What does the Media mean by "rebel held areas?"

 I don't always do this, often using the common terminology in the media, but is impossible to understand what is going on in Syria if you don't see that it is a revolution against a despot.

 'They call their city a liberated area, because they have removed the regime controls on the ground and are free to organize things the way the local community desires. The regime calls it a "rebel held area" implying that an invading army of foreign jhadists has taken over the city at gun point and the NATO mainstream media agrees because you will never hear them refer to any liberated areas in Syria, they are always "rebel held areas" that need to be brought back under control. The last thing the chiefs of NATO want to see, even in Syria, is autonomous communities running their own affairs. So they spend this fiction of "rebel held areas" which then in turn, allows Bashar al-Assad to blame the wholesale bombing of "rebel held areas" on the "rebels" who are using the otherwise loyal citizens as "human shields." '

Free Syrian Army's loss may have been diplomacy's gain – Malcolm Rifkind

The key words are, "Syria is a hellhole", and diplomacy is the international community's way of allowing Assad to make it worse.

 This is obvious to everyone not on the Left:

 'I don't think anyone remotely believed that the consequence of the British decision was that Obama would say he had to go to Congress to seek endorsement for a strike. If you were being logical it was the exact opposite of what he should have thought. What we demonstrated is that if you go to parliament you may not get the answer you want. That opens up the question: what answer did Obama want?'

 The final pessimism fits in with a desire not to help the rebels, but to be seen to have tried to do so.

 'If the international community had given more practical help to the moderate Syrian forces then the extremists could have been kept at bay. But I regret to say it is probably now too late, and that is a fact that is difficult to ignore.'

Why Assad and Hezbollah Are in Trouble

 'The Syrian regime in April was facing defeat with a steady stream of losses among personnel, territory, and resources and a threatened loss of control over the vital Damascus-to-Homs highway.

 The Iranians and Hezbollah did not take half-measures, committing a significant portion of the Lebanese organization’s troop strength to the war. What they expected was quick and overwhelming victory. What they got was a Vietnam-like quagmire, sapping Hezbollah of thousands of its fighters and top echelon commanders.

 The extent to which Hezbollah and its partners among Iraqi Shia militias have had to be used, as the vanguard of military operations on behalf of the regime, points to a seriously atrophied and ailing Syrian military. It’s “Weekend at Bernie’s” in Damascus, with Hezbollah propping up Assad’s military power. Should they pull out, the President will face quick collapse.

 Recent compilation of slain Hezbollah fighters are in the hundreds, and a full casualty count is likely to be much higher. Their significant losses of manpower losses in the recent battles in Qalamoun and Damacus Rif and their trouble sustaining momentum around Safira and southeastern Aleppo Province point to a force that may still be motivated but is unable to advance.'

The Syrian regime wants to crush us

 'The purpose of this is to subjugate Syrians and force them back into the embrace of the regime and of the dictatorship and corruption which the Assad regime represents, after a revolution in which Syrians demanded freedom, democracy, justice and equality.'

Dispelling the lie that Assad is ‘winning’

 Ben Allinson-Davies:

 'He may be holding out for now, but he is by no means 'winning’. How long this will go on for is uncertain, but it could be for some time yet, if foreign powers continue to dither, instead of providing sufficient help to the Free Syrian Army.'

Ship Of Fools

 organic cheeseboard said...

 "Nobody is reading this but still, without Aarowatch this had to go somewhere. Nick Cohen's piece today is also the least functional article ever written. 
Apparently Syria is exactly like the Spanish Civil War because it's, um, fascists vs left-wingers, um no actually they're fascists but hey, and we should be happy, oh no wait upset, about the modern-day international brigade (who are actually Islamists) going over there to fight Assad since they'll come back over here and wreak the same kind of carnage as the International Brigade did, um wait that's not right, or something. "*

 I read Aaronovitch Watch** the the last couple of years of its existence (2009-2011), and it provided excellent criticism of the pro-Iraq War arguments. It intelligently dissected the lack of logic that the war's proponents surrounded their arguments, exposed their promises that the finding of WMD would change everything, that the Americans would be greeted as liberators, that an invasion would be better than allowing another minute of Saddam's rule. They ate people like Nick Cohen for breakfast. Now with the Syrian revolution, they just repeat the same arguments without acknowledging any change in the facts. And put their assumptions into the arguments of their opponents, and think that the garbage that results proves Cohen rather than them a fool. Here's what Cohen actually says,

