Syrian journalist helps reporters tell stories from his homeland

 'Massoud Akko escaped Syria in 2010. He now trains journalists working in conflict zones and reports on the state of freedom of expression in Syria.

 Most of the atrocities against journalists, Akko says, have been committed by the Assad regime. “They use snipers to kill people they suspect are reporting. Anyone who’s using a mobile phone to capture pictures or video is at risk. In some cases they attack the homes of journalists and their families.” '

Scenes of destruction: Syrian mosques leveled after months of combat

 'As has happened often, after regime forces withdrew, they pounded the area with artillery and airstrikes. For two days, they fired shells at the mosque. A series of videos on YouTube show explosions against the minaret as they score direct hits. A YouTube video dated April 13 shows the top half of the minaret topple in a cloud of dust.'

Will the U.S. hijack Syria's revolution?

 'As Yusef Khalil argues, "winning the struggle purely by military means is highly improbable," given the regime's superior firepower.'

And so Lee Sustar condemns the US for everything but failing to arm Syrian rebels, and claims the US is trying "to channel the struggle for Syria's future into a sectarian war". Disappointing article.

An Ingenious Plan: How the CIA Vets the Syrian Rebels

Syrian rebel: Yes, I have some Yemeni friends, they speak very highly of you.
CIA Agent: Yemeni friends? Al-Qaeda?
Syrian rebel: Man, you’re obsessed. You can’t go around stereotyping people like that, what do your human resources people think? No, we met at a conference.
CIA Agent: ok, never mind. I think we’re just about finished here. Do you promise if we give you training and weapons not to use them against the USA, its citizens, armed forces or franchises?
Syrian rebel: Of course man, I love KFC.
CIA Agent: Great, sign here please.
Syrian rebel: Allahu Akbar, finally a result.
CIA Agent: What’s that?
Syrian rebel: It’s just an expression. Relax.

On the Fall of Qusair

 Q. It is hard to see, isn't it, a way to see the rebels defeat the army combined with Hezbollah's might?

 A. Robin Yassin-Kassab: When we talk about support, the resistance, the Syrian people, the revolution, has almost no real support, despite all the rhetoric; but what it does have is the force of numbers. This is being presented sometimes as if Syria is split 50/50, and there are a lot of people who are worried about what's coming next, about the extremism that's been brought up by the traumatization of the country; but it's only a very small minority that is actually supporting the régime.

 So, by force of numbers, I think it will be impossible for the régime to re-capture what it's lost, even with the help of the crack forces of Hezbollah. Hezbollah have fought Israel. They didn't actually do as well as we expected them to do, in the battle for Qusayr; because Qusayr is a small rural town, and it took them weeks to dislodge poorly armed local people. The reason for that - Hezbollah* should know this - Hezbollah did very well fighting Israel when Israel invaded Hezbollah's own turf. When Israel came into Lebanon, Hezbollah was very good at defending. Here they've gone into the mode of attacking, crossing their border, being aggressive another Arab people.

 This is terrible for the Syrians, but in the long term it's even worse for Hezbollah. Despite them being from the minority Shia sect, which some sectarian minded Sunnis in the Arab world don't like, nevertheless, a couple of years ago Hezbollah was wildly popular throughout the Arab world, including in Syria. In 2006, a million Lebanese Shia refugees, Hezbollah's people if you like, came to stay in Syria, they stayed in people's houses, it wasn't the Syrian state that looked after those people, it was ordinary people, including in Qusayr.

*Or Trotskyists who have followed the debate on why it was wrong for Soviet Russia to invade Poland in 1920. Or followers of Chairman Mao, "The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea."

Syria: Worse than Agony

 'In Assad’s Syria 2013, the many horrible accounts oozing from military intelligence branch 215 make it qualify to be the Syrian version of room 101. In branch 215, anything could happen to you. Detainees are...Those who do emerge are mostly completely different from the people who went in; they’ve been scarred for life.'

