Yet again on those hoary old allegations that the US has armed the FSA since 2012

By Michael Karadjis
"I think he means that by arming the FSA, which he alleges (but fails to demonstrate) the US was doing “since 2012,” this led to the rise of ISIS, because he is too stupid to be able to tell the difference between the secular FSA, the moderate Islamist groups, harder Islamists, al-Qaida and ISIS. He believes, like most imperialist media by the way, everyone fighting in Syria against the regime is a “jihadist”, some more open than others, that anti-Assad Syrians are by definition all “extremists,” that there cannot be such a thing as an anti-Assad “moderate,” that if you give a gun to an Arab moderate he will automatically give it to a jihadist, and other such breathtakingly racist and orientalist filth.
The allegation is all the more disgusting given that it has only actually been the FSA and its allies that have fought ISIS, and earlier this year valiantly pushed ISIS out of large parts of Syria, at a cost of thousands of fighters’ lives. If only they did have the weapons Sinclair falsely alleges they have they could have even done a better job."

Critique of Patrick Cockburn’s ‘Whose Side is Turkey on?’

By Michael Karadjis
'It is only in the imagination of those leftists who don’t view things through the angle of class that Biden is being truthful in his description of the entire revolution as nothing but a bunch of jihadis or that all the arms the Gulf sent to the uprising leadership ended up in the hands of “al-Qaida” etc – in fact, this is just US code for the entire revolution, from the most democratic and secular through the mildly Islamist through the harder Islamist through jihadist sections. But slandering it all as “al-Qaida” (like “the left” does) sounds better propaganda.
By pretending that it would like to support the secular or “moderate” rebels, those the media continually calls “western-backed rebels”, while for years explaining that it could give them nothing because anything it might give them would go to the jihadists, the US was just using code for its hostility to the secular FSA, while offering the pretence that of course it “would like to” back democratic, secular forces if it could.
The “left” then gets it all wrong and criticises the US not for the pretence, but because the left has fallen for the pretence, and then goes on to explain to US imperialism what the latter already agrees with “the left” on – that there can be no such thing as a Syrian “moderate,” if you give a gun to an Arab “moderate” he will inevitably give it to a jihadist, because such oriental folk are not to be trusted.'

Syrian rebels demand better weapons to fight ISILNow there's a sentence you don't see very often.
"The Free Syrian Army is the main opposition militia in Syria and has been battling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for three and a half years in a brutal civil war."

That's Entertainment

 I found a copy of the Times this morning. Oliver Kamm has a piece about what a lying sack of shit Russia Today is, and how it should be shut down by Ofcom. A few years ago I'd have been laughing with the Indecent Leftists who point out that he's a state propagandist too,* now I note the things he points out, like massacres by Assad or the Russian proxies shooting down a Malaysian airliner, are true, and things the Indecent Leftists are in denial about.

 *As Laura Emmett of RT does here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhEnxofZ9bo]

Lebanon’s pot farmers gear up for a fight with Islamic State

"I think they're using Islamic State militants as an excuse to justify having weapons, but the real reason is to protect their hashish."
And that's a good thing in itself.

Isis in Syria: General reveals the lack of communication with the US - and his country's awkward relationship with their allies-by-default

 

 So this is where Fisk gets all his news. The idea that Assad's forces let go or reintegrated all those who defected to the FSA would be laughable to any actual reporter. As would the idea that the US are putting any faith in them whatsoever. As Scott Lucas* put it, what happened to Robert Fisk?

'As for the FSA into which the US put so much faith, he laughs. "There may be some in Idlib and near Deraa. There were soldiers and some officers who defected from the Syrian army,” he said. “Some asked to come back and are in our army again. Others returned and we sent them home.” '
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcHYfWVWiXI]

Grisly video shows aftermath of airstrike on Syrian camp, activists say
'Reuters news agency cited State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as calling the strike “nothing short of barbaric.”
"Unfortunately, if it is confirmed to be the work of the (Assad) regime, it is only the latest act of brutality by the regime against its own people." '
And condemnation is still pretty much all we get from the US administration, who know as much as anyone that this sort of attack takes place every day, without any doubt that it is the Assad régime doing it. Still that's better than the silence from much of the world, and the fairytales from some about how the real problem in Syria is the US and its allies in the Gulf.