 "In the Spanish Civil War, Britain and France's refusal to help the legitimate government in Madrid repel the attack by General Franco produced the result they most feared. It was not just that Hitler and Mussolini had no qualms about "illiberal intervention" in Spain, any more than Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia have qualms about illiberal intervention in Syria today. The fascist forces were strengthened for the wider conflict of the Second World War, but so too were the communists. Britain would not intervene in Spain in the 1930s because it did not want to help Stalin. Its very inaction helped him. The fact communists were willing to go to Spain and fight bolstered the prestige of communism. At least they preferred fighting to running away, people said.

 I do not know what would have happened if western powers had imposed no-fly zones and safe havens three years ago. But I know al-Qaida is back from the dead and militant Islamists from Britain and across Europe have gone to Syria, as the International Brigades went to Spain, and we will have to have them back one day."

 This seems like an eminently sensible analogy. OC's first substitution, "um no actually they're fascists", seems to apply to all those fighting Assad, and goes without saying is a libel. The second point about International Brigades is a sensible analogy, if the West doesn't help, people they don't like will fill the gap, and OC goes, Islamists aren't Communists exactly, yah boo sucks.

 I think there are problems with the specific military strategy that Cohen proposes. I think there is a wider problem with appealing to Europe or America or the United Nations to bring an end to Assad, only because it is not going to happen. I was thinking today about the lack of specificity with which Cameron and Obama went to their legislatures for support. That wasn't to spring a surprise on Assad, that was to make the votes easy to lose. But still Cohen seems like much more of a friend to Syrians than the leftists who drone on about the dangers of American intervention, when it is clear there is no invasion on the agenda.

 And won't be at this current level of violence. But there is no way for Assad to regain the consent to govern from the vast majority of Syrians, and so his military strategy is to bomb and starve as many of them into death or exile as he can. That is why Syria is a growing source of instability in the region. With the economy on the rocks, with no prospect of anything more than temporary victories, the régime grows more desperate, and the massacres escalate. When there are half a million dead and ten million refugees, maybe the Americans will be forced to do something, though I strongly doubt they will ever risk their own troops in combat in Syria. But even if that proved a bloody mess, the anti-war argument would have been discredited by the carnage that had preceded it. If the argument that the FSA needs to be armed, above all with anti-aircraft weapons to stop the bombing, were put more widely, then we wouldn't face a situation where the socialist movement's international policy is likely to be discredited by its inaction over Syria.

*[http://flyingrodent.blogspot.co.uk/…/all-i-want-for-christm…]
**[http://aaronovitch.blogspot.co.uk/]
***[http://www.theguardian.com/…/vladimir-putin-authoritarianis…]

Fake Adra massacre photos expose bloody hands on Left

 'These stories give those outside of Syria a good excuse to look the other way and do nothing while the Syrian government slaughters thousands of Syrian civilians. "Its a civil war" and "Both sides commit war crimes, etc."

 This anti-revolution propaganda campaign is being conducted by the Assad Regime because it directly supports its main strategy of wholesale slaughter. Those on the Left that uncritically promote stories like this from RT and SANA aid Assad's main strategy and they have a lot of blood on their hands.'

Blanket Drive For War Torn Syria

 "This is the coldest time of year," said Mike Batman. He left Syria 32 years ago.

 "And the reason I left was because of the dictatorship," he said.

 His own brother was a political prisoner for 16 years. The family didn't recognize him when he was finally let go.

 "Have you seen those pictures about the holocaust? He look just like one of them," he said.

 He stresses that this is a revolution against a dictator, and not a civil war. A distinction to emphasize a fight for freedom.

