Saudi Arabia: Obama seeks
to ease backlash over Syria"Saudi officials have grown particularly concerned about what they see as Obama's tepid response to the Syrian civil war and have pressed the US to allow them to play a direct role in sending the rebels the air defence systems known as manpads. While administration officials have previously ruled out that option, a senior official said it was being considered anew, in part because the US has developed deeper relationships with the rebels over the past year."
Despite the conventional view of the US as backing the rebels, they have been a block on the rebels getting the weapons they need to end the war. It is a shame that that the rebels still are in a position where they have to go cap in hand to empires and monarchies for help, but needs must.

"Please don’t cut my
pajamas sir, they’re new""This is what a little girl in Aleppo, Syria is telling the cameraman as he checks her wound. Assad’s forces dropped a barrel bomb (barrel packed with TNT and tossed from a helicopter) onto this girl.
She goes on to say: “My mother was so happy today because I was able to walk” … referring to a previous operation she had to repair her legs from a previous bombing attack by the Assad regime.
This is Syria. There are Syria’s children. This is the ‘life’ they live under the Assad regime."

Syrie : mars 2011-mars 2014, l’indispensable solidarité
"The Syrian revolution is not dead, but its enemies grow stronger. The first is undoubtedly the killing machine of the regime."
I don't think the Assad régime is growing stronger, it is having to press-gang young men for its latest offensive, and the economy cannot stagger on indefinitely on a permanent war footing.

UKAYS

 "Former drummer for 1990s-era Malaysia rock band U.K.s, ‘Ali Bekas’, is also now fighting in Syria."

Syria: The Silent Enemy"How was Aleppo before you left?"
"Barrels and scud missiles and people in the street."

Prince

 "Prince Salman said ending the conflict in Syria "requires the change of balance of power on the ground and give the Syrian opposition the support they need." The Saudi senior official attributed his remarks to the failure of the international community to help the Syrian people in the face of Syrian regime's killing machine, specially following the collapse of Geneva II negotiations, held last January."

 It is again a matter of embarrassment that it should be left to a prince of one of the most reactionary monarchies to say the right thing.

 The Arab League has agreed to seat the National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, which may help with diplomatically delegitimising the régime and empowering the forces of change.

 [http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx…]

ASSAD’S KILLING INDUSTRY AND THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUALS

Yassin Al Haj Saleh

"There is a systematic, calculating and disciplined thought process on how to kill detainees with the utmost care to cover up any real information about how they died."

DCCC Chair Steve Israel On Syria:
It Won't Matter In 2014
"Israel, a self-described hawkish Democrat, said that he was personally inclined to support a congressional resolution authorizing the use of force, provided that it was tailored to ensure that U.S. troops aren't actually deployed in Syria."
The idea that there was going to be a catastrophic American intervention, i.e. an Iraq-style invasion, was always a lie, and stopped the question being asked about what could be done to help Syrians facing a genocidal dictator.

First Syrians reach UK in
refugee resettlement schemeIt is a drop in the ocean, but it is something.

Assad is already counting on soldiers still at school to fill the gaps left by 30,000 casualtiesFisk has lost it big time. Much like Assad, in reality. Byzantium may have endured, but Assad will not.
"But the army won, and it is this increasingly formidable force – let us, of course, remember that the West claims war criminals are among them – that is the one institution in Syria upon which Assad must rely.
Only a few months ago, the Free Syrian Army was trying to find an accommodation with the regime, sending middle men to Damascus to talk to representatives of the President. But the government abandoned such contacts when the FSA decided to grab at the American offer of more arms at Geneva.
Qatar is just – slightly – beginning to allow its suspicion and contempt for Saudi Arabia to outweigh its enthusiasm for the war against Assad.
With a Russian-Iranian-Qatari guarantee of “fair” elections in Syria – please hold your breath, readers – who better to rebuild Assad’s rubbled country than Iran and Russia, backed by Qatar’s wealth? Why, they could even invite the workers of Crimea to give them a hand…"

Syria Daily, Mar 25: Insurgents Inflict Heavy Losses on Regime Across Country
"Syria’s opposition has appealed to an Arab League summit for “sophisticated” weapons to the insurgency, supported by Saudi Arabia’s declaration of the need for a change in the military balance to “end the impasse” in the conflict.
In contrast, United nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, insisted on an “end to the supply of arms to all parties” to encourage a “political solution” to the conflict."

Syria: Blaming the Opposition

'One may criticize the Obama administration's policy toward Syria on many levels. Yet the intelligence and knowledge of key administration officials is beyond reproach. They know that a failure of strategic communication on the part of Syria’s opposition is far from the top reason for the Assad regime’s survival. Yet, saying it is so is an essential facet of the “someone else’s civil war” thesis; it is a useful excuse for standing aside, writing checks for humanitarian assistance, and otherwise merely bearing witness to the twenty-first century’s premier humanitarian abomination to date. Blaming the victim, positing the rough moral equivalence of the parties, claiming that intervention would only make things worse, clinging to an all-or-nothing thesis by citing mass murder elsewhere and using the Iraq catastrophe as a one-size-fits-all template—these are all excuses for translating “never again” to “well, maybe this once." '

Young Syrians bring Lear
to life at a refugee camp“I seek to revive laughter and joy among children to help them express themselves,” said Bulbul, who was in several hit soap operas at home before falling foul of President Bashar Assad’s regime and fleeing into exile.
“I seek to reproduce their childhood, which has been destroyed by war.”

