Saturday 29 November 2014

Shaker Aamer


Episode 054

George Galloway and RT who employ him have become active accomplices in Assad's genocide in Syria*, so while it is good to see Andy Worthington's invaluable work on behalf on Guantanamo inmates getting publicity, the channel and the show here dirty everything associated with it.
*[http://claysbeach.blogspot.co.uk/…/fake-adra-massacre-photo…]

When you eradicate the middle ground, people will have no place to go but extremes
"When the U.S. and U.K. decided to launch a war against Iraq, millions from around the world warned that this would lead to many evils, including the emergence of such groups as al-Qaida and others. Unfortunately, this was ignored and the Iraqi people have suffered for more than 11 years now from such groups as well as a corrupt and failed government that pursued sectarian policies. ISIS comes as a result of another failed policy in Syria and the unethical stand of the international community in respect to the mass slaughter carried out by the Syrian dictator [Bashar Assad] against his own people. As long as injustice, whether internally or internationally, continues, we will continue to see such groups emerge, grow, play havoc and unleash terrible violence against everyone."

VIDEOS – IRAQ, SYRIA & KURDISTAN BETWEEN REACTION AND REVOLUTION



Sarah Parker: "The stronger the independent, or relatively independent forces are, the more solidarity they have, the less easy it is for them to be co-opted by imperialism in one way or another."
Gilbert Achcar says in his talk, if I've got him right, that the régimes of the region, and the Muslim Brotherhoods in those countries, are equally counter-revolutionary, which doesn't seem quite right, Morsi seeming more like a classical social democrat when compared to al-Sisi for example.

Friday 28 November 2014


Agree to disagree on Syria
This is more positive.
' “We have to stand up a viable ground force in Syria to be able to do that. That’s not the regime. It’s got to be the moderate Syrian opposition. And we need to facilitate a political transition. I think where we still need to get across the goal line in terms of our agreement is how our military-to-military cooperation is going to be synced up in those areas. But that’s not disagreement. I just think that – now that I think we are in a good place about what we’re trying to accomplish, we need to figure out what’s the best way for our militaries to work together to make that happen.”
According to sources close to the meeting, Biden and Davutoğlu have agreed on the prospects of taking al-Assad out of the political equilibrium. But Turkey’s urgency creates jitters in Washington. The nuclear deal with Iran seems more important and the Obama Administration would do very little to shake the boat for at least several months.
As Iran gets closer to the international scene as a major player, there will be little relevance of al-Assad anymore. Iran may not need him, Russia may not need him.'

Senay Ozden
There is always that one person at a conference or a talk who asks: "but are the syrians now- both refugees and inside Syria- living in better conditions than they were under Asad? Is this what they wanted?" This is the most disgusting position a human being can take: instead of accusing the killers, accusing a people being killed for demanding freedom and an honorable life
David Cameron speaking in the West Midlands

David Cameron urges EU support for migration plans
"We have offered sanctuary."
To ninety Syrians. When the refugees are in their millions. As some Syrian pointed out on Facebook yesterday, more than that would have arrived if the British government had not slapped on visa restrictions to stop Syrians escape from Bashar al-Assad, his Russian weapons and his Lebanese and Iranian mercernaries. Arming the FSA with anti-aircraft weapons would have reduced the flood to a trickle, we wouldn't have the chaos with ISIS running rampant if that had been done, and it is still the only way out of hell on Earth for Syria. Every day that goes by and the Syrian people are not allowed to defend themselves and the disaster gets worse.
There are some other reasons why Cameron's talking shit, but this is the most important right now, not to be discovered by those who go along with the idea that if we allowed our governments to help the Free Syrian Army, or anyone else who wants to fight Assad (and ISIS, but let's understand how the tolerance of one fuelled the other), they would just be creating blowback of mad jihadis ready to come back to Britain and blow us all up in our beds. Get real.

Thursday 27 November 2014

The Professionals - Heroes

"A grenade launcher. I can't say who gave it to him, but I must say I'm inordinately happy about it."