Defense minister of Syria’s interim government calls for more aid

 'About London’s and Washington’s announcement that they suspended support because of what they called the spread of extremist and militant groups, Mustafa said, “First they have to support the Syrian people. And when they support them, there will be no place for al-Qaeda or any radical regime. Delaying aid, not supporting the Syrian people, and not effectively helping them has led to the emergence of some extremist groups. The Syrian people will not accept extremism. They are moderate. We are confident that we will achieve victory. But Western countries are giving pretexts to shirk their responsibilities in supporting the Syrian people.” '

Truce near Damascus broken as warplanes bomb Aleppo

 The proposal for peace talks in Geneva in miniature.

 ' "They opened heavy machine-gun fire without any reason. It means there are people from the regime who don't want the siege on our town to be lifted. They are trying to end the truce in any way possible," Ahmad, a local activist, told AFP via the Internet.

 The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the fighting, and said the army was sending "heavy reinforcements" towards the town.

 On Wednesday rebels raised the national flag above the town in accordance with a ceasefire deal that was supposed to allow food in, but Ahmad said none had arrived.'

Personal Writing #01: Syrian Nightmare

Shiyam Galyon:

 'This nightmare is worse than anyone could have ever imagined, ever. Anyone following the Syrian Revolution will see it is a true revolution demanded by the people, and rejected by the Assad regime and the UN Security Council. It’s open-season for abuse when a Revolution is denied by the world.'

Castle Douglas author Robin Yassin-Kassab returns from war torn Syria

Border ITV News.

In Syria's civil war, Facebook has become a battlefield

 'The latest report from the researchers, to be released today by Citizen Lab and the EFF, notes a dip in new malware campaigns in the aftermath of the Assad regime’s August sarin gas attack in Ghouta, as though the prospect of U.S. intervention was restraining the attackers. As the threat of U.S. reprisals faded in the weeks that followed, the malware kicked up again.'

Don't Get in Bed with Assad

 "The best counterterrorism strategy remains the empowerment of mainstream Syrian rebels."

Writer fundraises for Syrian refugees

 'Robin Yassin-Kassab has seen the suffering of Syria's refugees for himself.'

 He's back on Border TV in a couple of hours to talk about his latest trip. Meanwhile I see these couple of wanky comments on Mike Marqusee's status update, justifying inaction over Syria by claiming that a new Iraq war was being stopped. Corbyn has been one of the best of Labour MPs, and Tariq Ali used to be a revolutionary.

 Tariq Ali: "Hell will freeze, Mike, before these jokers reconsider their support for US wars. Cohen is now deeply upset that there has been no intervention in Syria!"

 Jeremy Corbyn: "The vote in Parliament in August not to intervene in Syria was of huge significance and may well be the start of a different approach."

Britons Joining Jihad Stripped Of Nationality

 Sky News just had one of these jihadis on, who explained that he had no interest in fighting any jihad in Britain, that he and his comrades were there to help the Syrian people by overthrowing Assad. It's really quite simple. Then the woman from the Royal United Services Institute explained that it is all very complicated, that there are at least 200 Britons fighting in Syria, and they might come back, sit around for a couple of years, and then Boom!

 The Left has tended to go along with the security experts and the government, in seeing stopping intervention in Syria as more important than overthrowing Assad. Tom White puts more extremely in the comments, "if they are prepared to fight for Islam they have no place in our country." There was a demonstration in support of the Syrian revolution in London on Saturday, I don't think there was anyone from the Left on it. There is a worldwide day of action for Syria on Saturday 11th January, I would hope that my fellow socialists had got off their arse by then. It is the lack of help for Syrians that drives some of them into the hands of the al-Qaida elements (some of them are secular enough that that's never going to happen, though their hatred of the West and the Left that have done nothing to help might still be quite intense), it is Assad who let many of them out of prison to derail the revolution, and his forces don't bomb their headquarters in Raqqa.

 A couple of friends have recently travelled to help refugees (foreign fighters generally aren't welcomed that much, Syrians need anti-aircraft weapons to stop the aerial bombardment more than soldiers) and have been heavily questioned at airports. It has generally been assumed that this is just to find out if they know any jihadis, but it might be that anyone who helps the Syrian people is under threat from Western governments.

Doris knits 400 jumpers for the children of war-torn Syria

 'A publicity-shy 92-year-old woman in Swindon has knitted 400 jumpers for children in Syria. The pensioner, who would like to be known only as Doris, sent her handiwork in to an appeal from charity Hand in Hand for Syria.'

