Yahya Hawwa, the Syrian voice of protest

 'Hawwa stated that situation was terrible there but he was optimistic about the future of Syria noting,"I believe new generation of Syria will be able to rebuild Syria and to bring the justice and liberty for this country." '

Day 6 of the Geneva talks

 Rafif Jouejati:

 'Day 6 of the Geneva talks: On the agenda today are the subjects of violence and terrorism. The SOC delegation needs to stand firm in pointing the finger squarely at the regime for being the primary sponsor of terrorism in Syria. Assad's state terrorism includes barrel bombs, SCUD missiles, forced starvation, and detention and torture. I believe the SOC also needs to continue to condemn acts of terrorism perpetrated by non-regime groups. Violence and terrorism in Syria affect everybody, and perpetrators must be held accountable.

 The media frenzy has died down a bit and the SOC has the huge task of preparing for the next round of talks, scheduled to begin 10 days from Friday after the last session. Since the Assad delegation has accepted the Geneva I Communique (first by attending, but also in word yesterday), the hard work really starts now. So does the transition.

 Overall, the negotiating team has done a magnificent job of staying calm and cool while confronting the executioner. They have stayed on message, for the most part. Importantly, they have even been on time

 I believe the long hours have paid off. The Opposition has come out strong, and has received huge public support from various revolutionary groups in Syria. But we cannot rely only on this particular success or become complacent. We all need to do more to help the Opposition, no matter where in the world we happen to be. Our help can be in the form of demonstrations, more messages of support, constructive feedback, etc.

 We cannot be afraid of hard work or any inconvenience associated with what promises to be a long and difficult process. Consider this: Every time we feel tired we need to think of the prisoners who are not allowed to sleep, and the children whose sleep is interrupted by the sounds of artillery fire. Every time we get hungry we need to think of those who are starving to death while under the threat of SCUD missile attacks. And every time we complain about the bitter cold we need to think about the refugees and IDPs who do not have the option of seeking shelter. We do this because we believe in a Free Syria for all Syrians. We do this to honor our dead. And we do this because our people are ready to transition from one dictator to one nation for all citizens.

 Long live Free Syria, long live our people.'

Modern Warfare

 GW: "The case against the rebels using chemical weapons is generally poor, with a variety of
unsubstantiated claims and circumstantial evidence. Often clinical
signs and symptoms are missing. The one exception to this seems to be Khan
Al Asal. What did you find that lifted it out of the rest?"

  AS: "Regarding the first issue [opposition CWA attacks], I fully agree. Several times I asked the government: can you explain — if this was the opposition –– how did they get hold of the chemical weapons? They have quite poor theories: they talk about smuggling through Turkey, labs in Iraq and I asked them, pointedly, what about your own stores, have your own stores being stripped of anything, have you dropped a bomb that has been claimed, bombs that can be recovered by the opposition? 

 They denied that. To me it is strange. If they really want to blame the opposition they should have a good story as to how they got hold of the munitions, and they didn’t take the chance to deliver that story."

 Even on Khan al-Asal, it is as feasible that the government thought it could fabricate evidence for that attack being by the opposition, just as they claimed to have footage showing the tunnels through which the rebels brought the chemicals used in the August attack. Via here*, where there is a shorter version.
*[http://eaworldview.com/…/syria-carried-chemical-weapons-at…/]

Author of The Road From Damascus volunteers to help Syrian refugee children in southern Turkey

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 ' “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little,” wrote 19th-century clergyman Sydney Smith. “Do what you can.”

 When you ask why they came to Turkey, they answer “because Bashaar kept on shelling us”, and then go into specifics.'

Are Britons in Syria morally justified?

 Jon Snow: "If it was alright for Brits to fight in the Spanish Civil War, why isn't it alright for Muslims to go and fight in Syria?"

 On tonight's Channel 4 News.

The Man Syria’s Jihadists Want Dead

 'The revolutionaries were originally peaceful protestors who had a clear vision of a civil Syrian state, but as the brutality of the Assad regime continued to increase, they had to pick up arms.” Subsequently, Fares said, foreign funds led to division among the previously united group of anti-Assad rebels. “The revolutionaries were no longer united on the single issue. You had the exile opposition and the internal opposition, and with all of these different groups, it became impossible for all of the components of the revolution to combat the well-funded and well-structured narrative that the regime was pushing.'

Syria’s national chess champion arrested

 'Dr. Rania Abbasi, a dentist, and Syria’s national chess champion was arrested, along with her husband and their five children (all five in the picture) on November 3rd, 2013. She remains with her husband and children in Assad's prisons with no hope of trial or due process. Her youngest child is no older than two. We demand the freedom of Dr. Rania, her family and every Syrian political prisoner. #EnoughwithAssad.'

Voices From Syria

 'On Jan. 24, 2014 Sawwan recounted her personal experience of the chemical weapons attack to over 100 attendees in a private home in Flushing, Mich. She described how after reading the news online, she ran to the local field hospital with her cousin, where they regularly volunteered, to see how they could help those affected by the deadly sarin gas. The room was silent as Sawwan described the screaming in the streets and the seizing, spasming bodies in the hospital.

