Ex-PM Barak lambasts anti-ISIS alliance

 “Assad massacred almost 200,000 of his own people, using every method including chemical weapons. This was not enough to move British Prime Minister Cameron or the American Congress and President Obama. Then, along came the Islamic State and beheaded two journalists, a practice not all that new in the Middle East, but doing so in front of cameras. Within 28 hours the whole world was mobilized against them.

 Let’s assume that ISIS is restrained within a year. So who really wins? The main winner will be Assad, as well as Iran and Hezbollah, in other words President Bush’s axis of evil. The coalition is doing some of their dirty work for them.”

Iran's Military Mastermind Is 'The Leader Of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, And Yemen'

 'The Obama administration, while denying any coordination, does not seem to mind Iran's empowerment as the two countries negotiate a potential nuclear deal that Obama hopes will rebalance the region for the better. The consequences of the Iran-backed agenda are becoming increasingly clear, however, as the regime of Bashar Assad continues to rain barrel bombs on civilians, Al Qaeda's Syria affiliate routs US-backed rebels, Tehran sends more fighters to bolster Assad, Iraqi Shia militias torch Sunni villages in Iraq, and ISIS runs a self-declared caliphate across both Iraq and Syria.'

 Not greatly US-backed, or they wouldn't have been routed.

Obama's reward system becoming increasingly innovative

 'Use chemical weapons and get US air support.'

 ISIS have nearly overrun Assad's airbase at Deir Ezzor. He has responded with chlorine bombs, while the US also bomb ISIS in the area.

A Last Gasp Warning for U.S. Influence

 'Without question, ISIS is a threat to regional and international security, but so too is a failed state with over 100,000 frustrated armed insurgents. For all Syrian rebels — encompassing U.S.-backed FSA groups to the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham — ISIS is a menace, but the regime is the enemy. Fighting the latter is seen as a way to defeat the former, but not vice-versa. Fighting ISIS and ignoring the regime is simply not an option.

 Syria's armed opposition is now determined to go it alone. As one U.S.-backed leader told me, "there's simply no trust [in the U.S.] left, we'll do whatever we need to do for the revolution and our people. For three years we pleaded for American help — one day, they might regret not having given it more honestly." '

A safe zone in Syria would be a forward step

 'The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pressing for a more ambitious strategy, including a no-fly zone that would extend to Aleppo. That would be a much heavier blow to the Assad regime; it would entrench the moderate opposition in the country’s second-largest city and could force the serious negotiations about a post-Assad government that the Obama administration says it seeks.'

Palestinians in Syria struggle for bread and agency

 'In July 2013, the regime hermetically sealed off the camp, on which a relentless siege was imposed. Under the pretext of forcing enemy fighters out, the population was surrounded. People were left without food or medicine, and for weeks without drinking water. Dozens of people have died from the effects of the siege, mostly children, women and the elderly. It is only the regime that imposes and maintains the embargo. It is the regime alone that bears responsibility for the deaths that have resulted from it.'

A&E In The War Zone

 In case you hadn't noticed, Assad bombs all the hospitals.

 Rola Alkurdi Hallam:

 "A British surgeon friend of mine just back from 6 weeks in Aleppo. He's a bit traumatized from the horrors. For those of you in uk, a documentary about his trip will be showing on Wednesday, late in the eve apparently because of how graphic and distressing it is!!! Whilst I understand that, it also really frustrates me because the horrors will still not be seen by many."

Syrians watch their revolution, dismayed but unbowed

 These revolutionary Syrians are invisible to much of the Left.

 ' “The Syrian revolution is one of the greatest revolutions in all of history,” says Mohammed, Yusuf’s twin. “We paid a lot, we paid blood, we paid a whole generation, and at the end, the right will have the victory. Because this revolution [was fought] against injustice, corruption, and dictatorship.”

 Mr. Khalil, like many Syrians, is deeply frustrated with President Barack Obama’s failure to take decisive action in Syria as some members of Congress have advocated, at one point kissing his fingers and shouting, “I love you John McCain!”