British doctors leave for Syria despite Abbas Khan death

 'People have been asking, "why are we going?" The question is why aren't we doing more? The work of UK charities is a drop in the ocean, but I'd rather be part of that than do nothing. The timing of Dr Khan's death is very deliberate by the regime. They know the holiday season means the aid convoys will be coming and it was a very symbolic act – don't come or look what we will do.'

Syrian War Victims Want No One With Blood on Their Hands

Rime Allaf:

 'Most Syrians are fleeing into neighboring countries in increasing numbers mainly because of the regime’s massive military and air campaign. Yet, ridiculous claims that things will get worse if Assad goes continue to circulate, while planted leaks now test the grotesque idea of his remaining in power even after Geneva.

We don’t need a referendum to know that most Syrians want the carnage to stop immediately. Most realize, however, that violence won’t end if the Assad clan is allowed to stay as a de facto winner, continuing to impose collective punishments on those guilty of nothing more than civil disobedience or intellectual opposition. This would push armed opposition even more to a “death or liberty” mode, straight into the arms of better-organized extremists.'

Art, revolution and Ali Ferzat

 'He maintains hope for a breakthrough his country and that the essence of the revolution will eventually emerge from the distortions.

 “Let me put it this way. ... For 50 years, Syria has been similar to a deserted home with broken doors and shattered windows. If you open the water tap of a deserted home, what you get at first is all the dust and dirt. But if you keep it open for a while, the clean water will eventually come down [out] of it.” '

Barrel bombs show brutality of war

 'The Syrian government's use of these types of munitions against its own population in rebel-held areas is a measure of the brutality of the conflict.'

 No, it's a measure of the brutality of the Syrian government. The rebels don't have an airforce, and their attacks on civilians have been few and abhorred by other rebels, while attacks on civilians have been the Syrian government's m.o. This is one reason it is idiocy to suppose that rebels might have carried out the chemical attack in August, offensive idiocy to those Syrians at the sharp end of their government's terror.

Syria 'abducting civilians to spread terror', UN says

 Thankfully this report, unlike many, doesn't allow mention of the human rights violations committed by jihadis to obscure the truth that the overwhelming threat that has caused millions to flee is the Syrian government.

U.S. inaction in Syria could be far more costly than intervention

 'The one advantage of inaction seems to be the ability to disclaim responsibility: We didn’t break it, so we don’t own it. Even that benefit, however, may prove transient. Already the United States is the largest donor of refugee aid. As misery spreads and anti-American radicals plant roots, the Obama administration, or its successor, may find that the costs of non-involvement far exceed those that would have come with timely and measured intervention.'

I don't personally see the risk in option (a), Arm the Moderate Rebels. And a bit of extremism in defence of liberty is no vice. Barry Goldwater said that. He was a very conservative US politician.

Assad quite likes Galloway

 "Galloway knows Assad, and Assad quite likes Galloway."

 Robert Fisk being interviewed by the BBC just now about the British doctor murdered in Syria. He reckons that Assad wanted him released, and so there must be a plot among his officers to thwart him.*

 Fisk said that as Dr. Khan was strangled in his cell, it may be hard to find out if he was murdered or did it himself. Obviously if the Syrian government does the investigation. You can usually tell the difference, suicides leave a different pattern of ligature marks from hanging, and from the quality of their lies over the last couple of years, I don't believe the Syrian secret police will have put in the effort to even try to do this convincingly in the face of a proper inquiry.

 Fisk ended by saying that the only way we may know the truth is if the revolution is succesful, but for the time being, Assad seems to be winning. That doesn't seem to be the case either.**

*"That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution." - Sir William Blackstone
**[https://eaworldview.com/2013/12/syria-analysis-insurgent-breakthrough-east-ghouta-near-damascus/]

British surgeon 'murdered by Syrian regime'

 'More than 1,000 detainees are believed to have died in custody in Syria since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to Amnesty International, which says most were from the effects of torture or other ill-treatment.'

 We are often told both sides are as bad as each other, and it just isn't true. The rebels don't bomb hospitals, bakeries and homes.

Commentary on a Patrick Cockburn commentary

 Louis Proyect:

 "Does anybody still believe that there were plans afoot to “replace” Assad?"