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Chuck Hagel walks down the steps of the Pentagon. (AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

Hagel-ian dialectic

"If there is no alternative to ISIS’ fighters, they will continue to be able to command unwarranted and unearned support from angry and desperate Sunni communities that have faced a regime that has had no compunction in using all forms of conventional firepower, as well as chemical weapons, to dispense with at least 200,000 of its own citizens in the past three years.
And if those same communities conclude that the anti-ISIS coalition effort either wittingly or unwittingly benefits that regime, rather than stands as a new challenge against it, there is no way for them to embrace the effort. To the contrary, as Obama himself recently noted, such an impression would serve to drive Sunni Arabs in Syria toward ISIS, however reluctantly, and away from any support for the coalition's efforts.
...the fundamental contradiction that Hagel has identified — that the battle against ISIS cannot be won as long as US policy towards Assad remains ambiguous and ambivalent — remains unavoidable.
As I've written many times in the past, the inescapable bottom line is that the administration will ultimately have to choose between presiding over a campaign against ISIS that achieves much less than the stated "degrade and ultimately destroy" goal, or finally biting the bullet and making regime change in Syria an inextricable part of the American project. Getting rid of people who irksomely point this out isn't going to alter an equation, like this one, that is hardwired into the reality of the problem."
Best online source for global strategic Intelligence & competitive Intelligence

Assad brings down Chuck Hagel
You have to subscribe to see content, but here's the whole thing:
"US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s resigned on November 24 against a backdrop of profound disagreement with the White House and Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over US strategy against Islamic State (IS) also known as ISIS or Daesh. Hagel was in favour of air strikes against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, to destroy Daesh’s principal recruiting ground and legitimacy. For several weeks Hagel had also pleaded for drastic reinforcements for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in accordance with the analysis of Saudi Arabia’s GID and Turkey’s MIT (IOL 722). Sources who accompanied Mutaib bin Abdullah, the head of Saudi Arabia’s National Guard, to Washington last week say that a disillusioned Hagel complained that the US Air Force had become Assad’s proxy. His departure marks the victory of Dempsey’s strategy. The US military chief is in favour or rehabilitating the Damascus regime as the last rampart in the region against jihadism."


The big picture in Syria is bigger than any one group

"In light of these developments, do you not think that ISIS and the PYD are taking advantage of the situation and are just focusing on their own political interests while the Assad regime is still standing and fuelling the inhuman internal conflict. The preceding statement might be harsh from the Kurdish perspective since they have been oppressed for longer than a century - but what about the Sunni majority and their historical memory of Assad's killings? Therefore, opposition groups leaving ideological obsessions aside and concentrating on their common enemies - ISIS and Assad - seems to be the path to take."
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List of Terrorist organizations fighting on behalf of the Assad regime
'The group, which analyzes international terrorists' messages, quoted a tweet by a prominent Dutch jihadi in Syria as saying: "March against tyranny and arm yourselves against the true terrorists of our time: The US Government.‪#‎FergusonDecision‬." '*
I checked to see who this "prominent Dutch jihadi" might be, and discovered that his previous tweet was to retweet this chart of terrorist organisations fighting for Assad. You might find out more from this NYT profile**, though as it has him labelled as a supporter of ISIS, I'd take even the news of his love for cats with a pinch of salt. Isrāfīl Yılmaz's twitter feed is here.***
*[http://www.columbiamissourian.com/…/ferguson-decision-make…/]
**[http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/…/a-dutch-jihadist-in-sy…/…]
***[https://twitter.com/chechclearrr]
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Heartbreaking... Children's toys scattered among human flesh in Raqqa after the regime massacred nearly 100 people The US State Department had the following to say:
"Government in ‪#‎Syria‬ has launched airstrikes designed to hit ‪#‎ISIS‬ in‪#‎Raqqa‬; civilians caught in the crossfire."* If they hadn't been Arab children, would this have gone down exactly the same way?
*[https://twitter.com/StateCSO/status/537384003624787968]
Syria's southern rebels draw up new game plan in fight against ISIL

Syria’s southern rebels draw up new game plan

What the article makes clear is that the West and the Gulf countries have not been backing the rebels in the sense that they want them to succeed, but because to do nothing would be considered an outrage by their own people. The idea that the rebels were proxy forces that would carry out some unidentified policy of their masters rather than the revolution against Assad was always impossible to take seriously, all that could be done was neuter them by promising support and not delivering. That is still the threat, that the US will use the threat of the rebels to negotiate a transition that maintains Russian and Iranian domination of Syria without Assad, and sell out Syria permanently if they can get a deal.
"In contrast to the north and east, where Syria shares frontiers with Turkey and Iraq, the southern border with Jordan has been relatively well policed, preventing the kind of influx of foreign extremists that have aided the rise of ISIL and Al Nusra.
That had made the southern front the best hope for the West and Gulf States, and the moderate rebel groups they are backing, to bring pressure to bear on Iranian reinforced, Russian supplied regime forces in and around the capital, Damascus."