 “Obama always said, ‘If Assad does this, this is a red line.’ I’m trying to invent a new color for Obama, because red is not enough for him,” he says, criticizing the limited airstrikes on IS as ineffective and tangential to what he sees as the real need: removing President Assad. “If you have a disease or a pain in your head, should I come and treat your arm?” '

Syrian Aid Cuts 'Amount to Execution Order'

 Still I imagine there are left-wing idiots who think this is because Obama is too busy arming jihadists, when the reality is that the abandonment of refugees is part and parcel of the abandonment of Syria to Assad's genocide.

The road to death in Ghouta begins with a wood-gathering trip

 'Ali, an FSA fighter stationed in Jobar, talked about the double suffering he faces; fighting off regime’s struggle to advance in the neighbourhood and providing the necessities of daily life. In an interview with the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office correspondent, he said, “I stay at the neighbourhood for two days and during my free time I gather as much firewood as I can, then I have to walk for five kilometres back home; my brothers would be waiting for the firewood.”

 Almost everywhere in eastern Ghouta, you could see children searching for food to survive. Although the people here have experienced the worst living conditions and have been forgotten by the whole world, they are still living with dignity and refusing to kneel down for the Assad regime.'

Jogging through a war zone

 “We are showing the world that we are playing sports in the most dangerous city in the world … It’s also to relieve people from the stress of the continuous strikes and crimes committed by the regime and to showcase our talented athletes who partake in such events.”

The Obama Administration Has Assad Amnesia

 'Assad would have been the invisible man in Brussels had Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu not insisted on bringing him up. The minister called for a comprehensive strategy in the region and warned that unless the anti-ISIS coalition broadens its campaign to tackle the Assad regime in addition to the jihadists there will be no peace, the conflict will continue, and the militants can exploit that for their own ends.

 Now that their country is in its fourth year of bloody civil war, and after at least 200,000 deaths, infuriated Syrian rebels fear a behind-the-scenes bargain with the Devil is in the works, one permitting Assad to get away with murder and remain in power.

 They say the West is displaying an indifference to their struggle and the latest peace plans being pushed by the UN, NGOs and Moscow don’t reassure them. All three envisage Assad staying in power—at least in the short term.'

Word in the White House: “de-escalation”

 'The word in the White House is “de-escalation.” This means that instead of working with allies to extend protection to Syrian civilians and to constrain Assad’s killing machine, the White House is more concerned with publicly signaling that its priority is to avoid any clash with Assad.'

Radio-Free Syria

 ' “Whenever we get rid of the regime, it’s going to be easy to get rid of ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Nusra Front,” he said. The jihadis justified their presence by saying to the local people, “We’re here to help you topple the regime.” Once the regime was gone, he said, people would see the foreign fighters for what they were: carpetbaggers.'

Three lessons learned from the Syrian conflict

 ' "Assad or else we burn the country." Huge swaths of Aleppo were leveled and depopulated as Assad's air force dropped more bombs on the city than it had in all of Syria's wars against Israel. Other parts of Syria that the regime's militias could not re-conquer, such as Raqqa in the east, were allowed to fall into the hands of the terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

 That is what passed for a "political program" on the part of the regime. In almost four years of war, it has not been able to implement even the tiniest political, economic or social reform in either civil society or the armed forces. It has no political vision to offer its supporters other than to exploit the terrifying vision of a rampant ISIS and other less well-defined "threats" and conspiracies.

 The Syrian opposition may have gotten numerous proclamations of "friendship," but except in a very few cases, they were very shallow and superficial friendships indeed. Meantime, money, arms and mercenaries poured in from Iran, Russia, the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and assorted sectarian "soldiers of fortune" from Iraq to Afghanistan, all with the sole aim of sustaining a regime that would otherwise have collapsed.'

Palestinian Refuge for 6 Decades, Now Flooded From Syria

 I saw some shitty British Hezbollah fan [Kevin Ovenden] the other day eulogise the unity of a Beirut conference on fighting Israel, and call for support for the revolutionary forces in the region. But there is no support for those made to suffer by Assad, Hezbollah is murdering in Syria, and making refugee lives miserable in Lebanon. A nation that oppresses another will never itself be free.