 Probably the people who still aren't sure that he used chemical weapons.

Thirty-six people, nearly half of them children, 'killed by Syrian army'

 'Rebel groups had issued a statement asking civilians in government-held parts of the city to move away from state security buildings, which they said would be targeted in retaliation for the bombings.'

 Because that's what they do, they are not barbarians, like the government they seek to overthrow. The figure of confirmed dead is now much higher than thirty-six.

 Meanwhile, on the thread for the UN Syria Appeal*, we get comments like this:

 mauman
 16 December 2013 2:30pm

 "Link to video: Aleppo devastated by Syrian army bombs "
Really Guardian? Come on. A cheap shot...
Get the Saudis and Qataris to pay. They're responsible.

 PeterBrit
 16 December 2013 2:40pm

 Well, parts of Aleppo have been devastated by Syrian army bombs, but it would be more accurate to say 'Aleppo devastated by civil war' and it would also be fair to point out that it was the rebels who brought the war to Aleppo in the first place. For a long time, beautiful Aleppo had managed to escape the war, and then rebels from oustide Aleppo deliverately launched an invasion of the city. They failed to take it, and the rest is history.

*[http://www.theguardian.com/…/un-launches-syria-appeal-geneva]

 Note 25/2/2025, original link [http://politomix.com/go/?url=http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663829/s/34db7330/sc/20/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Cworld0C20A130Cdec0C160Cthirty0Esix0Epeople0Ekilled0Esyrian0Earmy0Ehelicopters0Ebarrel0Ebombs/story01.htm] no longer working.

Syria's battle for bread

 'Syrian refugees say to me: "Why has the world abandoned us?" '

 Because their leaders would rather see a weakened Assad drain resources and credibility from the Russians; and so they make out to their people that this is a choice between costly and uncertain intervention, and letting someone else take care of the problem. If they armed the Free Syrian Army, there could be an end to this, but it is the interests of many parties, including the UN, to obscure that.

Details of an incredible rebel victory are now emerging

 There is a slightly more uncertain update.

 'Here the rebels can afford stalemate for now. The regime cannot.'
[http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/25622]

Razan Olive I

 'Her kidnapping and the kidnapping of her colleagues indicates yet again the endeavor of some to undermine any form of civil action to help Syrians in the liberated areas to rule and provide for themselves.'*

[http://razanghazzawi.org/.../statement-by-the-violation.../]

A Zeitouna Diary

 'In writer and novelist Robin Yassin-Kassab's storyboard writing course, a young girl, adamant about sharing her story, stood at the front of the class to explain the images and text inserted she drew and wrote in each square. She nonchalantly pointed to one square with an image of her martyred brother and quickly proceeded to the next square, an image of a brother who lived. I'm still struck by her almost emotionally numb, matter of fact delivery -- perhaps she knew that there was nothing unique to her story; she must have registered the losing a loved one to war as a common place occurrence.'

What Orwell can tell us about Syria

 'Given his willingness to take shots at fellow leftists, his fanatical anti-totalitarianism, and his consistency in correctly identifying the lesser of two evils, one finds it difficult to imagine without laughter Orwell joining the sordid collection of Stalinists and “anti-imperialists” who make up the “Stop the War Coalition.” (While millions of Syrians are bombed, starving, tortured, imprisoned, and displaced, this “anti-imperialist” rabble is busy dislocating its collective shoulder to pat itself on the back for having “stopped the war.”) It somehow seems unlikely that the man who could have been describing Syria under the Assads in Nineteen-Eighty-Four would support the continued existence of such a psychopathic crime family simply because they give lip-service to anti-Zionism.'

Kenan Rahmani

 'The failure of Americans & the US government to understand the Middle East never ends. Yesterday I was held by Customs and Border Protection in Cincinnati for questioning and searches. I explained that I provide humanitarian relief to Syrian refugees.
Here is the most important part:

 Officer: "You've been questioned by CBP before, right sir?"
 Me: "Yes, sir."
 Officer: "You know why we need to talk to you?"
 Me: "Because a lot of people are fighting in Syria and you want to collect information and make sure I am not a threat."
 Officer: "It's because there are a lot of Muslim extremists and jihadists fighting and taking over northern Syria and a lot of the refugees are being converted to jihad."
 Me: "Refugees being converted to jihad? First time I ever heard of that. I thought that they were fighting the brutal Assad dictatorship that was killing them and their families."
 Officer: "No sir, these jihadists, they are the biggest threat to the USA so we need to make sure that the refugees you work with don't have connections to them."

