Syria and Stop the War Coallition UK, or shame on you !

 'The Stop The War Coalition’s position on Syria has not changed. It is really a shame and in many aspects a treason of the principle of internationalism, while ignoring the sacrifices of the Syrian people in their struggle for freedom and dignity.'

The Men Behind The Wire

 ‪#‎yallasouriya‬ 9:06 pm on May 20, 2013
NuffSilence
.@AzmiBishara "Syrian revolution is the only revolution that persisted in face of air-force, artillery and missiles." ‪#‎Syria‬

Syrian rebels say assertions of chemical weapons use unlikely to curb violence

 ' “The rebels on the ground have stopped paying any attention to any investigation, meetings or statement by any Western countries regarding the Syrian revolution,” Mohamed Nahal, an activist based in Damascus who was reached by Skype, said Friday. The world has watched Assad batter Syria’s cities and towns with airstrikes, rockets, tank shells and Scud missiles for more than two years “without doing anything for the rebels so far,” he said.'

Saccharin And The War

 William Hague:"There is no purely military victory available."

 At the end of a speech in which he lamented that the Syrian people didn't have the arms to defend themselves against the guns and aircraft of the régime. Whose fault is that?

 And Douglas Alexander is wanting some serious pause for thought, because weapons might fall into the hands of extremists.

 Gung-ho is not the word.

Jabhat al-Nusra's rising stock in Syria

 'Even moderates back group with hard-line fighters despite radical ideology in absence of Western help to topple Assad.

 Thinking carefully about the post-Assad future is not high on many people's agendas. "All that is not important now. Now we should focus on staying alive." '

Syrian rebel leader Salim Idriss admits difficulty of unifying fighters

 “We need weapons,” said Hajj Saleh, a former primary school teacher who’s in command of the rebels in Heesh. “The Americans just want us to die slowly.”

Washington blunders yet again in Syria

 'Peace in Syria is desirable, but not at any price. American miscalculations will further damage the Syrian opposition and give Assad the means to use negotiations to impose his will on his depleted rivals and remain in office. Neither Russia nor Iran will challenge this. And with a short-sighted, risk-averse, amoral administration in Washington, they know they can get their way.'

Islamist fear drives Israel to support Assad survival

 ' “Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if Syria falls into chaos and the extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there,” one senior Israeli intelligence officer in the north of the country said.'

Why Did Iran's Foreign Minister Visit Jordan?

 More of the truth about the powers that want Assad to remain in place.

 'The source confirmed that the king seemed keen during his meeting with Salehi to express his understanding of Ahmadinejad's message and its contents, especially since the fall of the Syrian regime would not serve his interests or those of the stability of Jordan. The source revealed that the Jordanian king directly charged Salehi, who was soon to depart Jordan for Syria, with a "friendly message to President Assad that also included his hopes that [Assad] … come to a more realistic vision." '

Rights groups say thousands have vanished into the Syrian regime's torture dungeons

 'In Syria, the goal is to “terrorize the society and dry up the revolution,” said Anwar al-Bounni, a veteran defense lawyer and human rights campaigner in Damascus.'

The Structure and Organization of the Syrian Opposition

 'Without a stronger mechanism by the SMC to distribute supplies and arms, it is unlikely that directly arming the opposition will contribute significantly to the anti-Assad effort.'

This is nonsense.

Why did my Tunisian son join the rebels?

 "Let's imagine that the British government decided to attack a county with scud missiles to stamp out a peaceful rebellion. Europeans would be watching entire families being slaughtered day in day out. What would the young do? They would flock in droves to England to protect the oppressed."

 The reporting by Ahmed Maher is spun to the extreme to present those fighting in Syria with the rebels as evil sectarian jihadists. But to his credit, the truth shines through his spin.

Public Meeting: Syria - Stop Western Military Intervention

 [From the original link at Counterfire by Ady Cousins]

 'On 9 May 2013 Stop the War delivered an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron to Downing Street, urging the government to end its interventionist policy.'

 Next week they will demand the government put an end to creeping communism, and the week after that they stop the takeover of the civil service by leprechauns.