In Syria’s Villages, Regime Shells Aim for Civilians

 'His ambulance, parked yards away, is under the cover of a blue tarpaulin to obscure it from regime aircraft, which deliberately target ambulances, doctors, and hospitals—when they bother to target anything at all.

 People do not hate the war, the revolutionaries, or their Islamist mujahedin allies. They hate the regime. They hate Iran. They hate Hezbollah. They hate the Shia. And they hate America for standing by and allowing this to happen. Innocents who might have been, for want of better terms, moderate have become polarized. And Mahmood sees them daily as he races toward the bombing sites, watching the regime’s brutality hardening face after face.'

MANPADS for the Syrian opposition: a danger to commercial aviation?

 'The vast majority of the attacks preceded 9-11. Consider what that means. At least into the early 1970s, if you wanted to take a couple of guns and a couple of pounds of weed on a US domestic flight, the smart thing to do was to put it in your carry-on. No chance you’d be searched. Even when things got tighter, it happened quite gradually. The distance between airport security before and after 9-11 is so vast that it makes no sense to base an assessment of current dangers on pre-9-11 experiences.'

Dance Of May

 I can't be bothered to dot the is and cross the ts right now, but one reason why WWIII is not going to be set off by Western aid to the Syrian rebels is that this is a revolution, not a proxy war. A revolution with strongest support in the countryside, and not centred on the working class, not surprising when the left parties have accommodated the regime. But not a process that the US can turn on and turn off, something the Russians, and far more so the Chinese, with bigger fish to fry in their trade and other interaction with the US, will note before allowing it to become a proper war flashpoint. The Israelis, who have been happy to let Assad stay, are not going to threaten any Russian missiles for real unless they are damn sure the Russians would back down. This isn't the height of the Cold War, nobody is keeping their finger on the button for the sake of Assad.

 All this is is a Russian power play. Before there was serious talk of intervention, it was the US saying that Assad must go which the Russians said was upsetting them, and preventing a peace process. And the same voices that warn of the dangers of helping the rebels now (and suggest it is futile without any assessment, which is where I start to turn off), told us then that the Russian plans were the way to go. Meanwhile, the facts on the ground, that there is a revolutionary people that aren't going to put up with a state of torturers, means that the same choices have to be made down the line, but with Assad's allies having created more chance that the war will spread, and become more sectarian.

Pictures from Syria

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 "The Atmeh camp is just inside Syria near the Turkish town of Reyhanli (Reyhaniyeh in Arabic). 22,000 people live in the camp, refugees from the regime’s shelling, aerial bombardment, gunfire, torture and rape."

Rebels heed lesson of Qusair to repel regime in Aleppo

 'Free Syrian Army claims successful fightback after Assad offensive fails to materialise.
Rebel leaders in Syria say they have repelled a promised regime attack on Aleppo and launched a counter-offensive after learning from their mistakes in the heavy defeat at the town of Qusair.

 Syrian state media had announced that "Operation Northern Storm" would retake Aleppo "within days" after regime forces captured Qusair at the beginning of June.'

Detention and Abuse of Female Activists

 'Women have been a powerful voice in the opposition in villages and towns across Syria. In response, the Syrian government is punishing women for delivering humanitarian assistance, participating in protests, and supporting the opposition by subjecting them to detention, torture, and sexual assault.'

Inching Into Syria

 'I asked a rebel commander named Abu Jarah how he imagined Syria after Assad.

 “Maybe Somalia plus Afghanistan,” he replied.

 That, I allowed, was a pretty horrifying prospect.

 “Not our mistake,” he said. “It’s not what we want. It’s what you gave us, with two years standing and watching.” '

 This isn't an entirely coherent piece, the Syrians on the Turkish border seem to think the war might end quite neatly. It does remind me that I suggested to a couple of Friends here last year that even if American help comes very late, it will still make America really quite popular in a post-revolutionary Syria, just as they have been in Iraqi Kurdistan. And he ends with another reminder of the major truth about intervention.

 'Nobody, except perhaps our enemies, wants to see American troops in Syria. Our aim should be to make life so miserable for Assad and his friends that he agrees, or his sponsors agree, that it is time to stop the killing, send Assad and his circle into exile, and move from blood bath to diplomacy.'