 After this I proceeded to show and explain many of the projects we did with the young refugee kids in Reyhanli. But we need to confront the reality that Islamophobia in the West and the "Fox News perspective" on jihad are going to make it very difficult for us to have productive Middle Eastern foreign policy. It is necessary that the current generation of Muslim Americans understand their role here as Americans in changing the current reality.'

Episode 005

 Patrick Cockburn was just explaining how Saudi Arabia is funding fundamentalist Sunnis in Syria, having "taken over the file" from Qatar, that are supposed to be opposed to Assad, and to al-Qaida, while having elements with links to al-Qaida.

 George Galloway tells us that the war in Syria has turned decisively against al-Qaida.

 Obviously, all this is untrue, and insults Syrians.

In Syria, Hunger And Humiliation As Weapons Of Mass Destruction

 'Syrians will not be reduced to animals. They want to live in freedom and dignity. These are simple wishes. Why should they not be possible?'

New chemical revelations; aid cut to rebels

 'It's funny how the growing role of jihadists in the Syrian revolution is invoked as an argument against supporting the rebels, when failure to arm the rebels is exactly what allowed the jihadists to fill the vacuum.'

Arab Spring: 10 unpredicted outcomes

 'America is struggling with problematic relationships with rebels in Syria.'

 Not really, it offered rhetorical support, and shits on them. That is a problem, not problematic.

 'Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are now effectively fighting a proxy war in Syria.'

 No, there is a democratic rising against a sectarian supported tyrant who has always made out, with the help of much of the world's media, that the rebels have only sectarian motives to remove his murderous régime. The The Iranians have been offering thousands of troops in support of the massacres of Sunni civilians, the Saudis have offered limited support to the freedom fighters, limited enough that they can be outstripped by the privately-financed al-Qaida linked brigades.

 They might also mention in 8. how sexual violence has been used by the Assad régime as a weapon of war.

Islamist Wave Is Driving Out Syria's Revolutionaries

 "When the liberation happened, it was like a release -- we felt we were released," al-Abdo said recently. "The whole countryside of the north, from Homs to Aleppo to Bab al Hawa, I felt that it was mine."

 "I was unable to write about the abduction, or how the FSA had managed to win his freedom – a story that would have made good propaganda for the secular branch of the armed opposition."

 "We will not forget the regime -- they created ISIS. They made them possible."

The good guys have lost in Syria – only the bad guys are left fighting

 'This rebel-on-rebel fratricidal orgy sums up so much that has gone wrong with Syria’s revolution.'

 The exaggeration of rebel differences in this sentence sumps up so much that has gone wrong with the reporting of Syria's revolution. It's not the worst report, though it contains other common distortions, such as the idea that moderate rebels would attend peace talks with Assad, and that the régime is just winning military victories.

10 actions the “International Community” should urgently take to help Syrian refugees

 Forcing millions to flee is an integral part of Assad's war strategy. When Jeremy Bowen tells BBC viewers, "as long as this war goes on", he should really say, "as long as the régime's bombing of civilians continues". It could be stopped with anti-aircraft weapons, but the international community has been more concerned with stopping jihadists going to fight Assad.

 It is Russian and Iranian intervention that has prolonged about the crisis. The world should have been campaigning against that, not against the fantasy that the non-existent Western support for the rebels was the problem. Demanding that Syrians be allowed the means to defend themselves is still the right course. If the crisis continues with Syrians still disempowered, it will be al-Qaida and the USAF that intervene when things get even worse.

The Syrian War and “Sectarianism”

 'When we insist in light of these facts that Syria’s conflict is not sectarian, we don’t mean to suggest that the religious hatred seen in Syria today is somehow just a myth. Instead, we are arguing that sectarian violence should be seen as the result of these specific political and economic developments, rather than their cause—something that we would instinctively recognize when thinking about parallel issues in our own country.'