Appeasing Assad

 'Every Friday, the Syrian people make it known what they think of the so-called friends who talk about their concern but fail to deliver on their promises, whether it involves weapons or humanitarian assistance. People who are being assaulted by guns, tanks, planes and missiles – not to speak of imprisonment, torture and worse – are supposed to take heart when David Cameron talks about better night-vision goggles, while Barack Obama scratches his head about the use of chemical weapons.'

Let the World Shut Up

 'We have one thing to ask: whoever has something to do act now or forever hold their peace.'

Arab dictators can no longer monopolize resistance

 'The Syrian people engaged in their own peaceful uprising against a regime that was far more brutal than Hosni Mubarak’s, and Bashar Al-Assad’s regime responded with overwhelming force. If Hezbollah was truly a "resistance" movement for the autonomy of Arabs, Muslims and oppressed peoples everywhere, it would have supported the Syrian uprising.'

 Ditto for those in the West who claim to support the opposition, but consider opposing any support for the rebels their prime political task.

Syria's army is not quite what Israelis have been led to believe

 ' "The regime also said to the Syrian people for years that the army is there to fight the Zionist enemy," he said. "But in reality, the military capabilities were neglected and they focused on making the army an organization of internal repression. Most of the units have very old and faulty equipment and those that did get relatively new tanks and armored cars are loyal Alawite units, which are responsible foremostly with protecting the regime." '

Arms proliferation in Syria: a great excuse?

 'Syria will be about as useful a terrorist redoubt as, say, Luxembourg.'

The dangerous road traveled to Damascus

 'The Syrian people will not give up on their freedom until their very last breath of life.'

Syrian Rebel Victory a Matter of When, Not If, Odierno Says

 "From what I've seen, they have made some significant gains," Odierno said of the rebel fighters. "Their controlling the territory makes you think it's going to be difficult for the regime over time to survive."

The west and its allies cynically bleed Syria to weaken Iran

 'That has coincided with talk of creating an Israeli buffer zone inside Syria.'

 That's about as much into the fantastic as Seumas Milne goes this time, though everything he says is questionable in objectivity. The crux of his argument, they are all as bad as each other, is a lie. This was a peaceful revolution, which became an armed rebellion when the government starting shooting demonstrators a lot, and while Assad receives tonnes of Russian weaponry each week, the rebels get a little from the Gulf and nothing from the US. It is only the combination of naked brutality and the staying power of an inherently sectarian state that has got Assad this far, some rebalancing of the military struggle in favour of the Syrian people is the way to end the conflict.

 'The consequences for Syria have been multiple massacres, ethnic cleansing, torture, a humanitarian crisis and the risk of the country's breakup. The longer the war, the greater the danger of a Yugoslavian-style fragmentation into sectarian and ethnic enclaves. The Assad regime bears responsibility for that, of course. But so do those who have funded and fuelled the war, bleeding Syria and weakening the Arab world in the process.'

Syrians angry at Israel

 “Why hasn’t Syria attacked Israel in the last thirty years?,” 19 year old Hamid Shadi asked The Media Line at an Aleppo bakery. “How can Syria be Israel’s fiercest enemy if it never fights it?”

Assad’s backers on the left are ignoring reality

 Michael Karadjis:

 'The idea that the US wants to support these Islamists but is pretending not to is nothing but a fantasy indulged in by parts of the left who have decided to throw their lot in with the reactionary dictatorship of Assad.'

 Lindsey German is one of those who has stopped even bothering to pretend that she supports opposition to Assad.
[http://stopwar.org.uk/.../2442-israels-illegal-act-of-war...]

Israeli warplanes launch air strike inside Syria

 'Unnamed US-based Israeli officials said the target was a shipment of arms destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah.'

 1. It’s best to be suspicious of what the US and Israelis say.

 2. We do seem to be getting every report of Israeli strikes in Syria. Understandable, given the circumstances, but unlike Israeli attacks in Gaza, or drone attacks in Pakistan; which only get fully reported in the left-wing media.

 3. So it’s probably best to think that this is what it seems, a series of one-off attacks to stop heavy weaponry getting into the hands of Hezbollah. Given that those weapons are more likely to be used against Syrians, even civilians, than against Israel at the moment, I don’t think many Syrians will be too worried about it.