‘You’re not helping me cast out sectarian bigotry’

 'Thieves, highway bandits and opportunists joined the mavericks infiltrating the Syrian revolution since revolutions don’t attract honourable people only.

 But to put those in the spotlight is sheer escapism, which Bashar cheerleaders use in order to justify turning their back on a bona fide revolution against a tyrant and a repressive regime that people have been itching to bring down for decades.'

Regime or revolution: families torn apart at Syria's front line

 'Rebels say that the sectarianism of the conflict was created by Mr Assad, who began creating militias from the Alawite and Shia communities from the first protests against his rule, even though they were demanding political freedoms rather than shouting religious slogans.'

I might cohere my thoughts tomorrow about why Russia isn't going to fight to the last rouble to save Assad, or even allow the conflict to risk military confrontation with the US, Israel, or anyone else, starting from the thought that what is going on in Syria is a revolution, not a proxy war, and no amount of international relations theory is going to explain the constraints on imperial power in that circumstance.

Syrian satirists take puppet show into war-torn towns to mock Bashar al-Assad

 'In January the group surreptitiously travelled into the rebel-held town of Manbij in the northern region of Aleppo to perform live in an arts festival organised by local activists, but on the day they arrived it was bombed by Assad's forces, leaving 12 dead and dozens more wounded.'

Damascus clashes rage, Aleppo rebels in new attack

 "The regime spent the past weeks trying to prove to world public opinion that it is in control of the course of Syria's war -- but this is not true," said Aleppo-based activist Abu Omar. "The regime's only battle here is a media battle."

Russia may lose its strong Syria card

 'Putin could face deteriorating relations with the U.S. and Europe on behalf of a policy that largely benefits Assad and Iran. Until now Russia has agreed with both, but as the U.S. and the Europeans become more assertive over Syria, Putin must determine whether Assad is still worth the fight. Then again, Iran, for reasons unrelated to Syria, may hesitate before breaking with Moscow just for Assad’s sake.'

A successful uprising in Syria would give other movements new courage

 'Among the Western elites the criticism of Assad's methods has become quiet. Even the last intelligence chief has now become clear that an outgoing of the rebel "regime change" would not lead to a pro-Western puppet regime. Too are the democratic institutions of the revolution, the local coordination committees. For strong is the aversion to Western policy in the region, to support Israel against the invasion of Iraq, against tradition, to keep agreeable dictators. Every democratic government in Syria will be pro-Palestinian and anti-imperialist.'

The ‘let-it-burn’ strategy in Syria

 This is quite perceptive.

 'There is, of course, a danger that Iran and Hezbollah might enable Assad to suppress the Syrian uprising, thereby imposing their sway from Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast, through Syria and Iraq, and eastward to the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But for now, they are spending down Iran’s dwindling reserves, while bleeding and being weakened in a war that could persist for many more years. And though Obama and his advisers appear understandably worried about Al Qaeda affiliates taking an ever-greater role in the Syrian revolution, those jihadists are mostly foreigners and would stand little chance of actually seizing power after the Assad mafia is overthrown.'

 This is a pernicious reading of the same facts, twisted 180⁰.

 'On the other hand, the U.S. cadre of pundits, politicians and leaders found itself stymied. They typically seek regime change through two complementary scenarios: achieving a state of revolution via compliant media and social media, which manufactures consent and lays the ground for intervention.

 UNSC resolutions on Syria repeatedly stumbled on Chinese and Russian vetoes, excluding UN-sanctioned intervention. Syria’s strong air defence, as well as the ‘no boots on the ground’ pledge kept America at bay. Washington was left to lead from behind, endorsing and backing a Qatari scenario increasingly appearing as a first stage intervention whose only goal was to create chaos and give America’s and Israel’s hawks time to ponder options for a large scale intervention, while Syria burns.'
[http://rt.com/op-edge/assad-syria-revolution-crisis-879/]

Lina Sergie

'So proud to be in the capital of Syrian wit next to an awesome poster written by the great Robin Yassin-Kassab. I Kafranbel and its amazing people.'

