Syrian conflict claims the life of another young filmmaker

 'Tamer Awam, a Syrian documentary filmmaker, died Sunday of shrapnel wounds in the northern city of Aleppo, according to friends and activists.

 Awam helped organize sit-ins in Germany supporting the Syrian rebellion. During one protest, he took issue with the Qatari monarchy, which has provided aid to the Syrian rebels.
"To the Qatari government I say, first liberate your own people," he declared.'

 He had earned the right to criticise.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You

 If you click on the Next Blog button at elderofziyon.blogspot.com [a very pro-Israel site], you get to The Angry Arab News Service making almost as stupid a connection as I'm doing:

 ' "The man who controls the FSA's operations around the border with Turkey then handed the designer $300 (£187) and a flash drive full of footage and photographs of the conflict. These included interviews with senior FSA commanders and images from the frontline; even gruesome footage allegedly showing a soldier from the regime's forces being decapitated with a chainsaw. "Sell that to CNN or the BBC and you can keep the profits!" the commander told the designer." '

Syria funeral is focus of Kurdish anger

 'The four coffins, draped in Kurdish flags, were taken to the cemetery in pickup trucks and then carried to the graves. Loudspeakers played songs celebrating Kurdish "martyrs" of past struggles. A speaker who was no more than 12 years old used a microphone to lead antigovernment chants.'

 It obviously breaks the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (which I recall all governments other than the US and Somalia have signed) to allow a twelve year old to be chanting.

Daraya massacre leaves a ghost town still counting its dead

 'Other people say the regime soldiers fed them and provided medical attention to the wounded. "They gave us bread," one man says. "Not all of them were monsters."

 Two weeks on, Daraya still stinks of death. A poor Sunni suburb south of Damascus, it had been well known for furniture-making, and for its peaceful resistance before the conflict.'

Syria and the region's nationalist left

 Details on the refugees and a spot-on analysis that might be more generalised

 'The misanalysis of Islam and the strong commitment to military backed “secularity” still exists among these left groups. This is why they have lost many of their political fights against the right-wing AKP party. For them, after almost 70 years of secularist republic life, surely people who voted for AKP were “stupid” or “uneducated” not to see the dangers of “AKP Islamism”. Having long lost the connection with the working class due to their sectarian attitudes, they grabbed on to the issue of “religion” in a secular republic. But it has clearly not worked for them.'

 Update, 28/10/15. The original link has expired. Some of it is preserved here, [http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.marxism.marxmail/162586]

Empire and revolution - Syria and the critics of the anti-war movement

 Now every second taxi driver in Cairo says, "I had that John Rees in the back of the cab once, and he completely lost the plot when he said 'Some have recalled the old International Socialists' slogan of ‘Neither Washington or Moscow’ to justify a middle position of equal condemnation of both the West and Russia. But that slogan was only ever meant to indicate that the old Stalinist system was not socialist.' " Taxi for Counterfire's credibility.

The Party for Socialism and Liquidation: PSL as Assad’s Bloodhounds

 'Playing up sectarian elements within the Syrian opposition while pretending Shia support for the revolution does not exist, and raising a hue and cry over interference with Assad’s counter-revolution from the imperialist West while “forgetting” about the arms, fuel, and economic subsidies provided to the regime by the imperialist East.

 This is what passes for Marxist analysis these days!'

The Syrian revolution is tearing apart the Arab left

  'Unconditional support tends to be found at the far left of the political spectrum, among Trotskyists, the Socialist Forum in Lebanon, revolutionary socialists in Egypt, Maoists, and the Democratic Way in Morocco. Such groups have relations with some factions of the Syrian opposition, such as the Revolutionary Left of Gayath Naisse...parties usually committed to ‘revolution’ and ‘progressism’, and for some, to ‘Marxism’, paradoxically now prefer a negotiated and gradual transition in Syria, because they fear the outcome of this revolution.'

How to support the Syrian Revolution? – Discussion with Anti Imperialist friends

 'Speaking today in Syria on “revolution against Gulf-backed forces” is empty words that confuse the political map. First the revolution should win. For this it needs unity and help. Then what will be left on the ground is the brave Syrian people that fought for the revolution and sacrificed so much to get their freedom.' Words full of meaning from Haifa.