 4. If Israel had wanted to support the opposition, there is all sorts of weaponry they could have provided. They aren’t about to intervene in favour of the opposition.

From Our Own Correspondent

 'James Harkin's been on Turkey's border with Syria and tells a tale of the actress who couldn't stop crying and the boy who's made friends with a turtle.'

Syrians flee 'massacres' in Baniyas and al-Bayda

 'Hundreds of Syrians have fled coastal areas where activists say government forces have carried out massacres in a campaign of sectarian cleansing.

 Hundreds of families are reported to have fled Baniyas southwards towards the city of Tartus, but activists say they have been blocked from taking shelter there.'

Syria: a roadmap to peace

 The lesson of history for dealing with Syria in 2013 is not to let David Owen anywhere near it.* But he may become beloved of those who want to stop the revolution arming itself, "Sending arms is unlikely to provide a solution."

*"He implies that his Plan cannot have been responsible for fomenting inter-ethnic war, because the provinces did not have ethnic labels anyway. 'We were careful he says, 'not to label any provinces Serb Croat or Muslim, contrary to the impression given by some newspapers and commentators.' This is extraordinarily disingenuous. It is true that ethnic names were not formally added to the cantons on the official map issued with the Plan; but, as Lord Owen well knows, all parties to the negotiations understood that the basis of the Plan's territorial division was primarily ethnic, and it immediately became the normal practice of all parties to refer to the provinces envisaged by the Plan as Serb, Croat or Muslim."[http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/bosnia/owen.html]

Disabled Syrian rebel returns to the front line

 ' “I cannot forget the immense sacrifices ordinary Syrians have made for this revolution – people have lost their homes, their families,” he said, sitting on a rock near the brigade headquarters.
“That cannot be overlooked just because I’ve lost my foot. The fight must go on until Assad is overthrown.” '

The Syrian revolution has changed me as a writer

 'On 3 March 2011, I was in Syria: I witnessed peaceful protesters being killed as they offered an olive branch to the regime, who responded with murder, bombings, torture and mutilation. I saw people protesting for justice, freedom, democracy, and the Shabiha militia, security forces and army responding by killing protesters, disfiguring their corpses, laying siege to whole towns.

 They made threats against the families of activists; they arrested doctors seen helping the wounded; they worked to sow enmity between people. They wanted to create their own anarchy. If soldiers refused to kill the protesters the security forces would get rid of them once and for all. They had no choice but to desert. I was witness to the fact that the revolution did not take up arms voluntarily.'

Syrian refugees riot over Jordan camp plight

 'Inside al-Zaatari camp in Jordan, people have rioted several times over living conditions. The Jordanian authorities have insisted they are in control, but people in the camp are on edge.conditions. People in the camp are on edge.'

 Why are there millions of Syrian refugees? Because of Assad's actions and Western inaction. There was another report on al Jazeera this morning about Lebanon, with one kid living in a cemetery in the Beka'a Valley.

 Those who spend their time worrying that President Obama will do something should really worry about what is happening while he does nothing.

Staring death in the face

 'Aleppo (Salaheddin): May 1, 2013: An Assadist tank turns its cannon toward these FSA fighters and fires as it attempts to storm the Salaheddin neighborhood in Aleppo. Vastly outgunned, the FSA still prevails. The FSA has an unlimited number of people willing to fight for a free Syria since they have popular backing. Whereas Assad’s forces have a finite and dwindling army that has become almost entirely sectarian and almost fully supported by the Iranian regime and Hezbullah mercenaries.'

A poster from Zabadany, Damascus

 “On this Labor Day we salute grave diggers, the only people who are still in business.”

Why support the Syrian revolution?

 'If it prevails, the Syrian uprising will be the first truly popular revolt to succeed since 1789 - the first since the dawn of the industrial age. Unlike the Russian or Chinese or Vietnamese or Cuban revolutions, it is not the design or possession of some élite vanguard. Unlike the 19th century revolutions of Italy or Latin America, it did not coalesce around the leadership of, quite literally, a man on horseback. It did not arise under the aegis of a military hero like Turkey's Kemal Atatürk. Unlike the Tunisian revolt, it did not succeed because the régime collapsed. Unlike the Libyan revolution, it did not rely on outside participation. Unlike the Egyptian revolution, it did not leave much of the old order in place, so that nothing happens without at least the passive approval of the armed forces.'