 “I couldn’t tell who was alive or dead,” Sawwan said. There was not enough Atropine, the treatment used to counter chemical gas exposure, to go around and most patients were only given CPR and cold water.'



Note 26/2/25, original link broken [https://themichigantimes.com/article/2014/01/voices-from-syria]

Syrians under siege in Homs demand end to suffering

 "I think that there is a lack of pressure from the international community on the barbaric regime. It is inhuman that they are fighting us over a loaf of bread. Cutting of water, electricity, and preventing any aid organization from entering. This situation reflects poorly on the international community to help these besieged areas."

Syria’s Polio Epidemic: The Suppressed Truth

 'This man-made outbreak is a consequence of the way that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has chosen to fight the war—a war crime of truly epidemic proportions. Even before the uprising, in areas considered politically unsympathetic like Deir Ezzor, the government stopped maintaining sanitation and safe-water services, and began withholding routine immunizations for preventable childhood diseases.

 Once the war began, the government started ruthless attacks on civilians in opposition-held areas, forcing millions to seek refuge in filthy, crowded, and cold conditions. Compounding the problem are Assad’s ongoing attacks on doctors and the health care system, his besieging of cities, his obstruction of humanitarian aid, and his channeling of vaccines and other relief to pro-regime territory.'

An injured Syrian smokes a cigarette as a doctor plays chess

 'An injured Syrian smokes a cigarette as a doctor plays chess with a patient at the government hospital in Al Ramtha, Jordan.'

Syria: The Assads Twilight

 'Bashar al-Assad tells a French TV audience about his calling as a doctor. "You work for the health of humans. It's a humanitarian job," Two years later, the world would watch as this humanitarian sent black-clad troops to open fire on unarmed protesters seeking the fall of his regime.

During the 1970s, Bashar's father, Hafez al-Assad, turned Syria into one of the world's most secretive and repressive dictatorships. But Bashar was supposed to be different. A doctor who had lived in London, he vowed to fight corruption and embrace globalization in his inaugural address as president. He was supposed to be a modern, liberal leader.

 Just over a decade later, the Assad regime is reeling. It has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of its citizens—protesters no longer willing to accept repression and insisting on the same freedoms that other nations have gained through the revolutions of the 2011 Arab spring.

 SYRIA: THE ASSADS' TWILIGHT is a history of the Assad regime, from its origins to its teetering, possibly final days in 2011.

 The Assads have been nothing if not survivors. In 1982, Hafez ruthlessly crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood (the film shows us rare photos of property damage during the battles—the only record of an otherwise invisible massacre by security forces). In contrast, soon after coming to power in 2000, Bashar ushered in the Damascus Spring—a flowering of dissent and openness. But when it seemed to threaten his rule, he banned all opposition and tightened his family's grip on the reins of wealth and power.

 SYRIA: THE ASSADS' TWILIGHT, recounts the history of the regime and the region—including the tortured and troubled history of Syrian involvement in Lebanon. The film uses archival footage, as well as the testimony and analysis of members of the US and Israeli security establishment, key politicians, dissidents (among them members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood) and political scientists.

 What emerges is a picture of a regime that has been at the centre of Middle East politics for two generations—but is now on the verge of being swept away, along with other corrupt dictatorships in the region.

 As exiled dissident Abdel Hamid Atassi says, "Bashar cannot repress dissent in the Internet era... Hafez could throw people in prison for 20 years, and nobody knew about it. That's impossible today." '



 Note 26/2/25, original link lost.

Day 5 of the Geneva talks

 Rafif Jouejati:

 'Day 5 of the Geneva talks: the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) presented to the Assad delegation a vision document calling for a free, democratic Syria. The regime's response: a tirade against the United States and the West in general. This was to be expected, of course, and Bashar Jaafari, the regime's chief negotiator, has been using all the stall tactics at his disposal.

 There was much ado about the fact that yesterday there was only one session in the morning. A couple of things to note: first, Lakhdar Brahimi and his team set the age day; and second, I'm sure that when one delegation goes off on a tirade, the chief negotiator will most likely put that delegation in a time-out. You can draw your own conclusions.

 Today's talks are supposed to be about going back to the basis of these negotiations: the Geneva 1 Communique, which clearly calls for a transition of power. The issue of Homs is still unresolved, as expected.

 Regardless of how the talks go today, or tomorrow, or Friday, we have to recognize that this will be a long process. The dictatorship built over more than four decades will come tumbling down because of one meeting in Geneva. But I truly believe that this is a first step. We are highlighting, every day, the fact that the regime continues to bombard civilian areas despite these talks. Nobody from our side has forgotten those who are suffering.

