Syria and Jordan troops clash on border

 'Syrian forces opened fire on some 300 refugees attempting to flee into Jordan. The Syrians had targeted Jordanian forces by mistake.'

 You can see how that happens. You're happily taking potshots at refugees when you shoot at someone who has a gun.

In the Shadow of Assad's Bombs

 'He was afraid of what might happen if they gave up and the regime survived. “Young men will turn toward fundamentalism and extremism." '

Do the Assads fear Alawite anger?

 'The Assads will continue to be masters of the Alawites for as long as they remain in Damascus. However, once they flee the capital their ability to govern their community will very likely fray severely, or even collapse.'

 It might also be remarked that as the government increasingly has to destroy areas in order to re-take them, the prospect of it ever ruling normally again recedes.

 'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.'

 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 “Finding myself in the capital,” Tice writes, “made me re-evaluate the rebels’ prospects for a victory soon. The city is huge, just huge, and seizing it will be an enormous undertaking.” It will come as no shock to those aware of CounterPunch that it isn't at its best on Syria.[http://www.counterpunch.org/…/07/stoking-the-syrian-inferno/]

Syrian rebels feel abandoned, betrayed by U.S.

'When the regime falls, as the rebel battalion spokesman assumes it eventually will, Syrians will not forget that their pleas for help went unanswered, he said.

 “America will pay a price for this,” he said. “America is going to lose the friendship of Syrians, and no one will trust them anymore. Already we don’t trust them at all.” '

Syria conflict: Key Aleppo district sees fierce clashes

 'A Russian general whom rebels claimed to have killed in Syria, has turned up alive and well in Moscow. Rebels said Gen Vladimir Kuzheyev was an adviser to the Assad regime.'

 Somebody has messed up.

 'Photographs published on Facebook appear to show that Syrian rebels have for the first time obtained a heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile launcher, the New York Times reports.'

 That's nice for them.

 'Turkish lawyer Osman Karahan, who defended suspected al-Qaeda militants linked to four Istanbul truck bombs in 2003, has died in fighting in Aleppo, Turkish media reported.'

 Pity. Of course "suspected", as well as "lawyer", are important words here.

 'Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to call for outside military intervention in Syria, similar to the operation he authorised in Libya while in office last year.'

 Former sounds good.

 'Iran's foreign minister said a group of 48 Iranians abducted by rebels in Syria on Saturday included a number of retired Revolutionary Guards and soldiers but denied they played any active military role.'

 Am on the verge of saying, "pull the other one son, it has got bells on."

 'King Abdullah of Jordan suggested Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might try to create an enclave for his Alawite Muslim sect if he loses control of the country.'

 And epic fail if he does.

 'The defection by Syria's prime minister is the most high-profile coup yet in a well-funded programme, though unlikely to signal any imminent regime collapse.'

 This was where I found Seamus Milne to be too biased to be worth reading. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/.../intervention-syria-descent...]

The Local Coordination Committees Issue a "Code of Conduct" for Free Syrian Army

 'The LCC has been officially opposed to insurgency. Their members have not taken up arms, and the protests organized by the organisation remain committed to peaceful defiance. However, the LCC clearly supports the actions of the Free Syrian Army and recognise that the FSA's operations are likely to bring the eventual unravelling of the regime.'

Understanding the regime and the revolutionary process

 'Opposition to foreign military intervention in Syria is not enough. Such a position is meaningless if not accompanied by clear and strong support for the Syrian people’s movement.'

 A Syrian leftist wrote in May on the website of the Fourth International, the oldest trotskyist organization. Their British section, Socialist Resistance has nothing on their website. I see another group, Permanent Revolution [Bill Jefferies] don't seem to have anything since this uncertain bit in January, http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/3397

Syrian opposition 'will negotiate with government officials once Assad goes'

 'What is the context of this quote from Macbeth?

 “Here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” '*

 I think I may have it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/…/syrian-opposition-negotiate-gov…

*http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index…

Syria TV 'hit by bomb attack' in Damascus

 I think the desire to stop the régime's propaganda machine is entirely understandable, and may be a good idea, but I am reminded of the American bombing of Serbian TV on the pretext of weakening the state's command and control. On the other hand it's a pity the régime's liars came through unscathed.

Why Iran needs Assad in power

 'Iran may have to find new ways of making friends.'

 James Reynolds seemed like a bit of a fool when he was Jerusalem correspondent, so I'm not sure whether this classic piece of understatement is deliberate.

 'Iran appears to be determined to continue supporting Syria. But, in recent months it has also begun to cast an eye to a future in which it may have to do without its main ally.'

 Someone said much the same on the World Service tonight, and this piece now carries a headline that reflects that probability of change more than the one you can see below in preview, "Why Assad's fall would diminish Iran's power".