Rethinking Syria (in a Big Way); Assad's Gotta Stay

 'No analogies are perfect, especially one that compares 1930's Catholic Spain to today's Muslim Syria. But as the Spanish civil war developed, the Republicans increasingly received most of their materiel from the Soviet Union; it's not inconceivable that a Republican victory would have ended with a communist take-over in Madrid. Certainly, it's better Franco won than that a major European country, on the cusp of World War II, would have had a communist government.'

Mass murder in the Middle East is funded by our friends the Saudis

 'Saudi Arabia as a government for a long time took a back seat to Qatar in funding rebels in Syria, and it is only since this summer that they have taken over the file. They wish to marginalise the al-Qa'ida franchisees such as Isil and the al-Nusra Front while buying up and arming enough Sunni war-bands to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.'

 Which contradicts the rest of the article. It is not the Saudi government, still less the Qataris, that are arming al-Qaida; it is the failure of arms to get through in sufficient quantities to the FSA that has allowed the al-Qaida linked groups to fill the gap.

 'Pakistani papers no longer pay much attention to hundreds of Shia butchered from Quetta to Lahore.'

 Patrick Cockburn doesn't pay much attention to the thousands of Syrians butchered by Assad's forces from Deraa to Deir ez-Zor. A number of commenters on this piece at the Independent site choose to dispute his acknowledgement of Assad's chemical attack in August instead.

To Syria’s Revolutionaries, Assad Isn’t Looking So Bad After All

 'Even as ISIS forced her into exile, Nawfal says she will never compromise with the regime to defeat them. “You don’t fight injustice with even bigger injustice.” '

 The headline, "To Syria’s Revolutionaries, Assad Isn’t Looking So Bad After All", is contradicted by the prime interviewee. Compromising with Assad, not giving the secular rebels the means to overthrow him; that is what has led to the growth of the al-Qaida linked groups.

A Trip to the Border

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'Among the children's chosen heroes in my storytelling workshop were Robin Hood, Batman, my brother the martyr, my father the martyr, and Sponge Bob. Among the problems to be solved were a dinosaur eating people, a car hitting a pedestrian, my house being shelled, and my cousin stuck in prison.'

Whose sarin?

 'The complaints focus on what Washington did not have: any advance warning from the assumed source of the attack.'

 Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. This was true when Bush and Blair told us the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq meant they must have been hidden. Now it can be applied to Seymour Hersh's genocide denial.

 Hersh bases his case on a couple of further propositions. That the al-Nusra front is a suspect in previous attacks. There is no evidence for this, except for some guy called Tariq who knows how to make mustard gas having been seen in Damascus. That the munitions could as easily have been fired by opposition forces. Apart from the improbability of any rebel forces hiding this from the population that are fighting on behalf of, the technical details are dealt with by the Brown Moses Blog*.

 'An unforeseen reaction came in the form of complaints from the Free Syrian Army’s leadership and others about the lack of warning.'

 So if there was some plot [sic], the FSA weren't in on it. "Unforeseen" seems to mean, "doesn't fit Hersh's narrative". He then implies that the figures for the dead are all over the place, deprecating "The strikingly precise US total". This is an administration that he's claiming knows every time a jar of chemicals moves in Syria, but can't work out how many people are killed in a documented attack? No.

 'The Obama administration, committed to the end of the Assad regime and continued support for the rebels,' is contradicted by, 'Obama turned quickly to the UN and the Russian proposal for dismantling the Syrian chemical warfare complex.'

*[http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/…/new-key-evidence-in-und…]

How the USA Lost Its Syrian Allies

'The Obama administration’s stance is increasingly more aligned with the Assad regime and its allies than with the opposition.

 “Rightly or wrongly, the administration’ view the jihadist opposition as the real enemy. What they would like is for the U.S.-backed centrists and moderates to work with the regime against the real extremists. The Iranians would like to see that as well,” said Jim Hooper, a former U.S. diplomat in Damascus.

 The Obama administration’s push for a diplomatic agreement now, at the moment of the opposition’ greatest weakness, was not necessarily in the opposition’s best interest, and they know it.

