Stop the crocodile tears. We didn't care about Syria

 Red lines get crossed over and over, and still the priority is to stop Obama invading Syria. And that Dangerous Dan Hodges. At least the comments here aren't as wacky as on many Telegraph blogs, but there are quite a number of If You Want A War In Syria, Why Don't You Go Fight It Yourself? which gets to be tiresome after a while.

 'Last year the world had an opportunity to send a signal to the Assad regime. Actually, the world had the opportunity to send a signal to itself.

 Faced with evidence the Syrian government had been using chemical weapons on its own citizens – effectively choking its own children to death in their beds – we had the chance to take a stand. Not a chance to halt the slaughter overnight, or topple the Assad regime. But to put down a marker that said “You are on notice. We will not simply walk by on the other side. Remember, though the mills of justice grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.” '

Give Syria’s dead a chance to speak out

 'President Barack Obama described the Syrian conflict as “someone else’s civil war,” this at a time when the savagery of Assad’s security services was well established, amid evidence that his regime had ordered the murder and torture of tens of thousands of people.

 Assad’s forces have behaved like beasts because there has been wide latitude for them to do so, without any penalty. Yet rarely have the horrors of war been made so available, through thousands of videos taken by citizen journalists and activists. However, outrage has been muted. Syrians are entitled to wonder why they count for less than citizens of the former Yugoslavia, or of Libya, who benefited from Western military intervention to avert a massacre in Benghazi.'

 Of course some people are doing the important task of preventing Cameron and Obama dragging us into another war.

We Are The Giant

 "But, like Nelson Mandela learned in his ANC days, there comes a point where the violence the state uses to squelch any peaceful anti-government protests comes at the cost of death and the remaining options become either letting the government win or taking up arms and defending the cause."
[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/…/we-are-giant-sundance-re…]

Malicious Syria Bashing: Part II

 I've just seen a couple of stupid comments from people who think they are anti-war. Here's Flying Rodent:

 'After all this time, the cry "We Must Help The Syrians" somehow still contains highly misleading definitions of "We", "Help" & "Syrians".

 "We" seems to mean "The US military"; "Help" sounds like "Kill lots of" & "Syrians" = "Syrian people who are not currently dying in droves".'

 It is the arrogance of FR and his friends to think that the conflict in Syria is like that because they say so. There also one of his mates talking about "dropping 1000lb bombs" and he talks about the Times leader writer taking a break from bayoneting Alawites. I assume the last is supposed to be a joke, but given how out of touch FR and his fellows have become in their insistence that Syria is Iraq Mark II, I'm not sure.
[https://twitter.com/flying_rodent]



 And then Stephen Lendman. The answers are, he isn't and they aren't.

 ' "Syria's Assad accused of boosting al-Qaeda with secret oil deals." Western intelligence supplied fake evidence.

 It's farcical on its face. Why would Assad conspire with terrorists he's going all out to eliminate? Why would they work with a government they're committed to topple? '

 Note 25/2/25, Assad was buying oil from ISIS.

Syria talks headed for failure

 'Under siege, he said, Syrians tolerated various shades of Islamist militias - more mainstream or even extreme hard-liners - because they arrived with money, guns, and good organization. When the West failed to provide aid to non-Islamist militias, those defending their villages against regime soldiers had few choices.

 "People needed guns and that's where the Islamists came in," said Hadad. "When people have no hope, the thing you believe in, the only thing you have left, is faith." '

Children on the Frontline

 'Syria’s largest city Aleppo, has become engulfed by fighting between pro and anti-regime groups and over two thousand children have been killed there. Schools have shut, food is in serious shortage and there is the constant threat of shelling, sniper fire and kidnap.

 Against this stark backdrop, Marcel Mettelsiefen spent nine months filming the moving story of five young children whose lives have been changed forever by the war in Syria.