Koyaanisqatsi

 Here is a short film I made today, with music from Philip Glass and images of the Syrian uprising. Koyaanisqatsi is supposed to mean 'life out of balance' or a state of affairs that cannot continue I think. Unfortunately the pictures from the Syrian Revolution documentary at the end didn't come out quite as wished.

Assad Using Cluster Bombs On Syrian Civilians, Says Human Rights Watch

 'Human Rights Watch has confirmed for the first time claims that the Syrian government has used cluster bombs against its civillian population during the 17-month conflict.'

 Muhammad Idrees Ahmad:

 "As my wise leftist friends remind me Assad is engaged in a struggle which is objectively anti-imperialist and his cluster bombs aren't shredding civilians to bits, they are merely protecting Iran from western intervention and thereby advancing the Palestinian cause."

Syria's Crumbling Pluralism

 'Instead, rebel fighters on Saudi payroll launch coordinated attacks on high-value targets, the Syrian Army retaliates with disproportionate force, and videos of the ensuing devastation are posted on the Internet.'

was the point where I thought this Op-ed descended into an offensive fantasy world. Up to that point there seemed to be several genuine opinions from those that have sided with the régime, but I don't think the opinion laced together from them bears scrutiny.

The Syrian crucible

 'The increasing class polarisation in Syrian society also meant that the relationship between the state and the people became increasingly based on harassment and corruption.'

 I met an Iraqi at the World's End* once. After asking me why I was against the coming Iraq War - "because it will strengthen American imperialism in the region" was my instinctive answer - he told my friend Andy and me that he'd had to leave, not just because of politics, and asked if I could guess why. I hazarded that in a totalitarian police state, they nick everything, which turned out to be the right answer.

 I generally expect that Syria will become a lot more pro-American if the revolution succeeds. When Communism was overthrown in Eastern Europe, the same occurred, and the disillusionment with the US is still nothing on the scale it is in Western Europe. Tony Cliff used to tell a story about how his friend in Palestine received a pair of sandals from the Soviet Union, and he kissed them and said something like "God bless the Soviet Union!" The worse your circumstances, the more you are likely to see your enemy's enemy as your friend.

* A pub in Camden

Noggin The Nog

 Once Noggin receives an aerial attack force from the Turks and Saudis, I think we have to consider seriously if Nogbad the Bad is all that wicked, or the victim of the Western spin machine.

Muslim Brotherhood establishes militia inside Syria

 "Our mission is to build a civil country but with an Islamic base," he said. "We are trying to raise awareness for Islam and for jihad."

 A lot of people would simply ignore the word 'civil' here. The Telegraph does seem to have done some actual journalism, but this is a bit of a mish-mash, which makes it doubly difficult to assess the statements elicited from rebels, and the conclusions in the headlines may thus be a bit premature.

Syrian crisis: Fresh fighting hits Damascus and Aleppo

 'The focus of the fighting is also on the southern edge of Damascus where shelling and gunfire were reported from the Tadamon quarter, despite it having been earlier stormed by government forces.'

 What they have, they can't hold.

Duncan Hallas
Against the Stream

The August 4th of the Communist International

"In January 1933 Hitler came to power and destroyed, in a matter of weeks, the strongest labour movement in the world. He did so without resistance. The collapse of the world’s biggest social-democratic party was to be expected. It was a continuation of the collapse of the international social democracy on 4 August 1914. The collapse of the German Communist Party, the largest party in the Communist International outside the USSR,was a different matter altogether."
Robin Yassin-Kassab speculates:"So many people who I considered allies, or admired, or even (in nasrallah's case) idolised have proved themselves to be ignorant and arrogant blanket thinkers, or pretend revolutionaries, or Islamophobes, or (unconscious) anti-arab racists, or just ideologically blinkered f***g idiots. It's a great shame. I expect clear-eyed socialists felt the same in 56 and 68, when so many of their 'comrades' convinced themselves that Soviet imperialism in Europe was in the interests of the proletariat, the future, etc..."
For most of the Trotskyist tradition those were secondary events, the point at which the Communist International had made such a debit in its credibility that it was utterly bankrupt had come much earlier. With the current generation we have what Marx and a half might say, "Hegel remarks somewhere that historical events occur thrice. He forgot to add, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce, third as community theatre, with a cast of unknowns and a tiny audience, worth only a couple of sad laughs." The two most significant parties of the far left in Britain, the SWP and Socialist Party (what used to be the Militant) have done fairly well on Syria, the latter may have been a bit mechanistic in their ideas of how the revolution should develop, but their hearts have been in the right place. And so those with something of an Aug 4th situation are most noticeably those from the last few splitlets from the SWP, which might have something to do with their orientation since the first US war in the Gulf in 1991, but that's a much less important question than getting the big questions right.

Syria’s DIY Revolt

 ' "We are using bullets that cost $3," lamented a Syrian rebel commander, "and they are coming with bombs that cost thousands."

 That may be so, but Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have used those $3 bullets to bring President Bashar al-Assad's regime to the brink of collapse.'