Syrian rebels claim delivery of new weapons

 'Free Syrian Army says latest shipment from allies can change the course of the battle.

 He did not specify what weapons had been received or when they had arrived, but added that another shipment was expected soon.

 "The weapons will be used for one objective, which is to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad," Muqdad insisted. "They will be collected after the fall of the regime, we have made this commitment to the friends and brotherly countries." '

The people are ruling themselves

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'Before I went into the liberated areas I imagined the regime had been replaced by heavy-handed militias. It's not like that at all. No checkpoint stopped us. The men with guns were protectors, not oppressors. At least in the areas I visited, the people are ruling themselves. Someone with us has just left Damascus, where everyone is off the streets by 8pm. In liberated Kafranbel people walk the streets and play in pool halls at one in the morning. Even in Saraqeb, supposedly controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra, it's not like the Taliban's Afghanistan but like free Syria. we (one of us an uncovered woman) stopped to eat there - men, women and children were going about their business normally. Crumpled buildings and walls everywhere cratered with bullet holes show how 'secular' and 'resistant' the previous regime was.'
[Facebook post 21/6/2013]

Kafranbel A Quick Demonstration Against Assad

 "We are so sorry that Tony Soprano is dead. We wish Assad, the Syrian Mafia boss had died instead."

Before anyone worries

 Before anyone worries that WW3 is going to be set off by the blowing up of chemical weapons before Assad can use them (those worrying about "increased US belligerence towards the al-Assad regime", when the US hasn't fired a single shot, seem mightily unconcerned about actual death of actual Syrians), should note that chemical weapons aren't like nuclear or biological bombs, outside of the immediate time and place, they aren't that dangerous.

 I don't think the Israelis are going to endanger their co-operation with Russia* by attacking their ships, unless they were pretty sure the Russians wouldn't retaliate. It is to believe in a lot of ifs to suppose that events will get worse if Syrians are helped, what is fairly certain is that hundreds of thousands will die , and the country will be ripped apart, if the rebels don't get weapons.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Russia_relations]

Red Dawn

 When the Americans were trying to overthrow the Sandinistas, I don't recall being told that the problem was that the Russians and Cubans were supplying some weapons to the Sandinistas (not that the Americans had done to the Somoza government whose airforce bombed its own people), and that this would provoke the United States to escalate the conflict. Or that some among these "Sandinistas" held strong religious views, which they might export round the world.
Maybe now there is a conflict in Syria, I'm listening to different people.

The adventures of a Libyan weapons dealer in Syria

 Not just al-Qaida, but Manchester property developers. Is there no end to the evil that is the Syrian revolution?

 'After fleeing Libya in his 20s, Haroun established himself as a property developer in Manchester. After about two decades in the British city, he returned to Libya in 2011 to fight in the revolution, where he became a prominent rebel commander.

 He says he sends aid and weapons to help Syrians achieve the freedom he fought for during the Libyan revolution.

 He and his associate travelled with their first successful delivery in August over the Syrian border to ensure it reached its destination. They were appalled by the horrors witnessed there.
"Anyone who saw what I did in Syria would do the same thing," said the associate.

 "The water is so polluted you wouldn't even wash your hands with it. People have no clothes. I saw three births with no doctors present. People are dying without medication." '

The Changing Importance of Qusayr, Syria in the Media

 'A year ago, 23 April 2012, when Qusayr was a liberated city, McClatchy called Qusayr "this all but abandoned city that once was home to 35,000 people near the border with Lebanon."
Now, 5 June 2013, after Assad had taken it back, it is "the strategic city of Qusayr in central Syria." '

Noam Chomsky & John Passant on Syria

 'Noam Chomsky was recently interviewed by Maha Zaraket of al akhbar english. He is saying here what I have been saying for a long time now, namely that the US, NATO and Israel are not on the side of Assad's opposition in Syria and in fact, favor keeping Assad, but since now it is Noam Chomsky saying it, maybe more people will listen.“Whoever expects a “pure” social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is.” '

 -- Vladimir Lenin on Self-Determination, 1916"

West tries to engineer a coup in Damascus

 Wednesday's Times front page - "West tries to engineer a coup in Damascus"

 Syrians need a revolution rather than a coup.