 Much better than this Libertarian Communist, "FSA fighters don't just fight the armed regime forces, but also take revenge on people suspected of sympathizing with the regime; that parts of the resistance use bloodthirsty rhetoric against not just regime supporters but against whole communities thought integrally to support the regime."

[http://libcom.org/blog/syria-imperialism-left-3-10082012]. Find out that most of that isn't true, mate.

Guns On The Roof

 'Assad army morale is at an all-time low, the latest losses (including jets and military bases) have increase defections, and they are slowly getting desperate. The lack of supplies (along with new arms) is exactly why FSA brigades can take over whole military bases like Abu Aduhoor, Taftanaz, etc.'

[http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/…/updates-on-opposition-s…]

Ibrahim Qashoush Remix

 The soundtrack of the Syrian revolution: ‘It’s time to leave, Bashar’

 [https://web.archive.org/web/20120906113623/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Sep-06/186890-the-soundtrack-of-the-syrian-revolution-its-time-to-leave-bashar.ashx#ixzz25dV9MBmW]

George Galloway's imaginary reflection on his television programme

 'Some faulted me for saying that Syrians should start a revolution in Saudi Arabia first instead of joining the Zionist-Salafist-American-Saudi-Qatari conspiracy against their own country.'

 That isn't even satire. And someone must have heard his Talksport show, "I decided to run the discussion with the audience according to my time-tested method of ‘you speak, then I speak and tell you not to speak over me, then I speak some more.’ "

War artist observes Syrian life amid chaos

 'Normal life was continuing amid the chaos, and George - under the protection of the Free Syrian Army - started to sketch and paint watercolours of the scenes he observed.'

Damascus Alawites stand firm behind Assad

 'Abu Basil and his colleagues were surprised when the protests erupted. He repeats the government's narrative of "terrorist armed groups sneaking into urban and rural areas".He says that as a "military institution", the army never kills "unarmed civilians" and that it "helps them move out of dangerous areas", which are then "cleansed of terrorists".'

 Given that these are obvious lies, should we really care what those who are part of the military and security institutions, believe? Other than to understand how to overthrow their rule.

 I saw a piece by Lucy Kafanov on Russia Today this morning, where she claimed that only the crimes of the régime have received attention, her evidence that the opposition had been wrongdoing was limited to one BBC report about a government militiaman who might have been forced to drive a truck full of explosives, but was uninjured when they didn't go off. Not convincing.

Syria: Is there an alternative to the developing civil war?

 'The fall of Assad could also strengthen pro-US Sunni Gulf regimes, while weakening Shia-based Hezbollah in Lebanon and Russian imperialism's position in the region.'

 There is a lot you could object to in the crudity and vagueness of Niall Mulholland's piece on Syria; but for someone from the Socialist Party to acknowledge that there is such a thing as Russian imperialism is a pleasant fact to focus on.

Annie Get Your Gun

 ' "When our partners say that the government must stop first and withdraw all its soldiers and weapons from cities -- and only then call on the opposition to do the same -- well, this is a completely unworkable scheme," said [Russian foreign minister, Sergei] Lavrov.
"Either people are naive or it is some sort of provocation." '

No sheikh-up here

 Luke O'Sullivan "notes that no-one seems to have told the UAE about the so-called 'Arab spring'. And it's now less likely they'll be hearing about it in future.
[http://www.insidehighered.com/…/american-professor-suddenly…]

 'In one sign of twitchiness, the government in February punished some 60 Syrians who had protested outside their country's embassy by cancelling their residency permits, a harsh move considering conditions in Syria. Officials explain that foreigners so outnumber native Emiratis—by six to one—that the UAE cannot afford to let them practise politics.'

 Political rights might make immigrants think they live there.

Star Witness: Top Syrian Media Host Abandons Assad for the Truth

 'She drove to work every morning through downtown Damascus to the state television building. "I often sat crying in my car. The thought of having to read Bashar's messages every day almost broke my heart," Abbas says. She spent more than a year telling Syrians that there was no uprising, that the rebels were merely armed terrorists determined to sow chaos, that there was an Israeli-Saudi-Western conspiracy against her country, and that Assad was the protector of the country's sovereignty.'

Which Side Are You On?

