Ex-Guantánamo detainee Moazzam Begg held in Birmingham terror raids

 'In January of this year Begg condemned Britain's approach to Syria and the alleged criminalising of those who go out to fight there. He wrote: "It is not hard to understand why Muslims would want to go out to Syria to help. Scores of them go every month on humanitarian aid missions and face endless questioning at ports by British police under schedule 7 anti-terrorism powers. It is also understandable why people want to go out and fight for what they believe is a just cause, even if the wisdom of them doing so can be questioned." '

Thousands waiting for food in Yarmouk

 "It's like that for everyone here." - A hungry kid from the report shown on TV.

 That's sixty packets of food for 20,000 people. I've heard that some people can do wonders with five loaves and a couple of fish.

Appeasing Assad; Why Jeffrey Sachs is so Very Wrong

 'Sachs, like so many Lefists, has got it so very backwards. If America cut off what little aid it sends to rebel groups, it would have no effect whatsoever on the conflict. And yet if Iran and Hizbollah withdrew their support for Assad, the regime would collapse within a matter of months.'

Local truces aside, the ingredients for a long Syrian war are all still in place

 'Given that the rebels are at present divided,'
 They are united about overthrowing Assad.

 'lacking popular support'
 No.

 'and on the retreat,'
 According to Patrick Cockburn's mates in the Syrian Army in Homs and Damascus.

 'it may take years of warfare before they and their Western and regional backers can dictate surrender terms to the other side.'
 Then maybe these backers should hand over sufficient weaponry for them to be able to take down a dictator they have fought to a standstill with David v Goliath disparities of armament.



 But wait.
 'It could happen more quickly only if the Assad government and the Syrian army were shorn of support from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, something that, so far, is not happening.'
Now maybe if we'd focused on that...



 But wait.
 'If anything, the struggle for the Ukraine between the West and Moscow is likely to make the Russians even more determined not to see their status as a great power eroded by defeat in Syria.'

 This is just reporting Russian desires as immutable necessities. All along Cockburn has told us that if the cost is raised to the Russians of staying with Assad, they will respond by doubling down on him. The events in the near-abroad, as Russian foreign policy calls its ex-colonial possessions, are likely to impact more, but the logical lesson would be that pissing off too many people may lead to foreign policy failures.

 'These appointments do not mean any reduction in direct Saudi support for the rebels but they do denote a policy more closely aligned with the US.'
 You realise at this point that Cockburn's analysis is useless. The Saudis are in dispute with the US about whether they can supply the rebels with anti-aircraft weapons, which is not lessened by Bandar's replacement.



 'It is naive in these circumstances to imagine that the dispatch of shoulder-held anti-aircraft or anti-tank weapons, as is now predicted, is going to make the rebels more successful. Journalists, intelligence officers and rebels tend to be over-impressed by the idea that arms such as these make much difference.'
 Cockburn is like those other journalists and intelligence officers who don't care if those weapons would stop Assad's attacks on civilians.

 'One of the big mistakes of the opposition and its backers has been to allow the question of who rules in Damascus to become part of the hot and cold war between Iran and its enemies, and between Shia and Sunni, conflicts that have been going on since the Iranian revolution in 1979.'
 It is Cockburn and his like who have been trying to make out that this is all about the Sunni-Shia difference,about Iran and not about a dictator and a people that have had enough.

Has the time come to acknowledge the conspiracies?

 'Syria, for its part, was and is a country ruled by a regime that is completely subservient to Iran’s regional project. What is worse, Israel itself has not genuinely viewed Iran’s growing regional influence as a threat to its borders and national security.

 One may say that this point alone is enough for rational observers to realize why Washington’s and Tel Aviv’s approach to Tehran and its stooge, the Damascus regime, has amounted to nothing more than empty words.'

 I think this might be slightly negative about the military situation, "The situation facing the Free Syrian Army on the ground has worsened recently as the regime stepped up its attacks on the remaining rebel-controlled areas in the Qalamoun Mountains and in the northern and southern parts of the country," but yes.

The Argument Against U.S. Intervention in Syria... And Why It's Wrong

 'From the left, some criticize U.S. intervention as neo-imperialist militarism that will advance American hegemony rather than aid the oppressed. This criticism is important, but should not justify inaction that effectively forsakes the oppressed. Non-interventionists can direct their activism toward ensuring that US involvement does not stray from humanitarian goals and remains within the parameters for which Syrian revolutionaries are themselves clamoring.'

Robert Fisk: Ukraine’s future is tied up with Syria’s – and Vladimir Putin is crucial to both

 The same lie by Fisk in each case, to claim that the fascists/jihadists are the main players. And repeating that America was "threatening to bomb Syria" doesn't make it any more true that they were going to do such a thing.

