broken doors and shattered windows. If you open the water tap of a deserted home, what you get at first is all the dust and dirt. But if you keep it open for a while, the clean water will eventually come down [out] of it.”

Syria conflict: Barrel bombs
show brutality of war"The Syrian government's use of these types of munitions against its own population in rebel-held areas is a measure of the brutality of the conflict."
No, it's a measure of the brutality of the Syrian government. The rebels don't have an airforce, and their attacks on civilians have been few and abhorred by other rebels, while attacks on civilians have been the Syrian government's m.o. This is one reason it is idiocy to suppose that rebels might have carried out the chemical attack in August, offensive idiocy to those Syrians at the sharp end of their government's terror.

Syria 'abducting civilians to spread terror', UN saysThankfully this report, unlike many, doesn't allow mention of the human rights violations committed by jihadis to obscure the truth that the overwhelming threat that has caused millions to flee is the Syrian government.

U.S. inaction in Syria could be far more costly than intervention

 "The one advantage of inaction seems to be the ability to disclaim responsibility: We didn’t break it, so we don’t own it. Even that benefit, however, may prove transient. Already the United States is the largest donor of refugee aid. As misery spreads and anti-American radicals plant roots, the Obama administration, or its successor, may find that the costs of non-involvement far exceed those that would have come with timely and measured intervention."

 I don't personally see the risk in option (a), Arm the Moderate Rebels. And a bit of extremism in defence of liberty is no vice. Barry Goldwater said that. He was a very conservative US politician.

Cradle Of Filth

"Galloway knows Assad, and Assad quite likes Galloway."
Robert Fisk being interviewed by the BBC just now about the British doctor murdered in Syria. He reckons that Assad wanted him released, and so there must be a plot among his officers to thwart him.*
Fisk said that as Dr. Khan was strangled in his cell, it may be hard to find out if he was murdered or did it himself. Obviously if the Syrian government does the investigation. You can usually tell the difference, suicides leave a different pattern of ligature marks from hanging, and from the quality of their lies over the last couple of years, I don't believe the Syrian secret police will have put in the effort to even try to do this convincingly in the face of a proper inquiry.
Fisk ended by saying that the only way we may know the truth is if the revolution is succesful, but for the time being, Assad seems to be winning. That doesn't seem to be the case either.**
*"That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution." - Sir William Blackstone
**[http://eaworldview.com/…/syria-analysis-insurgent-breakthr…/]

British surgeon 'murdered by Syrian regime'"More than 1,000 detainees are believed to have died in custody in Syria since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to Amnesty International, which says most were from the effects of torture or other ill-treatment."
We are often told both sides are as bad as each other, and it just isn't true. The rebels don't bomb hospitals, bakeries and homes.

Commentary on a Patrick Cockburn commentary
Louis Proyect
"Does anybody still believe that there were plans afoot to “replace” Assad?"
Probably the people who still aren't sure that he used chemical weapons.

Thirty-six people, nearly half of them children, 'killed by Syrian army'

"Rebel groups had issued a statement asking civilians in government-held parts of the city to move away from state security buildings, which they said would be targeted in retaliation for the bombings."
Because that's what they do, they are not barbarians, like the government they seek to overthrow. The figure of confirmed dead is now much higher than thirty-six.
Meanwhile, on the thread for the UN Syria Appeal*, we get comments like this:

mauman
16 December 2013 2:30pm
"Link to video: Aleppo devastated by Syrian army bombs "
Really Guardian? Come on. A cheap shot...
Get the Saudis and Qataris to pay. They're responsible.

PeterBrit
16 December 2013 2:40pm
Well, parts of Aleppo have been devastated by Syrian army bombs, but it would be more accurate to say 'Aleppo devastated by civil war' and it would also be fair to point out that it was the rebels who brought the war to Aleppo in the first place. For a long time, beautiful Aleppo had managed to escape the war, and then rebels from oustide Aleppo deliverately launched an invasion of the city. They failed to take it, and the rest is history.

*[http://www.theguardian.com/…/un-launches-syria-appeal-geneva]

Syria's battle for bread

"Syrian refugees say to me: 'Why has the world abandoned us?'" 
Because their leaders would rather see a weakened Assad drain resources and credibility from the Russians; and so they make out to their people that this is a choice between costly and uncertain intervention, and letting someone else take care of the problem. If they armed the Free Syrian Army, there could be an end to this, but it is the interests of many parties, including the UN, to obscure that.

DETAILS OF AN INCREDIBLE REBEL
VICTORY ARE NOW EMERGING
There is a slightly more uncertain update.
"Here the rebels can afford stalemate for now. The regime cannot."
[http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/25622]

Razan Olive I "Her kidnapping and the kidnapping of her colleagues indicates yet again the endeavor of some to undermine any form of civil action to help Syrians in the liberated areas to rule and provide for themselves."*
[http://razanghazzawi.org/.../statement-by-the-violation.../]

A Zeitouna Diary: Reporting From a School for Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey
"In writer and novelist Robin Yassin-Kassab's storyboard writing course, a young girl, adamant about sharing her story, stood at the front of the class to explain the images and text inserted she drew and wrote in each square. She nonchalantly pointed to one square with an image of her martyred brother and quickly proceeded to the next square, an image of a brother who lived. I'm still struck by her almost emotionally numb, matter of fact delivery -- perhaps she knew that there was nothing unique to her story; she must have registered the losing a loved one to war as a common place occurrence."

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

 The World Service had a piece about Brian Epstein. And one on the barrel bombs the Syrian government drops on people.