 'George Galloway has signed up to present a fortnightly show for al-Mayadeen, a new Arab television channel said to be linked to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.'*

 Two questions occur as relevant ones for him to be asked:

 1. You said earlier this year that Assad must go now. Are you going to put this point on your new show, every time you talk?
 2. If the politics of this station are pro-Assad, do you really think it is appropriate to be appearing on such a station?

 Syria is not Iran. At first when I saw people compare this to his work with Press TV, I was tempted to care no more about this than I did about that (which did include objecting to the station allowing a Holocaust denier to propagate his views, but not to get worked up that they employed Galloway). But Iran is still a country targeted hypocritically by the most powerful countries, while Syria is a country where politically now there is only one over-arching question; and if you are financially tied to the wrong side of that as a propagandist you deserve to lose Respect.**

*http://www.guardian.co.uk/…/tv-stations-george-galloway-jul…
**I'd still tend to say that if he was working for the Hezbollah TV station that would be reasonable, depending on what he actually said on there, as Hezbollah is not the Syrian government.

Robert Fisk: The Syrian army is far from squeaky clean

 'Our very own beloved Free Syria Army has actually advertised its own murders in Syria. Chucking policemen off roofs and shooting shabiha to death after torturing them doesn't burnish the reputations of La Clinton or the messieurs Fabius and Hague.'

 That's some shitty opinionating, but the rest of the article is fine.

Democracy and the nation-state in Syria and the world

 'The challenge in Syria is to make use of its violent opportunity to create a new national people and with it, a new republic. Democracy in the Middle East was never going to be implanted by foreign powers and their occupations. But it can be seized by a politically alive and mature people, who come to collective awareness in and through struggle.'

The Child Victims Of Syria's Civil War

 Tim Marshall* has a piece on the Sky website about tribalism which tells us nothing, and Sam Kiley** has a piece on rebel calls for intervention with no evidence for same, but one of their correspondents has seen what is actually happening:

 'Crawford witnessed fighter jets attacking targets near Marea, north of Aleppo, which included hospitals and a school on top of a house that was unoccupied at the time.'

*[http://news.sky.com/…/the-tribal-undercurrent-in-syrias-civ…]
**[http://news.sky.com/…/rebel-calls-for-military-aid-in-syria…]

Syria fighting heightens fear in Damascus

 'There are really two groups of people in Damascus - those who have benefited from the regime who fear the loss of their livelihood and businesses if the government falls, and those who see clearly the damage the regime has done.'

Syria's minorities drawn into conflict

 'The regime is doing everything it can to divide and rule, but luckily there are still wise people around.'

Robert Fisk: 'They snipe at us then run and hide in sewers'

 Robert Fisk does point out the range of the insurgency's weapons, originating in such salafist strongholds as Sweden and Belgium, but this seems to combine the possibility of gullibility with reliance on hearsay:

 'So many Aleppo citizens talked to me, out of earshot of soldiers, about armed "foreigners" in their streets along with Syrians "from the countryside" that the presence of considerable numbers of non-Syrian gunmen appeared to be true.'

Pursued by violence, pawns in Syrian conflict await an endgame

 "We asked the FSA to come and protect us. When they arrived, some were local people whom I knew, others were outsiders. People gave them food but they didn't sleep in our houses. For five or six days they were there but when word came of a government offensive they withdrew so as not to have ordinary people get hurt," he said.

 Gives a lie to the subtitle of Jonathan Steele's article:'Criticism of FSA tactics is building,' I recall that 'Building the Syrian State' has been saying much the same all along. Somebody with more focused counter-knowledge might be able to conclude definitively that this piece is absolute rubbish.

Airport

 Syrian Rebel Forces Advance Close to the Airport at Aleppo [http://www.radiovop.com/…/9454-syrian-rebel-forces-advance-…]

Syrian Rebel Forces Advance Close to the Airport at Aleppo

 

 'Rebel commanders reached by phone said their fighters had advanced to within a few hundred yards of the airport perimeter. Syria’s state-run media, which have portrayed the Aleppo fighting by insurgents as a futile effort by criminal gangs, inadvertently confirmed the insurgent advance, reporting that government troops deployed around the airport had repulsed attacks.

 “Our fighters are in all neighborhoods close to the airport,” said a rebel commander who identified himself as a former air force pilot named Wasel. The commander, who did not provide his full name for security reasons, also said the insurgents were benefiting from replenished supplies of ammunition after chronic shortages, “which is a reason for this progress.”