Monday 24 November 2014

Sunday 23 November 2014


Millions in Aleppo under threat of siege

" “People have grown accustomed to the barrel bombs; we are nearing a year of this regular bombardment,” said Hamdi, referring to the near-daily government airstrikes using a particularly indiscriminate weapon. “But people fear the thought of siege, the thought of hunger, the thought of being cold - this is what people fear the most.”
For more than two years, the government has employed siege tactics - what the opposition calls “kneel or starve” - to retake or pacify areas it was unable to seize militarily.
Earlier this year, the government reached truces with opposition-held communities around Damascus, the capital, and in Homs, Syria’s central city, once called “the capital of the revolution,” which had been under siege for months. Before the deals were made, some residents had died for lack of food or medicine, local activists reported.
The cease-fire agreements were seen as a blow to the rebels and a victory for President Bashar Al Assad in that they pacified individuals and groups who had called for his ouster. Whereas the government portrayed the deals as part of a broader effort at national reconciliation, the opposition viewed them as an effort to undermine its support among the population."
Nice rainbow on Friday.

Saturday 22 November 2014

Mideast Syria Airstrikes

ISIL Is The Symptom, Syria’s al-Assad Is The Disease
This site comes with ads for arms manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
"Militarily, there are already signs of strain in the U.S. strategy of treating Iraq as the main effort in its war with ISIS, with the Syrian front only an afterthought. Recent events suggest that until the U.S. openly supports the ouster of Assad, the Syrian proxy force of between 5,000 and 15,000 “moderate” and vetted rebels is unlikely to materialize in time, if at all, or else will prove prone to aligning itself with Islamic extremists who share its ultimate objective of getting rid of Assad. Some experts also believe that Russia and Iran will refuse to drop their support for Assad as long as U.S. commitment and goals remain ambiguous."

Aleppo, Syria
Syrian rebels, increasingly desperate, turn to tunnel warfare
There isn't any mention of the advances the rebels have made in the South, but there is a desperate need to get rid of Assad, that gets more urgent each day.
'When Assad's soldiers stormed through towns and villages in the early days of fighting, they left behind threatening graffiti: "Assad or we burn the country." And though the rebels say they are torn over their role in Syria's gradual demolition, their desperation has pushed them toward extreme strategies.'

In search of a reliable and trustworthy FSA
"The FSA commander was full of disappointment, emphasizing the FSA’s moderate attitude and its ability to secure such weapons from being seized, sold or channeled to extremists. “We don’t want tanks or any other vehicles. All we need is anti-aircraft equipment,” he said, pledging the FSA ability to win the war once such weapons are channeled. The U.S. source was skeptic about the “full moderate” attitude of the FSA, saying that the White House still sees the FSA as made up of hundreds of radical fighters who have links with al- Nusra and ISIS. “The U.S. administration is certain that hundreds of radical fighters from the Syrian Islamic Front, Fajr al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, and others have been enrolled in the FSA.”



Richard Seymour- The press in service of imperial foreign policy

"Why is it that every national newspaper with the exception of the Independent supports this war?"
Back to front as usual. Most of the media is reflecting the shock at ISIS atrocities (which get more publicity than those of Assad), but there is no clamour for British forces to go and fight there. The Independent takes its line from Robert Fisk, whose most recent contribution was a friendly interview with a commander in the shabiha, the thugs who rape and torture where their aren't enough of Assad's soldiers to do it, and Patrick Cockburn, who now promotes a Western alliance with Assad, having seen him as the lesser evil all along. Richard goes on to discuss classic lies in support of US foreign policy, like the story of Kuwaiti babies being ripped from incubators. The big lies of the Syrian conflict last year were that it wasn't Assad who used chemical weapons to kill 1500 people, and that the claim was a ruse to justify an American invasion. It should be clear today that there was never going to be an American invasion, and our concern about media lies should be on the actual victims of this conflict, the Syrians murdered in their hundreds of thousand by Assad, the tens of thousands tortured every day in his prisons, today. I did not bother to watch any more of this video.

