Syria: Assad loyalists concerned by rise of paramilitaries

By Lina Sinjab
"Only a just deal that prevented reprisals and brought to justice those responsible for war crimes would allow the dust to settle."
Exactly, but the idea of negotiating an Iran friendly deal that sends the Assads off but keeps the rest of the criminal régime intact is not going to help Syrians forget, or even escape the genocide, as the régime would still be asserting its legitimacy by Assad's bloody methods. Reports from inside régime held areas have dominated what news coverage there is of Syria, when you face torture for saying the wrong thing, that isn't usually a good way to get an objective picture. But the inability to control the activities of the gangs of thugs who organise the reign of terror in the government held areas seems like another sign of how this hollowed out state cannot go on for long, can never govern Syria as a state authority again; and the pretence that this is a sectarian civil war rather than a revolution should be exposed. Not helped by the killing of several dozen schoolchildren* yesterday, I would tend to guess by Jabhat al-Nusra, in Homs, which has led each Russia Today news broadcast since. I expect it will be condemned by most opposition groups, and that will go unreported, and I hope those responsible are brought to justice, just as those in Assad's forces who commit such crimes day in, day out, should be.
I'm not sure I agree with everything in this piece** by Ben Allinson-Davies. I think it may be a little too conspiratorial about the US administration, that Obama doesn't read his intelligence briefings does suggest blundering rather than calculation drives the policy. The point is well made that Syrians are being forever asked to prove that they are moderate Muslims (even if they aren't sectarian the religious label is imposed on them. A woman who says she is against the Assad régime, and her baby is Sunni but the mama is Shia, popped up on my Timeline this morning. How are we supposed to pigeonhole her?) while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is allowed automatic membership of the moderate club. And this is bang on:
"The way to “defeat” a group that espouses Salafist-jihadism is never to bomb it. It will just legitimise its uncompromising message, and gain it a stronger following; bombing these groups will give them legitimacy. The key is to ARM the Free Syrian Army wholesale; with anti-tank weapons to defeat Assad’s armour, anti-aircraft weapons to blow his helicopters and jets out of the skies, and weapons and ammunition to sustain them in battle. Half the reason why so many FSA members left for al-Nusra is because al-Nusra has everything the FSA doesn’t have, from money to weapons. The key is to take that power OUT of their hands. If the FSA had everything it needed, and more, much of Nusra’s power would significantly weaken: why them if the FSA has everything you need?
If only we lived in a parallel universe in which Obama realised that he would gain firm, long-lasting allies in Syria if he armed the revolutionaries from the start, eradicated terrorism in Syria at its roots by helping them to overthrow the regime (which has created the jihadist threat in order to undermine the revolution) and tried not to use the heroic Syrian people as anti-ISIS cannon fodder."
*[http://www.aljazeera.com/…/children-killed-homs-double-blas…]
**[http://unfetteredfreedom.wordpress.com/…/obama-can-read-wh…/]