Hezbollah’s mad gamble in Qusair

 'There are reports that Hezbollah has taken significant losses. If so, the Shiite community will accept this for a time, but unless Hezbollah can achieve its objectives relatively quickly, discontent will rise if the war in Syria turns into a grinding campaign that provokes many more Lebanese casualties.'

 I wonder if this will provoke demands within Hezbollah for a change in the leadership.

Bystanders

 President Obama: "We are not simply bystanders in Syria."

Syria’s Bloody Civil War

 'It’s not a class uprising in the sense that it has any form of clear-cut class consciousness. But the uprising started with a peripheral movement in poor rural towns, and the poorest, most downtrodden sections of the population were the insurgency’s initial force. The bourgeoisie as a whole is very afraid of the whole movement and the chaos that it creates. So there is no doubt that the uprising is a popular movement.

 But because of the historical failure of the left in the region, we have a massive uprising without any capable left-wing leadership. It’s a very decentralised type of uprising with all sorts of groups waging a common fight against the regime.'

Syrian regime's core supporters begin to drift away

 'Ms. Mrie, a liberal Syrian, says she is far from conservative, but that she she often interacts with members of the Syrian opposition described as extremists without any problems.'

Activists Labor to Seed New Beginnings

 “This isn’t a Sunni, Christian, or whatever revolution. This is a Syrian revolution. This is a poor people’s revolution.”

Proxy war heats up as endgame inches closer

 Despite the title, there are some nuggets of truth in Jim Muir's piece.

 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq announcing that the Nusra Front was one of its branches, and that the two were merging into a single Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (the Levant).

 The Nusra Front, jockeying for position in the motley array of Syrian opposition forces and trying to win hearts and minds on the ground, clearly saw this as a potential kiss of death.
Many of their followers are believed to have joined up opportunistically because the front had more resources and experience than the other groups.[This cuts across the idea that the US is providing arms, or even encouraging others to do so]

 Well-placed diplomats believe Hezbollah is also providing part of the regime's inner praetorian guard, as some of the big Alawite clans have become so alienated by the level of casualties they have suffered that their members are no longer regarded as fully reliable.'[This cuts across the idea that a sectarian regional war is due to break out if Assad falls, it is his sectarian state that is falling apart]

Syria descending into hell aided and abetted by the US and its allies

 'The ominous quote from a senior British official in the Financial Times today that 'It is increasingly likely that sarin was used by the Assad regime' demonstrates that a case is being put together to justify overt military intervention on top of the widespread but unofficial intervention that already exists.'

 Lindsey German is utterly full of shit. She used to be a revolutionary socialist, but this article doesn't display either attribute. It isn't ominous that Assad may have used sarin, in addition to the more ordinary weapons he's used to kill 60,000 Syrians in the last two years. No, it's her fantasy that the West is going to ride in to destroy Assad, just like her fantasy that their (actually non-existent) supply of weapons to the rebels is to be opposed, while the tonnes of weaponry the régime gets from Russia each week are of no interest to her. And then she just lapses into incoherence:

 'The Western powers have not yet been able to intervene openly in military terms but they are doing their best to ensure that the bloody war continues. Their aim is regime change and the removal of Assad to be replaced by a pro Western government. But it would appear that in the absence of such an outcome, the anti Assad governments are prepared to do their part in continuing and worsening the war which has already brought so much misery to ordinary Syrians, many of whom are now refugees.'

Syria Claims Disruption of a Rebel Supply Line

 Angry Arab* is becoming an anti-revolution propagandist. There are numerous reasons the government of torturers might have its claims disbelieved, among them the false claims about the supply of weapons to the rebels, and previous claims of military successes. In the past, when the government has advanced, it has been unable to restore normal life. It has no future.

 *'Look how the reports of defeats of Syrian armed groups are always qualified in the Western press.