Samar Yazbek: "Syrians refuse to remain slaves to the Assad regime"

 "I can no longer talk about freedom of expression, or even allow myself to think about anything other than the mangled corpses of children being pulled out by their mothers’ hands from under the rubble of homes destroyed by Assad’s bombs."

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 "Fools can write all they like about compromise with the child-killers, peace conferences, negotiations and so on. half a minute inside Syria is long enough to show anyone with a brain stem that such talk is entirely and absurdly irrelevant."

'Take Your Portion': A Victim Speaks Out About Rape in Syria

 'During dark sessions over a period of 38 days, guards whipped her with a wire, strung her alternatively by her wrists and feet, and injected the crook of her elbow twice a day with a kind of drug that made her feel high, she says. The things Abdulrahman recalls the men saying as they allegedly raped her multiple times were so filthy she is loath to repeat them -- "it's too dirty and too low" -- although she remembers them saying, "Here is the freedom you wanted" (a phrase similar to ones other women have reported hearing while being raped in Syria). And she can summon up at least one face. And a couple of names.

 "We were all blindfolded and raped and we would not know who was raping us," she says, tearing up for the first time in our interview. Before being blindfolded, she could see what she calls the "boss" sit in front of them, teaching them "exactly what to do and say to us."

 "They were ordered to take this one, to take 'your portion,'" she says. "And they would take it."
The horrors she describes have positioned her to become the face of powerful women survivors in Syria. She says she has fought and killed; she also says she has done it for her country. She says she has endured torture and violation but that she is "capable of standing up against oppression." '

US and Taliban to open direct peace talks in Qatar

 'The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced.'


If they don't help the Syrian rebels now, they'll be chatting with Jabhat al-Nusra in a few years.

John McCain - US Must Give Heavy Weapons To Syria Rebels And Take Out Assad's Airforce

 'They are losing, and they're being massacred, and they are sustaining incredibly heavy casualties. It's terrible.The Free Syrian Army need weapons and heavy weapons, to counter tanks and aircraft. They need a no-fly zone. And they - Bashar Assad's air assets have to be taken out and neutralized. And we can do that without risking a single American airplane. We can do it by cratering the runways with cruise missiles, moving the Patriot missiles closer to the border, and protecting a safe zone.'

 Part 2 in People I Wouldn't Normally Credit With A Progressive Opinion. When I heard it mentioned that McCain was in favour of the use of cruise missiles I thought that sounded a very bad idea, it turns out he just wants them used to crater the runways of the government's airforce.

The case for arming Syrian rebels

 Marko Attila Hoare:

 'It is the west's failure militarily to support the Syrian National Coalition and its principal military counterpart, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), that is strengthening the hand of al-Qaida in Syria.'

  True.

 'The fixation of Johnson et al on Sunni Islamic extremism is blinding them to the far-greater Islamist menace facing Syria: the Shia Islamist extremism promoted by Iran and embodied in its proxy, Hezbollah.'
Very questionable. I've seen it suggested elsewhere that we should look on Hezbollah's support as political rather than religious, as Shia and Alawites are by no means the same thing. On Libya, I was thinking this morning that if the only significant blowback is one American consulate in Benghazi getting mullered, that's a price worth paying for the Libyan people's freedom from Gadaffi.

 'In the subsequent free elections in Libya, the liberals defeated the Islamists, dramatically disproving the Cassandras' claims that intervention amounted to support for al-Qaida.'

Imperialism, counterhegemonic blocs, and the Syrian revolution

 'To some extent, the “plague on both your houses” stance relies on evidence carefully sifted so as to put the rebels in the worst possible light. The most recent instance was the case of a fifteen-year-old boy being executed by jihadists for blasphemy. Before that there was Abu Sakkar, the fighter who took a bite out of a dead Baathist soldier’s heart. Whenever such violations of human rights take place, the entire revolutionary movement suffers collective punishment. By the same token, MIG or Scud missile attacks on working-class tenements in Aleppo or Damascus are considered normal activities for a government under attack.'