Syria Documents: Nasrallah sent
message to reassure Israel“You can tell the Israelis that Lebanon’s southern borders are the safest place in the world because all of our attention is focused on what is happening in Syria.”
Remember last year when the Russians were going to provide Assad with missiles to stop the non-existent US invasion? And Israel were going to attack the Russian navy to stop it? Some people were gullible enough to fall for that baloney.

Interview with Dr. Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm: The Syrian Revolution and the Role of the Intellectual
"I think what is happening in Syria today is, first of all, an overwhelming popular Intifada, in the classical sense of the word Intifada as invented by the Palestinian people, which was then forced to militarize. Any uprising against a military tyranny transforms the forces of the striking army to an occupation army, in the full sense of the term, which destroys the stone and the country as well as kills people without expense. Second of all, what is happening in Syria today is also a revolution in that the popular Intifada in Syria seeks restoration of the republic through the toppling of the old hereditary regime that is worn-out in all its institutions, and to establish an alternative system of governance. Isn’t this adequate to recognize that what is taking place in Syria today is a real revolution?"

Linker Orientalismus – Syrien und Die Linke

Die Bewegung gegen das Assad-Regime wird skeptisch beäugt

Sophia Deeg*

Left Orientalism - Syria and the Left
The movement against the Assad regime is viewed skeptically

Sophia Deeg *

On 15/03/2014 marked the third anniversary of the commencement of the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime. In Berlin, there was a modest rally predominantly Syrian supporters of the revolution on this occasion. In the speeches repeatedly sounded the disappointment and incomprehension at the lack of support from the "international community".Especially in the days before had the UN, NGOs and the media, as helpless as the pile of demonstrators complained about the humanitarian disaster that puts everything that has gone before in the shade and even the professionals of the management of apocalyptic proportions speechless.
What activities has the party unfolds the Left to support the revolution in Syria? At the rally in any case was not a / e to see representatives / in. Perhaps no one had time. Or maybe reigns in his left hand the same perplexity as an elderly passer-by, who asked: "Yes, what can one do?"

* Sophia Deeg ist aktiv in 4syrebellion in Berlin

Sweeping Advances Made bythe Revolutionary Fighters in Syria"The forces of Hilal's son (each spoiled Assad family member has their own gang of thugs, seemingly) furiously roamed Latakia's streets after his death, angrily shooting at anything that moves, and even allegedly fighting with Assad's forces.In addition, Assad's forces have surrounded the Sunni neighborhoods of Soliaba and Tabyat in Latakia city in response to the killings, sparking fears of sectarian massacres in retaliation. This vile regime has shown itself incapable of anything but violence and hatred, as well as irrationality and a lack of logic. Turkey aided Syrians, so as a result, Syrians must pay for that with their lives.However, we are sincerely hoping and praying that this will not turn out to be the case. Despite the constant media lies claiming that Assad is winning, the revolutionaries are advancing all across Syria."

Sweeping Advances Made by
the Revolutionary Fighters in Syria"The forces of Hilal's son (each spoiled Assad family member has their own gang of thugs, seemingly) furiously roamed Latakia's streets after his death, angrily shooting at anything that moves, and even allegedly fighting with Assad's forces.
In addition, Assad's forces have surrounded the Sunni neighborhoods of Soliaba and Tabyat in Latakia city in response to the killings, sparking fears of sectarian massacres in retaliation. This vile regime has shown itself incapable of anything but violence and hatred, as well as irrationality and a lack of logic. Turkey aided Syrians, so as a result, Syrians must pay for that with their lives.
However, we are sincerely hoping and praying that this will not turn out to be the case. Despite the constant media lies claiming that Assad is winning, the revolutionaries are advancing all across Syria."

The Destruction of Syria:
In Memory of Edward Said
"America has systematically led the world away from the Syrian massacre. The handling of Assad’s chemical weapons is telling. In the hesitation that led to the policing of chemical weapons in Syria, the US forged an agreement with Russia that in the words of Al-Haj Saleh «punished the weapon and renewed the mandate of the killer … continued at Geneva 2 where the regime is being instated as a crucial partner in any solution for Syria».
For us who sit in the West, we are politically and ethically responsible for averting our eyes from the Syrian tragedy. Our behavior has aided Assad to stay in power, which in turn greatly strengthened Islamist control over the revolution. We owe it to Syria to question the wisdom of our politicians, and the need of our governments to maintain Assad in his seat."

Turkey downs Syria military jet
'in airspace violation'That's nice. One plane that to put it crudely, won't be killing any more Syrian children. Turkey's prime minister is a mad bloke who is trying to ban twitter, but isn't a serial killer, as far as I'm aware.