 They are three young sisters Helen, Farah and Sara and their brother Mohammed; whose father is a rebel commander in Aleppo and Aboude a singer and poster boy for the Syrian uprising.'

Syria report: One is reminded of Nazi Germany

 Fisk is a wanker. This report that shows what the Syrian government does is like when the Nazis were accused of a Soviet massacre.

Moment of truth for Syria, but Iran left in the cold

 'Critics argue that holding a peace conference with some main regional players, such as Saudi Arabia, but not others, like Iran, is unrealistic and would limit chances of achieving peace.'

 Critics, supporters of Assad, and Patrick Cockburn, are not necessarily the same thing.

 'A further incentive for Turkey and others - such as state and private donors supporting rebels in the Gulf - to think about bringing an end to the conflict is the apparent success of Isis in counter-attacking other rebel groups that seemed to be making headway against it a fortnight ago.'

 No suggestion that the conflict could be brought to an end by Russia and Iran ceasing to support Assad. And the clearance of ISIS from most of Syria is a non-story for Cockburn.

Can evidence of mass killings in Syria end the inertia? Only with Putin's help

 ThinkerX55: "This is all about gas pipelines isn't it ?"

 No.

 I think Freedland is wrong, the US may use this to weaken Putin's position, but they don't want to own the problem, and a bit of faux outrage isn't going to convince the Russians that their interests have changed. Fawaz Gerges was making a similar case case on the BBC News earlier. Because nobody can solve the military stalemate (I think Paul Wood, who has done some good reporting, earlier claimed that Assad is winning), we need to concentrate on humanitarian relief. But it is the attacks on civilians that have been central to Assad's prosecution of the war. Gerges said that inspectors should be sent into Syrian detention centres as a priority, how does he think that's going to happen? By asking the Iranians, who he very much regrets have been excluded from Geneva? Do me a favour.

 As it happens the rebels are doing very well at the moment in the Damascus region. [http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/…/syria-details-of-daray…/]

Syrian refugees on Geneva II: 'I have learnt that politics has no principles'

 I don't believe their poll figures, which also suggest think that Assad stepping down is in the top three priorities of only one in a hundred Syrian refugees. I'm reminded of the polls that show that most Palestinians would prefer a two-state solution and give up 78% of Palestine. 5 out of 9 of the refugees interviewed here mention it, and it appears to be about 100% in Zaatari, the biggest refugee camp in the world, as well as in other camps friends have visited. I think the truth is that Syrians overwhelmingly want Assad to go, but the media has many ways of not telling that story.

Syrian-American activist Amal Kassir uses slam poetry to fuel her cause

 I'm not going to listen to this, because I hate poetry.

 "Syria is my home, I know what it is. But America gave me the ability to see things that I would not have otherwise been able to see in Syria, and I am a voice of the revolution, because the United States gave me a stage and gave me the opportunity."

Difficult times for the Syrian revolution, but people continue to fight

 Misleading article by Judith Orr from the first sentence. The Syrian National Council does not have the same base and beliefs as "Western politicians" (whoever they are), the SNC because they exist to negotiate were always likely to find pressure to attend Geneva, but are still adamant that they go to bury Assad, not to praise him.

 
 Much of the article is taking up with quotes from Joseph Daher, who is a Syrian revolutionary socialist. I disagree with many of his formulations. Moreover, I think he is used as excuse for politics that fails to show solidarity with the broader Syrian revolution by some on the British far left, from the criticism of armed groups taking a lack of need to delineate the difference between them and Assad. I think my differences with what he says are clear if not so great in the overall scheme of things, so I'll go through them.



 "Geneva is a big threat to the revolution."

 I'm not sure about this. Acceptance of the Geneva process disarming the revolution would be, but given the rejection inside Syria of Geneva, not so much.

 "The National Council has zero influence with people on the ground. "

 I don't see any alternative national body, other than the Islamic Front, arising in their place, so I think there is a lot of passive acceptance of their role if there is to be any negotiating, which doesn't mean they could enforce any deal if they did sell out. Which is one reason they aren't likely to overdo it.