They chant "We swear we are coming (for you) Hassan Nasrallah

 'Aleppo (Salah Al Din): June 14, 2013 - Another Friday of protests across Syria. These brave men and women protest on the front line in Aleppo’s Salah Al Din neighborhood. Despite everything, they still come out to the streets to protest, as they had when this revolution first begun.'

 There are some graphic pictures on the site if anyone wants to know what state mass murder looks like.

Rouhani vows transparency on nuclear issue

 'Efforts to end continuing fighting in Syria and restore stability must rest with "the Syrian people." '

 Not that gung-ho.

I Don't Know What Took So Long

 'I feel hopeless and helpless. I don't know what took so long" for the U.S., Kholaki said. "Is that because we don't have oil in the region, or is it because Israel wants Assad in power?"

Israel, a close U.S. ally, has repeatedly expressed concerns that a change in regime in Syria could further harm Arab-Israeli relations and regional stability.'

Syria Bomb Kills At Least 10 Soldiers In Damascus

 'The Syrian pound plunged to a new low on Monday, apparently over news of the U.S. decision to arm the rebels, diving from 170 pounds a dollar to 210 in a single day.

 Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi rushed to calm nerves, saying the government has large reserves of foreign exchange and would put in place a package of economic measures to enhance the economy.

 The premier referred to the support of "friendly countries," including Iran, citing its willingness to finance Syrian imports and requirements of the industrial and agricultural production.
The governor of the central bank of Syria, Adib Mayaleh, told reporters that the bank would continue its policy of intervention to prop up the value of the pound.'

Note 2/4/15, the original link, which also started off with the headline, "Hezbollah Is Taking Prominent Role", also appears to have had a photo with this tagline, "Syrian rebels stand on top of a tank they took after storming the Iskan military base in Idlib province, northern Syria. After weeks of fighting the rebels captured tanks as well as other vehicles and artillery in the area."

Saudi Arabia ‘supplying missiles’ to Syria rebels

 'Saudi Arabia, a staunch opponent of President Bashar al-Assad since early in Syria's conflict, began supplying anti-aircraft missiles to rebels "on a small scale" about two months ago, a Gulf source said on Monday.'

 There were reports last year of Syrians getting beards in order to get weapons off the Saudis. There was an American General, Kimmet I think, on the BBC last night saying the Americans weren't worried about adding to the weaponry in the Middle East, as the region is awash with the stuff, and if extremist terrorists (Cameron's phrase) want to get hold of them they will. Douglas Alexander is worried that the weapons that people are fighting to get hold of in Afghanistan are the same anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons the Syrian rebels need.

 Russia is a bully. Of course they are going to threaten retaliation if their client is threatened. That's always the way when they want to stop a revolution.

Why Is Russia Supporting Syria?

 'I think Russia is going to regret this, Marten said. It's going to cost Russia a lot of its reputation, not primarily in the United States but in the rest of the Arab world as well.'

 From February last year.

Don't arm the Syrian maniacs

 Boris Johnson: "Don't arm the Syria maniacs."

 He can fucking talk.

'Israel, Hezbollah, Iran are working with Assad'

 'Despite previous media reports that last week's airstrikes in Syria were an Israeli initiative to aid rebel forces and stop Hezbollah from helping Assad attain destructive weapons, Saleh apparently told Zaman that these reports were false.

 “The opposition was going to take over arms, so Israel attacked. There is evidence pointing to this," he reportedly said.'

Syrian civil war: Sarah Palin says ‘let Allah sort it out’

 'The former governor of Alaska said both sides were slaughtering each other and shouting "Allah akbar".

 She continued: "Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing… let Allah sort it out!" '

Three Syrian stories from Eye on Wales

 'When I returned I heard that the Assad regime had attacked that camp, with aircraft and shelling.