 'The initial Syrian opposition to Assad – following revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt – was peaceful, although armed men did occasionally appear even in the early days of the revolt. Then military deserters formed an armed opposition that was swiftly taken over by radicals more interested in replacing Assad with a caliphate than the “free Syria” which the opposition originally demanded. So, too, in Kiev: Yanukovych’s opponents found themselves, after several weeks, uneasily linked to small, right-wing, neo-Nazi groups who had – in the eyes of their enemies – more in common with the Ukrainian fascists who helped the Germans in the Second World War than with the Soviet resistance to Nazi occupation.'

 There are some further lies, the idea that the revolutionaries in Syria are Sunni sectarians fighting a government that enjoys considerable Sunni support, or this, "Once Syria’s unrest became weaponised on both sides, the West and its Arab allies sent military equipment to Assad’s enemies."

Israeli Arab Charged With Attempting to Recruit Soldiers for Syria’s Civil War

 'The Jerusalem District Attorney indicted 22-year-old Mus’ab Adwan for attempting to unlawfully enter an enemy country and participating in illegal military activities, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Thursday.

 A resident of the Arab village of Akav, Adwan met with a man by the name of Yazan Mohammad in Jordan in 2013, according to the indictment. The two men discussed the possibility of Adwan joining rebel forces fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

 Mohammad asked the defendant to recruit more people to the cause including another Jerusalem resident by the name of Iyad Abu Sarah, who lives in the Shuafat refugee camp.

 Adwan then contacted Abu Sarah through Facebook and the two men met several times in Jerusalem. During these meetings, Adwan tried to convince Abu Sarah to travel to Syria and join the revolution.

 The defendant eventually forged relationships with rebel forces operating inside of Syria and used his professional knowledge to help them solve technical problems affecting the rebels’ ability to accurately use their mortars, Ma’ariv cited the indictment as saying.'

U.S. opposes supply of shoulder-fired missiles to Syria rebels

 'The United States is opposed to the supply of shoulder-fired missiles, capable of taking down warplanes, to rebel forces in Syria, a senior Obama administration official said on Tuesday.

 The official, travelling with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Tunisia, was responding to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Friday which said Saudi Arabia had offered to give Syrian rebels Chinese man-portable air defence systems, or MANPADS, and anti-tank guided missiles from Russia.'

Syria and the parable of the poisoned arrow

 'The most vociferous opposition to Manpads circulating in Syria comes from Israel — which also happens to be the power that appears most content with a continuing stalemate.'

As Syria devours itself, UN dithers on aid

 'Russia sees humanitarian aid as a threat to Syria’s sovereignty.'

 It is a threat to Assad, who is fighting a war against civilians.

Dreyfuss on Obama Plans to Escalate the War in Syria

 'Civilians are being slaughtered on the ground by Assad's air force because they have no defense against his planes. In this context, anti-aircraft missiles will save lives. This is the "escalation" that Dreyfuss is worried about. His assertion that al Qaeda will get them and use them against El Al, is just so much speculation and fearmongering. There are ways, including technical, to guard against that. What they will do now is save lives by stopping Assad's planes from bombing people unopposed.'

The vicious schism between Sunni and Shia has been poisoning Islam for 1,400 years - and it's getting worse

 When I first saw Christopher Hitchens describe 9/11 as a continuation of the siege of Vienna in 1689, it seemed to have some sense. Now it just seems Islamophobic. As does this. The uprising in Syria is not driven by immutable sectarian differences, but is a response to oppression, sometimes against the sectarian oppression of the Assad régime. To equate those revolting with those they revolt against, to say we cannot tell the difference between the two, is revolting, as it is in Bahrain, where it is the Shia masses revolting against a Sunni oppressor. The violence in Egypt is pretty much all the military government against any opposition at the moment.

Chomsky on the Middle East

 "Israel has shown no indication that that it wants the rebels to win in Syria, and nor incidentally does the US", said Dr. Noam Chomsky in a recent interview with Radio VR in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Truce or Dare? Assad moves to neutralize capital

 'To make the truce more attractive, the regime is offering the release of local activists and fighters, reinstating basic services like electricity and water, partial rebuilding, and the return of refugees. Through the return of refugees, weary activists believe, the regime aims to reinstate the old order of fear.

 The collective punishment inflicted in Daraya, Barzeh and Maadamiya, will serve the regime well, they believe, as the returning refugees will resist any form of dissent or opposition. “The regime is now reaping the benefits of its collective punishment policy,” Alaa says, “it is what it knows best since the massacre of Hama in 1982; they plant destruction, and harvest fear.” '

 Thus laying the basis for future massacres if the régime regains control (which I doubt, as fighters elsewhere are not going to lay down their arms). Resisting the militarisation of the opposition has meant leaving them defenceless against the régime all along.