 “None of these forces want the revolution to deepen or be victorious.”

 I don't think the latter part is true. They may not want the same revolution as you right now, and I think it is important for revolutionary socialists to deal with what is not what ought to be, but they want Assad and his régime of murder and torture to go. That is the main dividing line in Syria right now, and for now they are on the right side.

 'Joseph explained that most Western leaders would like to move Assad out.
But they want to install “a Yemeni-style solution, where all the structures of the regime kept in place”.'

 I think this may well not be true. Overthrowing régimes outside their sphere of influence is difficult and expensive in a number of ways, and so better to keep Assad in power, either because it costs the Russians in power and prestige, or because they want him to fight al-Qaida[sic].



 And then I read the rest and couldn't find much to disagree with. There is an interesting omission about the slogan , “The solution is not in Geneva but in the Hague”, which shows that ,many activists want the world to treat Assad as the war criminal he is, and get rid of him or give Syrians the means to do so. This is at odds who want to see the West and the Gulf states as as much a threat to Syrians as Assad and his foreign allies, a view which is foreign to the experience of many Syrians.

Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime

 Lindsey Hilsum was just telling Jon Snow on Channel 4 News that this will make preparations for the Geneva talks "even more fraught". And this seems to be the problem, that we are told that there are only two choices, Do Something in the form of a US-led invasion, or hope the international community can actively cajole Syrians into putting up with this shit a minute longer. It's a false choice, that denies agency to Syrians.

Peace possible in Syria as political landscape changes

 'The US and the Europeans now genuinely want to end the war, something they have claimed to want since 2011 but which – for all their lamentations – always sounded somewhat hypocritical. Put another way, they wanted the war to end but only if Assad was overthrown or stepped down.'

 They never wanted to make him step down, just make it appear that they were making some sort of protest. And equating genuine peacemaking with keeping Assad in power is what Patrick Cockburn, the Stop The War Coalition(who reprint this praise of imperialism), and much of the media and political groups of various persuasions do these days.

'It was reportedly Jabhat al-Nusra and members of the Islamic Front who, in December, massacred 32 Alawites, Christians, Druze and Ismailis in the town of Adra, to the north-east of Damascus.'

Or Russia Today made the whole thing up.
[http://claysbeach.blogspot.it/.../fake-adra-massacre...]

Saving Syria requires finishing off ISIL

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'By now everybody knows that the world isn't coming to save Syria: Syria must save itself. The present stage of this process involves ending ISIL as well as confronting the regime. After that, either people, in at least most regime-controlled areas will welcome the revolutionary militias, or the revolutionary militias will fail to make meaningful progress.

 Most people in regime controlled areas are terrified of ISIL, not just minorities (who comprise a third of the population), but also many Sunni Arabs. The presence of extremist armed groups makes it strategically impossible to defeat Assad, as illustrated recently when Deir Attiyeh was briefly liberated. ISIL arrived with the liberating forces and mistreated Christians. As a result, many people there were actually pleased when the regime retook the city.'

The Scholar-Rebels of the Free Syrian University

 ' “I burned my life in Syria when I left,” says al-Jamal, eliciting nods of agreement from Syrian academics around him. “It was the suppression of the educated. It was the suppression of the arts. And the suppression of all those outside of the regime over the last decades—that is our reason for being a part of this.

 We have these new ideas,” he adds. “That is why we started this.” '

Syria's Rebel Press Are Fighting Back Against Jihadists

 'Our revolution was one for Freedom, Dignity and Equality,
those are three qualities we will not negotiate for.'

Syria's horrors are unimaginable – and largely beyond our control

 Ironic that Daniel Hannan, who I think made his name telling American TV he wanted to privatise the NHS, should be warning of the dangers of intervention. Of course, sending actual weaponry to the FSA isn't the same as an Iraq War Re-enactment Society, but so is the debate framed by those who can't see empowering Syrians as the solution.