 " “Maybe there is some retreat” by the rebels, he said, “but not full withdrawal.” " This is like Arab regimes in 1967: they did not withdraw, but only retreated.'
Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil at 10:01 AM
[http://angryarab.blogspot.co.uk/…/look-how-reports-of-defea…]

Angry Arab interviews Thomas Pierret on Syria

 Thomas Pierret is spot on.

 'The kin-based/sectarian nature of the military is what allows the regime to be not merely "repressive", but to be able to wage a full-fledged war against its own population; in other words, this is a highly illegitimate regime in the eyes of most Syrians.

 I cannot think of a more reactionary stance than supporting Asad's fascistic and homicidal regime. This is what really matters if we speak of "conservatism" and "reformism".
Conditions of women can only improve because they cannot be worse than under a regime that has displaced, shelled, killed, injured, raped, arrested, tortured, widowed, and orphaned millions of Syrian women.

 The opposition is a very diverse reality that ranges from exiled proponents of non-violence to local civilian committees and councils on the ground, mainstream Islamists like the Muslim Brothers, mainstream armed groups like the "FSA" (whatever that means), and radical Salafi Jihadis. Many Syrians certainly dislike one or several of these components, but at least the "opposition" offers them a broad spectrum of political options. The regime does not.

 The question is not whether or not the Syrian opposition should accept Saudi and Qatari support (Turkey does not provide any tangible aid, it merely facilitates), it is whether the Syrian opposition wants to keep on fighting, or surrender (I do not believe in a third way, i.e. peaceful revolution and/or negotiations; it cannot work with that regime). If the opposition wants to keep on fighting, it cannot survive without external logistical support, and none is willing to provide it except for Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

 My only concern is the half-heartedness and inefficiency of these countries' military support. For various reasons, these states want to weaken Asad, but they are not eager to see him replaced, hence the limits of their support. The outdated Croatian weapons provided to the rebels over the last months are better than nothing, but these states could do much more. Arms deliveries they have paid for compare very poorly, for instance, with the top-notch weaponry provided to Hezbollah by Iran and Syria.'

When Snipers Leave, Students Return to Classes

 'Syrians, young and old, talk about political opinions all the time. We make jokes about anybody or anything in our discussions, even the Free Syrian Army.'

The struggle within the revolution

 'The majority of the councils have roots in the local population, are elected and represent the popular revolution.

 We have many difficulties, but we are making a revolution against a regime that has been in power for 40 years.

 Our revolution is also against old ideas and old ways of doing things. Day by day we are working to transform Syria.'

Syrian revolutionaries owe nobody an apology

 Fawwaz Traboulsi interviewed by Mohammed Al Attar

 'I realize that class struggle is out of fashion these days and I know that many intellectuals—including the vast majority of those on the Left—neglect the economic factor, to distance themselves from what they call interest-based explanations. I’d go so far as to say that their real achievement has been to prove that everything that has happened is either political or cultural not to mention “geostrategic” and “geopolitical”. This is why imperialism, along with its local rulers and associated elites, has been the ultimate victor.'

Jumblatt sees link between Boston and Syria

 Wally. Though he is the loveable survivor of Lebanese politics, who has been allied with the winning side in the region at every conceivable opportunity.

 I don't think he deserves to be this badly mangled in translation:

 'The conflict, which lasted for five centuries and turned into a bloody conflict after the independence of Ireland South in 1920 was treated through the four main core principles: dialogue, respect, trust and patience,” Jumblatt said. “Is it possible to reach a stage in Lebanon where these four principles dominate our political and media discourse instead of the continuous fall in a spiral of mistrust and counter-accusations of treason, defamation and counter slander?'

Hamas Ties to Qatar Have Cost

 'But the support that Hamas enjoyed from Damascus did not turn the movement into a Syrian puppet. Perhaps the break in relations between the two sides today proves that the allegations that the movement was subordinated to Syria and Iran to serve their projects in the region are false. And the same applies in the case of Qatar.'

Opposition anger over US refusal to fund arms

 "Russia sends Assad tonnes of weapons every week."

This article is more than 11 years old Damascus fragments as the din of war grows louder

 'There are no ground operations by an army unused to street fighting and, it is said, worried about casualties and mass defections.'