Friday 21 November 2014

Daraa province slowly falls into Syrian rebel hands



"On Nov. 14, rebels destroyed an army Fozdeka combat vehicle using a Russian-made Fagot missile targeted at the outskirts of Brigade 82.
The opposition media office in Nawa stated on its Facebook page that 25% of the homes of the city are no longer habitable and called on “revolutionary bodies working in the field of human rights” to secure housing and shelter for hundreds of displaced families that returned to the city and found themselves homeless."
What a gay day. It is easy to overestimate the effect that opposition victories have, but there is hope that Syria might wake from the nightmare that is the fall of the House of Assad, and that's vitally important. Let's hope that pressure doesn't mean allowing the régime to survive Assad, the more Syrians are empowered militarily rather than having outside powers determine their future, the less likely that is to happen.
"Syrian rebels in the south are trying to present a model of a moderate opposition capable of achieving field victories, far from the Islamist character that has so far marked most rebel factions. Jabhat al-Nusra has a limited presence in the south and the military structure of the opposition’s joint command in Daraa was restructured to include a civilian administrative structure. This might encourage Western powers and their regional allies to support rebels in the south as a means to exert pressure on the Assad regime in Damascus."
Without Damascus, the régime would have no legitimacy as a state actor, and the recognition of a new government would likely be swift, if there is anything of Syria to recognise by then.
"The southern front is the most dangerous for Damascus. Through all the battles to the south of the capital and to the east toward Ghouta, the regime aims to protect Damascus as its center of power and to confirm its continued control of the Syrian central state. Without Damascus, the regime is little more than another armed faction on the ground in terms of power and influence."

Rebel Alliances Pose Threat to Assad
 in Damascus and Southern Syria

So there aren't any mass defections.
Bell: "The regime has launched counteroffensives that have failed, resulting in ensuing regime frustration, which manifests itself in the execution of Syrian Arab Army officers and defections of generals because they’re afraid they are going to be executed or penalized.
There was a report of the president sending the Minister of Defense south to personally oversee a counteroffensive after Syrian Arab Army officers were executed as punishment for the strategic loss of Tel-al Hara in the south.
When the regime faces a major setback, they frequently lash out with air power, which can take the form of surface-to-surface scud missiles etc. We’ve seen barrel bombs with chlorine gas canisters in them in Damascus, reports of at least three chlorine gas attacks on a very consistent north-south axis along supply lines, responding to rebel advances."

Thursday 20 November 2014

Syrian troops near Aleppo
In Syria, struggling to shine a light on victims of sexual violence

"She said, 'There was a lot, a lot of torture,' and I said, 'What kind of torture?' She kept repeating, 'A lot, a lot of torture,' and I kept pressing until I wore her down and she finally began telling me specifically about the rape."

Season of Monsters




 Surviving the horrors of a war-torn Syria.

As a Syrian/Palestinian I know from both sides


Men, women, children tortured, left to die in infamous regime ‘Air Force Intelligence’ branch in Al Mezze: former inmate"Asked to calculate the number of prisoners detained in the Mezze prison, the activist said that by adding together the dungeons and dormitory cells and the information he had received from other inmates during his time there, as well as the statistics on the numbers held in solitary confinement, he would estimate that around 40,000 people are incarcerated in that Hell on Earth."
A Syrian girl is treated at a make-shift hospital following a reported regime air raid on November 7, 2014, in Eastern al-Ghouta, Syria (AFP Photo / Abd Doumany)

Syria's 'hospital' of horrors"Douma, where I live, is hit practically every day by artillery fire and air and ground raids. It is also located in the Gouta area, which is held by the Free Syrian Army and which was attacked with chemical weapons by the regime in August 2013."

Wednesday 19 November 2014

The population of the Syrian city of Douma — a rebel enclave — has dropped from 750,000 to about 250,000 since the start of the Syrian conflict. Photographer Saeed al-Batal (a pseudonym) has captured life in this city under siege. Here, a scene from Douma photographed on Oct. 23.