 "Every refugee we met wanted Western strikes against the Assad regime; it would have been bizarre if they hadn’t. But it doesn’t follow that Anglo-American military intervention in Syria would do more good than harm."

 One of the comments puts the counter-argument to those who claim that any Western intervention can only make things worse; it is doing nothing to help, and even bullying the opposition into accepting Assad, that will make Western intervention more likely down the line.

 "Eventually the West will have to get involved and if that means creating a scotched earth policy just to put out the fire then so be it."

A Sad Morning Every Morning

 When Syrian musician Kinan Azmeh walks on to the world's most famous concert stage alone on Monday night, he will only be carrying his clarinet.

 His solo lament, A Sad Morning, Every Morning, will be dedicated to the children of his homeland who are caught up in the brutality of the rebellion that has become a civil war.

 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25632384]

Iran and the Wrong Allies in Syria

 Tom Rogan puts the US national interest the other way from Pat Buchanan.

 'Only last week, an alliance of Salafi-nationalist rebels began a campaign to challenge ISIS and its affiliate allies. Their rejection of unrestrained extremism is heartening — it speaks to the popular fury that ISIS’s havoc has induced. At the same time, the Free Syrian Army is showing tentative signs of revival.

 However, were the United States to ally with Iran, we’d be opening the door to their hardliners’ broader scheming. If we loosen up on Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-intelligence officers, those individuals would almost certainly use that space to harass the more moderate rebel columns. In essence, Iran would use the U.S. as a force multiplier — enabling their greater support of Assad’s regime.'

The enemy of our enemy

 'The greatest threat to U.S. interests there is not autocrats, Sunni or Shia, interested in getting rich, but radicals with the mindset of suicide bombers taking over a state and spreading revolution down the Gulf.

 War is the clear and present danger, and peace the necessary condition of securing those interests.

 The defeat of ISIS in Anbar and Syria and peace in the region should be our primary goal. And if Iran is willing to assist Damascus and Baghdad in defeating al-Qaida, Iran should be treated as a temporary ally in a common cause.'

 Pat Buchanan puts US interests one way.

A Widow of Bayada

Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'Two months before I met the family, a missile hit their temporary home in Wa’er. The widow (whose arm is still in plaster) bribed a soldier so she wouldn’t be stopped at checkpoints, and travelled with three of her children to Turkey. In her refuge, she showed me her teenage son’s arm and shoulder, tattooed with one extended burn scar.

 The widow’s eight-year-old daughter shivered out of shot, hearing the tale recounted for the hundredth time. There’s nothing special about this experience, and she knows it. Everyone has a story.'

Save Yarmouk Camp-Freedom Qashoush Symphony

With classical music by Malek Jandali.

Syria’s Conflict Told Through a Caustic Wit

 'We can see now that people really are more confident, if they can reject ISIS like that. They won’t accept any kind of tyranny and they will push back against it, whether it is the tyranny of the regime or the tyranny of ISIS. But the regime is definitely the bigger enemy. In the end, we got ISIS out of the town in two minutes. The regime is harder.'

When freedom brings hope and trouble

 'With the atrocities of the regime as well as the ISIL, demonstrating, continuing the sarcastic banners like those of Kafer Nebbul town and revolutionary rap songs — these are what remain for the Syrians to show that their revolution has started peacefully and will continue, along with armed resistance.'

 Some people commenting on the Syrian revolution will ignore the last bit. Or see a comment like, "It is true that use of military force has gained the rebels advances on the ground, but this is not everything that Syrians are looking for," and conclude that the question military support for the rebels is not important, when it is what stands between the Syrian people and the abyss.