 'One young Palestinian, Ayman Saed, fled Syria after being detained for eight months. His crime: trying to escape the government cordon around Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, ruled and fought over by insurgents, starved and bombarded by the security forces. Amjad Hariri, 31, a Syrian from the southern city of Dara’a, said he lost two brothers, shot as they tried to flee security forces early in the uprising that began with protests in 2011. 

 Soon after, his sister Majdaleen, 14, was shot in the face by a sniper as she walked to a government office.

 When Syrian insurgents periodically claim responsibility for attacks on Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia allied with the Syrian government, angry men come to “take revenge” on Syrians, he said.'

Syria "systematically" using chemical weapons

 'The regime used chemical weapons in attacks against opposition-controlled towns in northern Syria during April and May of this year and again in August and September. Eyewitness reports of regime helicopters indicate that the Syrian government carried these attacks out.'

The German Left’s Palestine Problem

 Sam Charles Hamad:

 "Yeah, does anybody want to talk about 'Die Linke's' Syrian problem? Namely, that they uncritically and unashamedly support the Assad regime in all its brutal endeavours against, most ironically, both Syrians and Palestinians? No, 'Jacobin' certainly wouldn't want to talk about it. The reason I bring it up is because it completely renders any support that 'Die Linke' might have for the Palestinians as meaningless, while it also reminds us that this kind of left is part of the same political logic as the right, or, in this case, Die Linke's support for Assad (remember the petition they authored calling on solidarity with the Assad regime in 2012, just as the slaughter was reaching mechanical, methodical levels?) is just as bad as some of the German left's support for Israel. Fuck them both, I say."

The Pat on the Back award

 'The Pat on the Back award went to journalist Robert Fisk for his articles on Isis and Syria, who the campaign said "helped make some kind of clear sense of what was and is largely senseless, and, unlike some of his peers, never overplays his own part in what's unfolding".'

A heinous crime inside Intelligence Branch 215

 'The Syrian Association confirmed that the Assad regime's military intelligence executed 131 detainees inside Branch 215, known as the Raid Brigade in Damascus, after they were infected with the pneumonic plague due to poor health conditions.'

 In Auschwitz, many of the survivors only outlasted the Nazis because they'd been in the hospital .ward with scarlet fever.

The West is to blame for Syrian conflict

 What a messed up world it is when many on the left claim it is the Saudi and Western funding of jihadists that has created the catastrophe in Syria, and it is down to the former intelligence chief of one of the most reactionary governments in the world to point out the truth.

 'The US and western Europe failed to act on Saudi recommendations in 2012 to arm the moderate Syrian rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, he pointed out. “If that had been done, then there would have been no need to use our air force now. The difference between the good guys and the bad guys in the opposition was clear cut then. It was the dilly-dallying at the time that gave Jabhat al-Nusra [branch of] al-Qaeda [its] chance. Because of the time lost it has, of course, become much more difficult now between the good guys and the bad guys.” '

Obama gives Assad’s air force a free pass for slaughter

 I don't think appeasement is the best term here, it is not as if Iran threatens the world the way Nazi Germany did, but the point that Obama is giving Assad a free pass is well made, much preferable to the garbage that the death in Syria is down to an American intervention against Assad and Iran.

 Talking of actual Nazis, "In the 1950s Alois Brunner, one of the world's most wanted German Nazi war criminals, is believed to have fled to Syria. He reportedly later served as an adviser to President Hafez al-Assad and is thought to have instructed his government on torture tactics."
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30275358]

The Corrosive Split that Sidelined Hagel

 'Moderates, betrayed by the promise of well-crafted support for their anti-Assad campaign, have vowed to singularly fight the regime while responding to the jihadist onslaught. Jihadists, united against the US air campaign, attack its closest allies on the ground, determined to defeat the remnants of the remaining mainstream opposition. Meanwhile, Washington avoids meaningful conversation on its ineffective strategy as the mainstream opposition suffers the brunt of dual assault by jihadists and Assad’s regime. A responsible Syria strategy requires that President Obama turn the coercive threat of military action to its rightful client: Assad. The president’s tolerance to Assad’s unchallenged assault on the opposition sidelines the administration’s partners whose legitimate claims over the restoration of peace and dignity to the Syrian people deserves aggressive support.'