 “For the opposition it’s a trap. They cannot win,” he said. “You cannot recover at the negotiating table what you’ve lost at the battlefield.” '

Syrian society breaks as women & girls face hardship crisis“What very few people know is that the health system has been targeted by the Syrian government,” she added. “Doctors, nurses and hospitals have been specifically targeted and (it is) using healthcare as a weapon of war in Syria. Over 60 percent of our hospitals have been destroyed, most of the doctors have left the country.”
When she says, "Women and minors in Syria are being raped by government and paramilitary forces," she is referring to the government militias.“With the beginning of the revolution thousands and thousands of women found their voice. And for the first time in a very male-dominated society they were being included as equals with their men, encouraged to protest, to be activists …”

Dynamics and Prospects for the Syrian revolutionary process

 'The message written on this wall represents very much the determination of the Syrian people to continue their struggle until victory:

 “I am not concerned with when or where I die; All I care about is for the revolutionaries and their chants to continue filling the earth until there is no more injustice, built on the bodies of the poor and the helpless.” '

To give a human face to the conflict

 'Rahmani said the true problem in Syria is that the conflict has taken away the dignity of many Syrians.

“You have half the population living like natural disaster victims,” Rahmani said. “It’s not just about a civil war, it’s not just about a humanitarian crisis, it’s about people who want to live in dignity.” '

Growing suffering of Syria's besieged civilians

 'The townspeople say that what has allowed them to hold out for so long is of course the Free Syrian Army, who manage to steal ammunition and weapons from the army to replenish their supplies.

 But it's also the teamwork of the community, sharing food, wood for fuel and encouragement. It's this new spirit which means that even though the price has been so high, they insist they don't regret the revolution.'

When Will This End?

 '# Syria, # LccSy, Damascus Suburbs: Nabik: Many wounded were reported due to regime forces shelling the neighborhoods with toxic substances'

Desperate Syrian rebels turn homes into weapons factories

 'FSA Captain Ammar al-Aswad, one of the first officers who defected from Assad's army, said he had "lost hope in the Western countries."

 Al-Aswad added that he had participated in some of the early meetings with foreign officials assessing how to help the FSA obtain arms and ammunition.

 "Let me tell you something. They were just lying to us. They didn't even have the intention to help," he said. "But we don't need their help anymore." '

 Not so desperate.

Football becomes mother to Syria's traumatised child refugees

 "We couldn't take it in Syria anymore because our lives were threatened on a daily basis," Bassam said. "We, the Syrian people, are living under a very oppressive regime and asking for freedom. There was no differentiation for elderly people, children and women. They were targeting everybody. They were bombing homes, villages … it just became unliveable. So we fled to Jordan, fled the persecution."

On questions of disillusion among Syrian revolutionaries

Michael Karadjis:

 'This is not a socialist revolution, at least not at this stage. Revolutions in the real world don’t usually start this way either. The Russian revolution of November 1917 was the culmination of a broken 12-year revolutionary process began by a preacher. At this stage a revolution to overthrow a vicious family dictatorship involves not just workers in the narrow sense (and considering that Assad sacked 85,000 workers and closed down a huge percentage of Syrian industry when workers began to move in late 2011, we are not seeing a big narrowly defined “workers’ movement”), but peasants, urban poor in the informal economy, small urban and rural petty bourgeoisie excluded by the “secular” Baathist mega-bourgeoisie etc. Many of the leaderships of the rural and urban poor will come from the more educated or connected urban and rural petty-bourgeoisie, and will express themselves in religious terms.

Thus if we exclude the actually reactionary jihadist fringe (al-Nusra and especially ISIS), these mainstream Islamist movements based among the poor will be a major part of the revolution. Building solidarity with the left, secular and working class forces that fight alongside them in the quest to vanquish the tyranny is the best the western left can do to help such forces balance the more traditionalist forces in the make-up of this stage of the revolution.'

Syrian revolution to be examined at CSUF

 'VanDyke is neither Muslim nor Syrian, but wanted to shed light on what is happening in Syria and among Syrian people.

 MSA hopes to give new insight to students from different perspectives about the Syrian conflict and how they can help through this event.

 “It is not only a Syrian issue but a humanity issue and all humans should know about it.” '