UN concerns mount over besieged Syrians

 Valerie Amos. Was just telling the World Service about "people besieged [in Syria], whether by government or by opposition sources", and it is just a lie that the opposition has been doing this. Many Syrians are on the brink of starvation because their own government denies them food (Amos had just been to see some of them, in the Palestian refugee camp in Yarmouk). She repeats a few more of the international community's excuses for maintaining Assad in power in the interview here.

 "The security situation is becoming worse, now that you have fighting between some of these opposition forces." No, now that the al-Qaida types who did nothing to fight Assad have been cleared out, the simplicity of the struggle between an autocrat and the sizeable majority of Syrians can re-assert itself.

An Interview With Abou Maeb

 'Well, there’s something really beautiful about Manbij and many other cities like it in Syria in that the people have a sense of responsibility that has been pushing them to organize the city for almost- Manbij has been liberated for a year and three months almost - right now. And you find people in local councils, people in the police force, for example, the brigade and other organizations that are working completely without pay, without any form, not even a political agenda. It’s just that feeling of duty towards the country that’s keeping them there. Manbij has changed in many ways; we’re free.

 For the first time ever, the Syrian people are experiencing this freedom where they’re allowed to be politically active, where they’re allowed to look at the future from a completely different angle. And uh, I mean, specifically Manbij is a very unique city because we’ve maintained the old government organizations that the regime left. They’re working again in Manbij. So, it’s very hard to explain how hard this is in the revolution because in Syria, you’re not only dealing with planes and scuds, military, the brutal military force of the regime, you’re also dealing with a lot of factions inside the Syrian army, inside the revolution that are placed there by the regime, that are trying to bring down any effort to build a true organization that is really there for the true purpose of the revolution.'

Syria’s Sunnis against Sunni extremists

 'There is no doubt that Syria has witnessed the most untarnished and most civilized of Arab revolutions, until it was invaded by extremists and was abandoned by the international community. Groups raising black flags thought that digging up history and spreading hatred would provoke the deceived Syrians. They thought that inciting hatred against the Alawite regime would ensure them absolute allegiance. However, despite barrel bombs and starvation, Syrians turned against the extremists.'

Syrian Revolutionaries Resist Violent Fundamentalists

 Raed Fares:

 'When there were discussions of airstrikes happening, there was hope among the Syrian people. However, most of the American population stood against the strike - they didn't want the US to be involved in another war against another country. What they didn't know or understand was that this would have been a good thing for the Syrian people to remove a killer from power. It is not an operation of war, it is an operation to end a war.
The most preferred method at this point is supporting and providing weapons to the Free Syrian Army.

 If you are going to talk about Geneva II, it is a political solution. Any solution that comes out of Geneva II is one that will only please the Assad regime; we will go back to Square One and the revolution will continue. We would rather that the international community strengthen the Free Syrian Army on the ground and provide the military support so that they can become stronger and equal to the force of Assad. Then we will be able to go to the negotiation table for peace talks.'

Global Day of Solidarity with Syria and the Syrian Revolution

 'We urge all people who have got the sense of humanity to take part in our March that is going to take place on Saturday 11\01\2014 to show solidarity with the innocent victims of Syria and their glorified revolution.

 Objectives:

 1-Solidarity with the legitimate aims of the Syrian Revolution.
 2- Raise awareness of the atrocities that Assad's regime committing against Syrians.

 3-Calling the international community to:
   -Break the siege and establish safe corridors for humanitarian aids.
   -Referring Assad and his inner circle to the ICC.
 4- Calling the British government to take in Syrian refugees.'

The Culture of Rebellion in Syria

 'The principle that people have a say in how they are governed—most dramatically embodied in the bravery and conscientiousness of civilian protests against ISIS—is what ultimately lends justice to the rebel cause, however much it has been tainted by sectarianism and factionalism. That this principle has survived both the regime and ISIS means it may well outlast whatever other hardships the war inflicts on the Syrian people. Amid the seemingly endless stream of horrific news from the country, this alone is cause for hope for a Syria free from tyranny in all its forms, religious or secular.'