 After the suicide bomber wiped out much of the high command, I thought that it might be even money that Assad was dead or fled by the end of this weekend; which might be optimistic, but the Guardian reminds us that "an expected government ground offensive [in Aleppo] did not materialise", and if Aleppo is won, the end may not be long in coming.

No happy outcome in Syria as conflict turns into proxy war

 'No happy outcome in Syria as conflict turns into proxy war,' is an as yet unsupported assertion, 'Video apparently showing rebels gunning down Assad militiamen in cold blood suggests the insurgents are capable of brutality to match their enemies,' er, no, they are shooting prisoners that they may not have the facilities to hold until hostilities end, not atypical for rebels taking on a state, and to compare it with the torture and murder of children by the régime is inadvisable.

 'Few observers of Syria see any sign of an opposition ready to run the country,' the ones who would be happier for Assad to continue than to risk the people taking power.

William Hague: UK to step up help for Syrian rebels

 'British foreign secretary says Britain has been helping elements of the Syrian rebels in a "practical and non-lethal way", adding: "And we will help them more." '

 That's the whole thing subverted then. Not.

Sowing the Seeds of Dissent: Economic Grievances and the Syrian Social Contract’s Unraveling

 'Moreover, infitah under Hafez evolved into subsequent agricultural privatization endeavors that Bashar has pursued, representing corporatist schemes through which the most powerful and wealthy have skimmed off profits from private investments and projects.'

Iranian tankers return to buy Syrian crude

 Some might say they're equally bad or equally good, I still see it as the vilification of Iran which encourages them to do something so insane as to prop up the Assad régime in its dying days.

Welcome to Free Syria

 'Abu Malek was pacing back and forth in the hospital parking lot, muttering to himself and firing off phonecalls. “Don’t say ‘How are you’ to me,” he told one caller, “because I am not fine, I am very, very, very,very bad.” '

In Syria, mortars kill 15 in Damascus refugee camp

 'There were no reports on who had fired the mortars. The attack came amid government operations in the southern outskirts of the city as regime forces hunt down rebel sympathizers...Palestinians refugees in Syria have tried to stay out of the 17-month old uprising, but their camp is nestled in an area known for its support for the rebels.'

 I think we can make an educated guess.

how to storm a police station

 'A tutorial [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kVcxUbM7PU], courtesy of the Free Syrian Army. It's eight minutes long: the longuer after the explosives have been planted will be familiar to anyone who's taken their kids to a firework display.'

Back from Syria, Journalist Anand Gopal Warns Protesters "Face Slaughter" by Assad Regime

 "In every town and village, essentially the entire population was mobilized in support of the revolution," Gopal says. "You had from little children to old people. Really, I’ve never seen anything like that before. And it showed to me the extent to which the revolution has a mass, democratic popular base, and Assad doesn’t."

 Louis N. Proyect draws our attention [http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/…/…/welcome-to-free-syria/], to "an article in the latest Harper’s by Anand Gopal titled “Welcome to Free Syria” that sheds some light on the living humanity that has risen up against the Baathist dictatorship. Gopal, for what it is worth, has spoken at International Socialist Organization functions numerous times and for all I know may be a member. If so, they have covered themselves in glory by having one of their comrades making such a powerful contribution." But you would have to shell out real dollars to see it in full.

[http://harpers.org/archive/2012/08/0084010]

Steve Biko

 "How to live in a non-racial society must be brought to the people by the vanguard political movement."

 Wise words from Steve Biko, derided as a black supremacist by those not really in full solidarity with the South African people, and a useful lesson to those hoping to end sectarian rule.

The Arab Revolt and the conspiracist left

 I've just been watching a BBC report on whether there was a conspiracy in Belarus [Were executed Minsk metro bombers framed?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19012541], while I think this is another politically astute and well-researched piece, sometimes conspiracies happen, and sometimes revulsion against one's own government can encourage a little too much gullibility about its official enemies.

A vacuum looms

 'Governments in the West and in the Middle East fear the prospect of a power vacuum if Mr Assad were to go soon.'

RT interviews controversial UK MP George Galloway

 'Kurdish people, for example, are terrified of the victory of a jihadist extremist Islamic victory.'

 Galloway reverts somewhat back to his old ways ("the era of dictatorship is over", but "there is a massive international conspiracy against Syria" rather than "Assad must go"), and picks up a André Gorz* memorial prize along the way. He talks about Syria from 6m30s.
[https://plus.google.com/10272849153995852…/posts/cC59gWn5LaF]

 *"Gorz was a kind of Cassandra of the left: in the 1968 Socialist Register he published a piece telling us that the great era of revolutions was over. Just a few months later he was ridiculed as May 68 unfolded." Cf. Simon Assaf: Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt: "Regime losing control of all Kurdish areas of Syria. Coalition including also PKK taking over. New drama starting to unfold."