Hezbollah’s Syria Problem

 'While Hezbollah wants to maintain its credentials as an anti-Israel fighting force, it can't afford a full-scale battle with the Jewish state in Southern Lebanon while committed to fighting Sunnis in Syria and increasingly forced to do the same at home in Lebanon. Nor does it want to take the chance of inviting the Israeli air force to respond in Syria, where Israeli airstrikes could severely damage Hezbollah and other forces loyal to the Assad regime.'

‘Hell is never far away’

 Usual number of arseholes in the comments blaming this on Western intervention.

 'Barrel bombs, the Syrian war’s most savage weapon, are also its most indiscriminate killer.
Slowly, methodically, they have tipped the tide in the favour of the regime, which continues to edge around Aleppo’s north-eastern flank as its bombs erode the city of civilians, fighters, and hope.

 Rebel fighters who work alongside Umm Abdu in the city say the fighter-cum-medic is unique. “No one else risks her own life as much,” says a local leader, Abu Juud, who helps provide food for her family. “And no one else saves as many other lives.” '

No Agreement Reached on Syrian No-Fly Zone

 'Obstacles remain to the United States’ committing to what would be a significant increase in American military engagement in the area.'

 The different interests of the US administration from those of the Syrian people make it difficult to trust any intervention of the former that is claimed to benefit the latter, but the talk of 'obstacles' and 'significant increase' is very much the language of those who at best, are more afraid of Islamists coming to power in Syria than they care about the destruction wrought by Assad and ISIS.

 Announce a no-fly zone, and Assad's airforce, only good and bombing children and pensioners, would shit in their pants. There was a programme about Cybercrime the other day, where Ben Hammersley* said that when the Israelis bombed Syrian nuclear facilities a few years ago, they disabled the entire Syrian air defence system. They didn't seem to worry that that might put them in more direct conflict with Mr. Assad. As indeed they have stayed out of Syria, while their supposed enemy Hezbollah has murdered for Assad with abandon.

 The Turks have their own reasons for wanting to help, but the disaster that the death agony of the Assad dynasty has wrought on them means they do want to help.

*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tr8l9]

What on earth is Nick Griffin doing in Syria?

 One might say much the same about Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn, the Independent's conduits for stories from Damascus. Press TV reports some attendees from a US organisation called Veterans Today.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20141203221618/http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/01/388246/counterterrorism-conference-in-syria/]

Secret British role in halting Isil 'massacre' in Lebanon

 ZOMG, Britain intervenes on the side of Hezbollah. Before anyone tells me ever again that arming the FSA is a problem because it is an intervention with results we know not, deal with the reality, everyone is intervening, only none of them on the side of saving the Syrian people from the ongoing catastrophe that is Assad remaining in power, and his victims driven into the arms of ISIS by the world allying with their enemies.



 Not much illumination from the New York Times:

 'But here in Ras Baalbek, at least, the encroaching conflict has forged a new, provisional unity. Even longtime critics of Hezbollah grudgingly welcome its presence as a bulwark between them and the Syrian and foreign Sunni militants in the highlands, although some blame Hezbollah for inflaming the threat.'
[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/world/clashes-on-syrian-border-split-lebanese-town.html]

We Leave, They Stay

 'So these boys have never met Lina nor have they heard of her. Still, they find comfort in the dream, and begin to draw. All but one.

 "Omar, refused to draw," Lina says, recalling that day. "He said his old home is gone. And his new home is no home at all. He was completely despondent. I spent some time talking to him, trying to give him hope, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get him to draw."

 Lina's voice falls with sorrow. "Finally he told me all he wants is to grow up so he can go and die in the revolution." '

Armed opposition groups announce new alliance

 'Aloush, who is a senior member of Jaysh Al-Islam, said his group was ready to fight alongside minority groups in a united front against the Assad regime. “If any Christian or other fighting groups were formed on the ground, they would be able to join the Command Council,” he said, adding that “all these groups are equal in front of the law, and their rights will not be trampled upon.” '