Bashar Assad’s enormous ‘anti-extremist’ con

 The New York Post is a trashy paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, but this seems pretty accurate.

 'For those who truly care about preserving stability in the Middle East, the time has come to stop letting a dictator dictate the rules of the game, and to start empowering Syria’s moderates while they still exist.'

The US and the fight for survival of Assad: Obama’s strange allies

 A somewhat racist view in Israel's main right-wing paper.

 'What if for Arabs and Muslims "good" is only whatever advances the cause of Islam to fight the infidels and to control the world, and "evil" is whatever resists the cause of Islam and enables the existence of the Kuffar (non-Muslims)? What if Islam teaches war in the name of peace, and hatred in the name of love? What if the Jewish-Christian Golden Rule of what is morally good or bad is totally different in Islam, as it is the rule of Allah only that determines what is good or bad?'

Islamists, Salafists, and Jihadists: Friends or Foes of the Revolution?

 'Any effort on their part to outline a coherent, detailed vision of a future Islamic state in Syria would not only lead to serious discord between its component groups but create frictions within each group since their rank-and-file fighters often come from a variety of political perspectives: nationalist, secular, socialist, liberal, conservative.

 They fight under the banner of Islam despite their personal ideological inclinations because that is where the money, guns, ammunition, and effective organizations are. Pragmatism trumps ideology when revolutionary victory is a matter of survival.'

The Massacre in Syria That Wasn’t

 'The Syrian people have become skilled reporters because they have witnessed perhaps far more than 130,000 deaths and many groups, such as the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), have documented tens of thousands of those deaths, or at least the bodies of the deceased. If 80 people were brutally murdered in a single town nearly a month ago, we should have seen the evidence by now.'

 True in reverse of the chemical massacre in August, and indeed what makes denial of that ridiculous is also here, 'In order to accept RT’s narrative here, we therefore also have to believe that even the moderate groups of rebels, formed to serve as a hedge against Al-Qaeda-linked groups, would permit such a massacre without raising the alarm.'

Syria's Age of Revolution: Peaceful Protest to Armed Struggle

 Toby Dodge: "They are two separate conflicts, one driven by the incompetence and repression of the government in Damascus, one driven by the incompetence and repression of the government in Baghdad."

 On tonight's Newsnight, attacking the view that they are all part of some region-wide sectarian war.

 I wasn't planning on going out anywhere on Monday, but this might tempt me:

 'Professor Yezid Sayigh will explore the nature of Syria’s revolution, its armed rebellion, and its opposition. He will reflect in particular on the drivers and dynamics of armed struggle and its impacts, placing this in comparative perspective with other historical experiences and anticipating likely trajectories going forward.'

Al Qaida fighters pushed from much of northern Syria

 'One of the most surprising developments of the offensive was the reappearance of the FSA, which was largely seen as a defunct after the creation of the Islamic Front. The United States and Great Britain had suspended aid shipments to the group in December after ISIS overran its warehouses at Bab al Hawa, just inside the Syrian border, and Ahrar al Sham, another Islamist fighting force, failed to return the warehouses to the FSA after it took control of them.

 But as rebels recaptured bases from ISIS, the flag that was raised was that of the FSA.'

Imperial Presidencies

 "What restrains Putin [and his Chinese equivalent] from supporting Iran is the fear of being seen as international pariahs."

 Just seen on Washington Journal on the BBC Parliament channel. Instinctively sounded more plausible than the school of international relations that tells us that Russia will start WW3 to defend its interests in Syria, and the US is trying to invade the place.

 In response to the first question he says he wishes that there were some way for the 'international community' to remove Assad, but that we are not there yet. I don't think outside imposed régime change is the answer, but then Andelman doesn't spell out the means he would prescribe, and in fact is more in the can't do anything camp, and is not an offence to Syrians the way those who want to stop attacks on Assad are.