A Syrian's Struggle To Get By"What are people saying about U.S. policy toward Syria?"
"It's either stupid or [people] don't care. They say that the [Syrian] regime killed more than 200,000 people and no one in the world did anything. When ISIS killed 3,000 people, all the world gathered and said we should fight it. When the Syrian regime strikes with chemical weapons and kills 1,500 in one day and none of the world did anything to stop that.
So people, they have no hope in the universe. They see themselves as so alone and depend on nothing but themselves. Under the very heavy need in every sort of life comes a new creativity we did not know about before."

Waed

When Waed and Hassan fell in love, they were students in a neighborhood of internet cafes and all-night parties. Then the Assad regime turned their world into a medieval hellscape.
"While the Syrian regime made global headlines with its use of chemical weapons, its use of starvation has largely slipped under the radar, even though it is far more pervasive. Assad has been trying to prevent food and medicine from entering opposition-controlled parts of Syria, while also destroying 60 percent of the country's hospitals. Parts of Homs were cut off from the outside world for three years, and most of southern Damascus came under siege by last year, as did large parts of Aleppo. As this story went to print, some 250,000 people—the population of Orlando, Florida—were living under siege in Syria, completely cut off from outside food or aid."


Tuesday 18 November 2014


An Open Letter to Lars Klevberg, The Norwegian Film Institute and Arts Council Norway"Syrian children have been the target of snipers, barrel bombs and massive atrocities for over three years, much of which has been documented, painstakingly, by citizen journalists and journalists alike in the most dangerous and dire of circumstances. This film undermines the work and the people who continue to document crimes against humanity. Rather than engage in thoughtful debate using existing evidence, of which there is plenty, the film calls to question, both ethically and professionally the work being done to document these crimes inside Syria."

Monday 17 November 2014

Kassig

Kassig's hometown reacts to his death with grief, anger

"If I could apologize to each American, one by one, I would," Agha said, weeping. "Because Peter died in Syria, while he was helping the Syrian people. And those who killed him claimed to have done it in the name of Islam. I am a Muslim, from Syria, and he is considered a part of the Syrian revolution."

Sunday 16 November 2014

Is Turkey right on Syria?

Cihan News Agency

The Greens have generally been as shit on Syria as the left. Good for Jean-Pierre Filiu.

"Already a year ago, he spoke out strongly against the Western reluctance to arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The inevitable result would be an increase in the influence of jihadist factions on the rebel side. The only way to save the Syrian uprising from being hijacked by the extremists, according to Filiu then, would be the establishment of a revolutionary government of moderate nationalists and Islamists inside Syria. The anti-Assad administration should be given a chance and the only way to shield them would be the establishment of safe zones where they would be protected from air raids and artillery bombings. It was basically what the Turkish government has been saying for a long time now."
Image result for 600 air strikes in 14 days, killed and wounded no less than 500

600 air strikes in 14 days, killed and wounded no less than 500
If you say, oh yes, Assad is terrible, but look at the damage the Americans are doing, isn't it terrible what ISIS are doing to the Kurds, and never get around to condemning the authors of the Syrian tragedy, Assad, Russia and Iran, you're as bad as the UN, currently saying ISIS should be held to account for its war crimes, but silent about Assad's ongoing genocide. If not now, when?

#chigagoGirl dedicates her life to taking on a dictator

"When she heard on the news that children in Syria were being tortured and killed by the regime, here current activities suddenly didn't feel so important to her anymore. Because of her Syrian roots, Ala'a feels deeply connected to the country and its people. She decided to dedicate her life to helping the people that wanted to bring down Bashar al-Assad and join the revolution. Through social media she's now helping the people on the ground take on a dictator."

Saturday 15 November 2014

Obama, Khamenei and the making of Syrian tragedy



 'Throughout the conflict, President Obama used the inevitable divisions and squabbling among some of the Syrian opposition groups that sought Washington’s support to highlight their deficiencies and to distort who they are. President Obama was disingenuous, to say the least, when he kept referring to the moderate opposition with his now infamous labels of: farmers, pharmacists and teachers, ignoring the fact that many of those who took up arms against the Assad regime initially were former members of his armed forces. These were the nationalists who preceded the Islamists who would dominate the later stages of the conflict. Obama’s inaction at that crucial time; that is before the destruction of some of Syria’s famed cities such as Aleppo and Homs, before the emergence of the murderous Nusra Front and ISIS and more importantly before Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah took charge of the counter revolution, that inaction is in part responsible for Syria’s descent to hell.