 I'm re-issuing the call for solidarity among members and friends of the Syrian community, particularly in the US. Perhaps we can convene a meeting of the formal organizations and independent activists to agree on a strategy going forward. We all need each other, and as I've said in the past, we don't have to love each other to work together. We have a common goal and a common enemy, so let's join hands and make something positive happen.

 Long live Free Syria, long live our people.

** all comments, for and against, are welcome but please maintain professionalism and respect. **'

Behind a "diplomatic solution" in Syria

 'Our task now is greater support for the revolution, not efforts to force it into submission or surrender. It's not our business to pressure revolutionaries to go to the table; our job is to support them materially and politically against all forms of counterrevolution, domestic or foreign.'

 Well said, Andrew Pollack. I disagree with some of his formulations, Saudi Arabia and the US are poor friends to the revolution, but are not the current enemy to Syrians in the way the Russians are right now, just the Americans weren't in Hungary in 1956 or the Russians in Nicaragua in 1979; but he's got the primacy of supporting the struggle against Assad right, and that's the most important thing.

How Assad runs terrorists on "both sides" in Syria

 'Now many who wish to bury their own responsibility for looking the other way, along with Syria's children, point to the hideous atrocities of the jihadist terrorist ISIS, which they lump in with all the opposition groups as "the rebels" to support their conclusion that "both sides are equally bad." This method of washing their hands of the blood of so many children is beginning to break down as the evidence mounts that the ISIS is a creation of the Assad Regime, much as Żagiew was a product of Nazis bent on the destruction of the Jews.

 Now comes this report from al Monitor that lends more weight to that conclusion, and takes it one step further, indicating that the Assad Regime has direct command authority in the ISIS, or at least, important sections of it, and its atrocities are less about some Islamic fanaticism, and more about slaughtering and terrorism the Syrian people from within while warding off any support from those outside.'

Assad's Holocaust Now!

 'Today we are presenting two new sets of photos from the holocaust Bashar al-Assad has created in Syria. One is from a new set of the 55,000 photos of 11,000 people tortured and murdered by the Assad regime while being held in detection. They are marked Getty Images and were published by the Daily Mail in the UK. I published the first set of these photos and the story behind them here.'

Why Hezbollah will have to leave Syria

 'Hezbollah will have to pay a steep price for their intervention. Assad will go, and they know it. So the question now is whether they will try to minimize the cost.'

Michael Hayden speaks frankly

"Of the range of possible outcomes, Assad winning is not the worst."

 CIA director 2006-2009.

Geneva's endless peace process plays into Bashar al-Assad's hands

 Rime Allaf:

 'Regardless of the propaganda, the fact remains that the vast majority of rebels took up arms against Assad to join defecting soldiers who refused to turn their weapons on the population. Once Assad is gone, there is no reason to believe that these soldiers will not go back to being regular soldiers, and that civilians will not go back to rebuilding their lives, with the help of the increasingly confident civil society organisations that continue to carve a socioeconomic and political role in the midst of all this destruction.'

 She's actually more positive about what's happened so far.

Enough is enough: the world must end Syrian nightmare

 'The US may find it necessary to mobilise international support to launch strikes in Syria against both the regime and positions held by extremist groups. The strikes would in all likelihood need to be significant and sustained enough to change the calculations of the combatants.'

 I don't think this is the best idea, but I don't see how it means that an Iraq-style invasion would follow if the airstrikes didn't work. But I think the argument works the other way round, if support does not go to the actual rebels, the barbarity of a desperate régime and the vacuum filled by al-Qaida styley formations means that the pressure for some sort of intervention becomes unstoppable.

Episode 011

 Sami Ramadani is contemptible. The pictures of torture are a Qatari plot to derail the peace talks, the armed opposition are terrorists who want to repress women, the peaceful opposition is patriotic and represents most Syrians and rejects the armed opposition. Some of the foreign fighters are mercenaries. If the funding for the FSA stops, then the al-Qaida linked groups can be isolated. None of these things are true, or even close to being true.

From Syrian prisons to diplomacy in Geneva

 "The revolutionary work is fast paced. It is the gate to achieving the impossible. Political work, however, is a slow process and it only moves within the sphere of the possible," al-Ameer said. "This is why so many activists on the ground are frustrated with the Coalition. They are expecting it to move as fast as they do, and this is understandable."

Go Now

 "There should be no selectivity," says Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian representative at the UN, "we should talk about everything."

 What about Assad going?

 "It's too early to talk about that."

McCain and Pushkov clash over Syria

 John McCain: "The fact is that Russian equipment is flying in. And now we are getting rid of the chemical weapons, while Bashar Assad is dropping these crude cluster bombs, which kill people indiscriminately; and I don't think a mother knows the difference between their child dying because of a chemical weapon, or because of one of these horrible cluster bombs...I would urge anyone in this audience to go to one of the refugee camps, and Bashar Assad's defectors will tell you; they are told to rape and murder and torture. And you can even meet a group of young women who have been gang-raped by these people, and now we have the pictures and photos of 11,000 people who were tortured and murdered. If that isn't war crimes, I have never seen war crimes."

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.