How Obama’s Syria policy fell apart

 I'm not entirely sure about all of Michael Weiss' story - the idea that the FSA has vanished seems a bit exaggerated - but he's generally on the button, and this comment by Flying Rodent reminded me how blind FR and his like Indecent Leftists have been in their beliefs about Syria, that it is a civil war and that any aid to the rebels constitutes an Iraq War re-enactment society being the top two.

 "This guy seems to believe that it's Barack Obama's job to halt civil wars in Syria, for some unfathomable reason"*

 He'd made this comment about the "usual suspects" a little earlier, more of the bullshit that any aid to the Syrian fighters is a bombing campaign.

 "Just Syria, as far as I can tell. Coincidentally, a few of them have always wanted to bomb Syria, for varying reasons."**

*[https://twitter.com/flying_rodent/status/419087518328307712]
**[https://twitter.com/flying_rodent/status/419173110063976448]

The Syrian Double Revolution and the Euro-Leftist Double Impotency

Leil-Zahra Mortada:

 'Here is your proof, signed with detention reports and kidnapping news. Here is the list of names for your revolutionary talent show. Here is your revolutionaries denouncing and criticizing both Assad and the religious fundamentalists.

 Here are the people who you claimed over and over do not exist, the attacks they are now suffering took them into a whole new level of attention. You can no longer hide in your weakness claiming there is no one to talk to and no one to work with. Not that this lame excuse ever stood ground! Even if this was not a revolution, even if this was “just a civil war”, there is still much to do.

 Even if this was “just a Syrian issue”, something “for them to work out”, there is still much to do. Syrians are at the borders of Europe. Syrians are dragging their injured and waiting with bleeding bodies at the borders of Europe. The last phrase is not an attempt at a poetic sentence.'

Genocide by international consensus

 'The United States can continue posing as a supporter of the Syrian people; Israel is satisfied that "their man in Damascus" is still in place; Russia can continue arming Assad and today appears to have stood up to the United States, when in reality there is little difference between the positions of these two nations on the Syrian issue; and Iran can continue to participate actively in Assad's sectarian war while pretending that it is standing up to the United States and Israel. The anti-war campaigners are in ignorant bliss because they believe that they have stopped a war on Syria, not knowing or caring that Syrians are still enduring the most horrific war since the genocide in Rwanda. The only losers are the Syrian people.'

The Unlikely Revolutionaries

 ' “The Syrian people’s fear of the regime and its military aircraft has forced them to stay silent about the massacres that affect them.” This has hindered field journalism, he says, and has fostered a lack of trust regarding those reporting what is happening. “Some people think they are being exploited in order for their stories to be sold to international news agencies for a lot of money.”

 Abu Ghazi never dreamed of writing or of using a camera, but “the scenes of murder, blood and injustice in every corner of Hama forced me to confront the regime, which has no mercy for its people.” He sees that the time has come for Syrians to break what he calls the “barrier of fear” and the “wall of silence,” which have now lasted 40 years.

 “Three years [have passed] and work continues to topple the regime relentlessly—but it’s tougher for those directly involved than for those on the outside.” '

Talking about a revolution

 'We have a popular revolution in Syria and this has been the case for nearly 3 years. Yes, the difficulties and threats to the Syrian Revolution have expanded and multiplied, and this from outside and inside. From the outside the Great powers, whether the so called Friends of Syria in the West and in the Middle East or the allied of the Assad regime (Russia, Iran and China), have continuously tried to impose on the Syrian revolutionary masses a political agreement that would maintain the Assad regime as it is.'

Syrians dream of returning home in 2014 at Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp

 'First and foremost, we hope to be able to return to our country and to be rid of Bashar the tyrant.'

 The first is dependent on the second. The world's largest refugee camp has only existed for a year and a half, the longer Syrians go unhelped in their struggle against Assad, the more refugees there will be.

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.'