U.S-Backed Syrian Rebels' Pleas For Help Likely To Go Unanswered

Not really 'US-backed' then, are they?
"Free Syrian Army rebels have told the U.S. their chief goal is toppling Assad, who is presently pushing to take over Aleppo. Over the weekend, they were outraged when White House envoy Gen. John Allen told an Arab newspaper the U.S. goal in Syria was not to help rebels end Assad's rule but to make them part of a negotiated political end to the civil war.
Those sympathetic to the rebels believe U.S. policymakers, long wary of toppling Assad, are loath to aid rebels in regions targeted by Assad because of Assad's support from Iran. At a time when U.S. relations with Iran are better than ever before and a deal over Tehran's nuclear program seems within reach, they say, Washington does not want to be responsible for undermining Iran's chief client -- or empowering U.S. allies in Syria to do so."

Review of Reese Erlich’s ‘Inside Syria’

 This arsehole is endorsed by a Noam Chomsky foreword, which doesn't give much hope for the latter's understanding of what's going on.

 "Erlich carefully unpacks the evidence that the Assad regime used Sarin gas and finds that some of it has been exaggerated or even possibly fabricated. Which doesn’t mean the Damascus regime is innocent. His discussion weighs the charges on all sides and concludes that we really don’t know."

These Stunning, Simple Posters Tell The Story Of The Syrian RevolutionAl-Qashoush: The "nightingale of the revolution", Ibrahim Qashoush, was an amateur poet who inspired demonstrations against the Syrian regime with his voice and stinging songs. He was found dead in the Orontes River several days after disappearing in 2011, his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out. The name 'Assad' literally means 'lion' in Arabic.

The war for the Middle East

Corey Oakley

"In spite of the shameful attitude of much of the international left, which has variously dismissed the Syrian rebels as imperialist stooges, Islamist fanatics, gangster-like thugs or a spent force, they continue to wage a heroic liberation war against incredible odds."

At least 30 regime soldiers killed in Syria, opp. says"The Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said in a statement that the Free Syrian Army, Soldiers of Al-Aqsa and the Nusra Front launched a joint operation and gained the control of several regime-controlled areas in Idlib, in northwestern Syria."
The BBC has, "Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants and other Syrian rebel groups have attacked the government-held city of Idlib."* Robert Fisk has gone full loon, and is ascribing the attack to ISIS.**
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29796134]
** With some illogic twisted to breaking point. "Although the attackers were identified as Jabhat al-Nusra rebels – the Syrian army regards all of its opponents as “terrorists” and part of Isis – the assault was obviously intended to crown another shattering victory for the so-called Islamic caliphate which now stretches from eastern Aleppo to the outskirts of Baghdad in Iraq." You might say that The ferocity of the attack shows just how hard-pressed the Syrian regime is in its battle against the same enemy that the US President, Barack Obama, has described as farmers and dentists.[http://www.independent.co.uk/…/isis-attack-on-idlib-assads-…]

Dr Abbas Khan 'unlawfully killed' in Syria jail

 "His family claims he was murdered. The Syrian government maintains he was found hanging in a jail cell."

 Who are you going to believe? It's a choice of competing narratives. Either he went to help the people being maimed and killed by the Assad government, which tortured and killed him as it has tens of thousands of others, or we can't really know what's going on in Syria because there are so many complexities to this confusing situation.

 When people ask where the Syrian revolution has gone, one answer is that it is being starved and tortured in Assad's dungeon's. One might help in a better world that fellow revolutionaries would be out on the streets of other countries demanding their release, and justice.

Life in Aleppo’s ruins: ‘We’ve had enough of dying, sitting at home, having no fun. We want to dance’This is typical of what passes for reporting on Syria. The governor is lying, the reason there are nine million displaced Syrians is that depopulating areas through bombing has been Assad's major tactic for two years. It appears Lindsey Hilsum is giving balance by putting the other side, but when nobody from the rebel side is heard, it is the supporters of Assad's genocide who seem like the credible ones. And thus is a media narrative created that is pro-Assad while having the appearance of balance.
'Government forces have relentlessly bombarded rebel areas, forcing out civilians, but the governor claimed that the people were coming to the regime’s side because the rebels had forced them out. “War is war, but we use bombs only in the area where rebels and Islamic State terrorists are, not where there are civilians,” he said. “There are no longer any civilians in rebel areas, because the rebels forced them to flee to safer places.” '
Much the way Israel claims that the Arab countries forced the Palestinians to flee in 1948. There are civilians left in the rebel-held areas, not everyone can get out, and for them the régime has created a Hell not like the government-held area the Guardian reports from.

No, The Progressive Syrian Opposition Is Not Dead
"After three years of demonstrating, nothing changed, even when the situation in Syria has been widely publicized and the world now knows of the Syrians' suffering. The world didn't lift a finger."