 In a moment, certainly not befitting the memory of Pericles, President Obama at an impromptu press conference on Aug. 19, 2012, issued a warning to Assad that the use of chemical weapons would constitute crossing a red line that “would change my calculus.” Obama stressed that “We’re monitoring that situation very carefully. We have put together a range of contingency plans.” A year later, the Syrian army unleashed a barrage of rockets laden with sarin gas against the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, killing 1,429 people, a third of them children. What followed were an embarrassing series of fumbles and missteps that exposed Obama’s leadership to severe criticism and ridicule. After committing himself publicly to punish the Assad regime militarily and after dispatching naval assets to the Eastern Mediterranean to deliver the pounding, Obama characteristically backtracked saying he would seek congressional approval. The military option died when the Russians saved Obama by committing Assad to discard his chemical arsenal. As David Rothkopf noted in his excellent new book National Insecurity: “The red-line fumble prompted an avalanche of questions from some of Obama’s closest allies and supporters about not only his own leadership but on America’s future role in the world.” '

Thursday 13 November 2014

How ISIS Erupted From The Syrian Revolution

The Second Front: Journalist Muhammed Ali travels with FSA fighters to the second front in Syria's brutal civil war."You can be martyrs together."
"Don't say that."
"Today ISIS, tomorrow Assad!"
Syria rebel spokesman Abu Firas with rebel fighter
SYRIA REBELS' ALIASES GROW
 INTO NEW PERSONALITIES


' "Qusai was born from a tragedy and deprivation, from a revolution, from death, from chemical weapons and siege," said Qusai Zakarya, an activist from the town of Muadhamiya, on the outskirts of Damascus. "So he has a strong presence inside me. It's not just a nickname."

Zakarya, 28, whose real name is Kassem Eid, created his alias in 2011 by combining the names of a beloved uncle and an actor who starred in a Syrian soap opera considered groundbreaking in its portrayal of Syrian corruption.
But it wasn't until the summer of 2013, after a chemical weapons attack on Muadhamiya and other Damascus suburbs, that the nom de guerre took over his identity. One of the few residents fluent in English, he accompanied a United Nations team investigating the Muadhamiya attack. Soon he became the voice of the town, especially as a government-imposed siege began to claim the lives of residents.
America's U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, used his testimony under the name Qusai Zakarya to explain her vote in the Security Council to refer the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court. Under that name, he has also appeared as part of a U.N. panel about life under siege and has met with diplomats from the United States, France, Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.'
David Miliband

David Miliband calls on western
nations to take in more Syrian refugees

I remember Kēth Fissure saying last year that the Left should campaign over this. Part of the problem is that with so much of the Left convinced it is Sunni Muslims and Sunni Muslim states in the region that are causing the crisis, the idea that if we should help, it should be to prioritise helping Christians became a common sense way of avoiding the issue. My friend asked every child he met in the Atmeh refugee camp what they were fleeing from, and every one said it was Assad.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Flickering Pictures Hypnotise


 Amr Salahi:

 "How the BBC News Channel reported on Syria in the morning:

 -Presenter says 200,000 Syrians have been killed by the government and opposition, without saying how many had been killed by each side.

 -Lyse Doucet embedded with regime troops in Aleppo.

 -Lyse Doucet interviews man from Aleppo Chamber of Commerce who supports regime barrel bombs. She challenges him weakly that civilians are dying. He says that its true civilians are dying but the barrel bombs are killing ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The interview finishes there.
 -Absolutely no coverage of the devastation caused by barrel bombs.
 Whitewash..."

"There is a full-fledged war in Syria that requires attention and while extremists in Daesh must and can be confronted, US credibility is on the line. Under the circumstances, writing a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamanei to seek his assistance in fighting Daesh will not accomplish much of anything, save to further alienate Arab allies. But more importantly, it backstabs pro-American, yes pro-American, moderate Syrian revolutionaries."

Iran’s Policy In Syria and Iraq
"In 2011 when protests started in Syria Iran came to the aid of Bashar al-Assad’s government. It didn’t trust the armed forces so it helped create paramilitary groups to break up the protests and then battle the rebels. As the war intensified Iran brought in militias from Iraq, took over military strategy, and sent in not only its own advisers and fighters, but also those from Lebanon’s Hezbollah."