 The Aleppo fighting, as well as heavy clashes reported by activists in the Damascus area, came as the United Nations and the Arab League announced a successor for Kofi Annan, the special Syria envoy who resigned in frustration two weeks ago over his inability to halt the conflict, now in its 18th month. Mr. Annan’s successor, Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and veteran diplomat who helped broker the end of Lebanon’s civil war, is expected to take up his new role in coming days.

 Mr. Brahimi’s appointment was announced in a brief statement by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general.

 “The violence and the suffering in Syria must come to an end,” Mr. Ban said in the statement. “The secretary general appreciates Mr. Brahimi’s willingness to bring his considerable talents and experience to this crucial task, for which he will need, and rightly expects, the strong, clear and unified support of the international community, including the Security Council.”

 Mr. Ban’s statement appeared to be a diplomatic swipe at the Security Council, which has been deeply divided over how to deal with Syria since the political uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began. Russia and China, permanent Council members with veto power, blocked efforts by the other members to threaten the Syrian government with coercive measures over Mr. Assad’s harsh repression of protesters and his failure to implement Mr. Annan’s peace plan as promised.

 Mr. Annan, who called his job “Mission: Impossible,” attributed his failure in Syria partly to his inability to bring such pressure to bear.

 Mr. Brahimi, who has done other troubleshooting work for the United Nations, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, did not immediately comment on his appointment. But he issued a statement last week deploring the violence in Syria and calling on all Syrians to embrace tolerance as part of a new formula for peace.

 “In the meantime, the U.N. Security Council and regional states must unite to ensure that a political transition can take place as soon as possible,” Mr. Brahimi said in the statement, which was issued in his capacity as a member of the Elders, a group of accomplished international leaders that also includes Mr. Annan.

 The appointment of Mr. Brahimi was announced a day after the Security Council decided to end the United Nations observer mission in Syria, which was created in March as part of Mr. Annan’s peace plan. Disregard for the plan by Mr. Assad’s forces and the rebels seeking to topple him made the presence of the observers irrelevant and endangered their safety.

 President Assad has found it increasingly difficult to portray an image of confidence and control, undermined by a rash of defections and improvements in the fighting ability of the insurgents, who are getting military assistance from Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and now occupy pieces of territory along the Turkish border. They have tied down Syrian military units in Aleppo, Damascus and other major cities.

 The highest-ranking defector so far, Riyad Farid Hijab, the former prime minister, visited Qatar on Friday for what his spokesman said were discussions on “unifying the efforts of the opposition to accelerate the pace of the downfall of the regime,” Reuters reported.

 Mr. Assad’s authority has also been weakened by an increasingly urgent humanitarian crisis in Syria, where, according to the United Nations, an estimated 2.5 million people need aid, more than one million have been uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, mostly Turkey.

 “Fighting continues in and around other cities in addition to Aleppo, including Homs, Damascus, Deir al-Zour, Idlib and Dara’a,” Marianne Gasser, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Damascus, said in a statement on its Web site. “We are very concerned about the effects that the fighting is having on civilians in these areas.”

 In a new threat, the World Health Organization reported that contamination in the water supply of rural Damascus from sewage had caused an outbreak of diarrhea. The Red Cross said its aid teams were working on water systems in Aleppo, rural Damascus, Deir al-Zour and Homs.'

The left, imperialism and the Syrian revolution

[Marxism]

 "On a mound of twisted metal and concrete shards that had once been a house, a group unfurled a banner that read: EVEN FROM THE RUBBLE, WE WILL FIGHT THE REGIME." Corey Oakley with the best demolition so far of the bypassed by history left.Thanks to Louis N. Proyect for the link.

Spanish Bombs

Many Spaniards were more offended by General Franco's fascist dictatorship than Basque and anarchist bombs, just as most Syrians today are more concerned about Assad than al-Qaida.

Syrian regime is on brink of collapse, says former PM Riyad Hijab

 'The regime is collapsing, spiritually and financially, as it escalates militarily," Hijab said. "It no longer controls more than 30% of Syrian territory." '

 When the government counter-offensive in Aleppo began, somebody mentioned that they were pulling troops from everywhere else to conduct it; those claiming the stalemate in Aleppo means the failure of rebel strategy might wish to consider this.