 (For the second trip to a school) we collected art materials for educational workshops. We used to go early in the morning to 7pm, trying to draw a smile on the children's faces.

 We asked them to draw whatever they think. They drew tanks and people fighting. Then we gave them a star or a heart or a butterfly - nice images - to change it.

 It is a platform to talk about their experience. They talk about how they lost their mother or father or how their brothers are still inside Syria.

 They all have stories about how they saw death in front of them.'

Hell Is Other Countries: Sarin In Syria, A New Man In Iran

 'Ah yes, the slippery slope argument, so beloved of — depending on your perspective — “cautious pragmatists” or “do-nothing weasels.” (There always seems to be a “quagmire” at the bottom of these slippery slopes, possibly because of all the runoff.)'

European Foreign Fighters in Syria

 'The Syrian government has – at various times and for different reasons – claimed that many fighters that are involved in the current conflict are foreigners. Our numbers do not support this assertion.

 Even when juxtaposing the most liberal estimate for the number of foreign fighters over the course of the entire conflict (5,500) with the most conservative estimate for the current size of rebel forces (60,000), foreigners would represent less than 10 per cent. The actual figure is likely to be lower.'

War Envoy: Tony Blair urges Syria intervention

 'There was some suggestion that both sides were using chemical weapons.'

 It's a lie. Lindsey German ignores the Russian arms, and suggests that any help to the rebels would be to rerun the Iraq war. She could at least be honest and say she prefers Assad to the rebels.

 1956, and Hungary is shooting up the agenda. The announcement by the Eisenhower government that it will arm sections of the opposition is guaranteed to escalate the war and to create tensions with its traditional Cold War rival Russia, which remains a close ally of the Kádár government. It is the duty of socialists to oppose this, while any action by the Russians should not be our concern in the West.

Assad Loses Tank In Deir Ezzor In Clashes With Free Syrian Army 17/12/12

 What the Free Syrian Army needs is anti-tank and aircraft missiles, which would stop the Syrian government strategy of pulverising liberated areas into dust. With them the war could be over in a relatively short time, so it is probably up to those fearing helping the rebels to say how such weapons will cause problems down the line, or how the Russians could up the ante. Nuking Aleppo probably isn't a worthwhile option.

Either Help the Sunnis Win in Syria, Or Risk a Global Sunni-Shiite Battle

 'It is apparent that Hezbollah’s presence and zeal for supporting Assad has been contingent on the fact that President Obama has been repeatedly sending the signal that he was not willing to back up America’s red lines and was not committed to do what was necessary to produce victory for the opposition and save Syrian lives.'

 Generally even more true of Russia, they are happy to be there while they get paid for their arms and lose zero troops, but they are never going to risk WW3 over somewhere not even in their near abroad.

Seventy-one Syrian army officers defect to Turkey

 'Seventy-one officers, including six generals, have defected from the Syrian army to Turkey, a Turkish official said on Saturday, the biggest single mass desertion of senior soldiers from President Bashar al-Assad's security forces in months.'

 Assad can't win. The longer the conflict is allowed to drag on, the more Syrians he will kill before he falls.

Syrians welcome U.S. help, but they want big guns

 "We hope that arming us results in us immediately resisting the assaults of the regime and Hezbollah militia on civilian areas," said Louai Mikdad, a Free Syrian Army spokesman based in Turkey. "Thousands of civilians might be killed due to the regime's use of their air force, ballistic missiles and chemical weapons."

Egypt Cuts Diplomatic Ties With Syria. Calls For A No-Fly Zone

 'Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and called for a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state firmly against Bashar al-Assad.

 Addressing a rally called by Sunni Muslim clerics in Cairo, Morsi said: "We decided today to entirely break off relations with Syria and with the current Syrian regime."

 He also warned Assad's allies in the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah to pull back from fighting in Syria.

 "We stand against Hezbollah in its aggression against the Syrian people," Morsi said.'

 But whatever he does will make them more determined to kill Syrians. Oh wait, they're doing that anyway.