The Syrian refugee camp that is becoming a township

 Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'In some areas of Syria, Assad's scorched-earth policy has had a military objective – to drive out communities that provide succour to opposition fighters. In others (such as the Homs region, where Assad's men have burned the property registry), the strategy looks like a more permanent ethnic cleansing. The refugees know this, and they are bitter about it. After Assad they blame his Iranian and Russian backers, and the Arabs who haven't done enough, and also the west, which is fixated on Islamist radicalism instead of on the regime that creates the conditions in which extremism flourishes.'

Noam Chomsky Blames ‘White People’ For Syrian Gas Attack

 'White people have the worst human rights record in the world. Who committed the holocaust? White people. Who pretended there was a genocide in Cambodia? White people. Who is responsible for Justin Bieber's music? White people.

 White people are awful. If we really cared about the citizens of Syria we'd be trying to find the real perpetrators of these chemical attacks instead of bombing innocent members of the Assad regime.'

The sectarian regime is the cause of sectarianism among the opposition

 'Even to get to a ceasefire that aids the struggle – ie, the opposite of one that merely allows the regime to go on killing behind a façade after the revolutionary forces have demobilised – will require not nice talk to a regime that has waged all-out, unlimited war for three years, but real military pressure on it via the opposition being able to get real arms in relevant quantities.'

A New Start To U.S. Policy In Syria Can Save Lives

 'In my trips to the border, there has consistently been a clear preference for moderate battalions and rejection of foreign fighters, particularly those backed by Al-Qaeda. The refugees and civilian leaders believe the illiberal rhetoric from their armed allies reflect fundraising, not ideology. People in Washington should be sympathetic to “following the money,” and when the money and guns are coming from the Saudis and Qataris, one should not be surprised to see public statements take on sectarian or theocratic tone.'

What's happening in Syria is an abomination

Stephen Hawking:

 'What does the light emitting from Earth today show? When people see our past, will we be proud of what they are shown – how we, as brothers, treat each other? How we allow our brothers to treat our children?'

Syrians routed by war find a safe haven in North Jersey

 

 'Alzouabi, 42, fled with his wife and eight children from Daraa, a hotbed of anti-government protest. In the first month of protests, Alzouabi said he saw a close friend shot to death at a demonstration. Another time, he said, he was beaten by the police who questioned him for using his cellphone at a checkpoint. Alzouabi said his sister’s house was burned to the ground. Soldiers destroyed houses and cars and searched houses during the 2011 siege of Daraa, when food and electricity were cut off to neighborhoods, he said.

 “Of course we were afraid, especially when there was shelling,” he said. “We’d run from one room to another, trying to predict where the shells would fall. Sometimes we’d run in the middle of the night to seek refuge in our neighbor’s basement.” '

 Seeking refuge from the government, not from a sectarian proxy civil war where we can't tell who the good guys are.

Lebanese border town faces influx of Syrians

 'Scores of Syrians fleeing fighting in the town of Yabroud have crossed the Lebanese border, and are heading for the town of Arsal.'

"They say they are being treated like animals, and nobody cares."

 And thus they don't see why people are sitting down and talking in Geneva when they are still having to flee. Quote actually from a reporter who may have been reporting live just now.

Waiting for death

 'Waiting for the barrel of TNT to be lobbed out of the back of an Assadist helicopter onto them in Aleppo,Syria.'

A secular-Islamist front must be built in Syria

 'Secular and Islamists must join forces to form a solid political and military front. This is the best way to get rid of terrorists in Syria as a prelude to toppling the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. Terrorists have always been used by Mr Al Assad’s dynasty, a fact that has grown more intense recently, as evidenced by the many documents found by the fighters of the Free Syrian Army at Isil’s dens.'

How to Build a Perfect Refugee Camp

 'The Turks may have built as good a refugee camp as it is possible to build. But a camp is still a camp. And if a camp becomes a shelter not just for a few months but for years, a substitute — even a deterrent — to a real solution, how much does it matter how nice it is?'

 That's true. What's also true is that Turkey is accused by supporters of Assad of doing much harm to Syria through its support of the opposition, again the truth is that while it may be doing all this for its own purposes, it is still doing a lot of good. Generally Syrians will remember well those that helped them, and not those who did nothing but warn them of the perils of accepting help.

Ladder To Damascus

 'The film portrays the anguish of the revolution not through scenes of protest and war, but through the frustrations of the artists trapped inside their house. Ladder to Damascus is a delicate film about the human condition, the need to dream and the role of hope in personal determination. As Malas concludes: “I don’t think that cinema is a way to politics, nor a political tool. Cinema is a letter from the sentiments of the characters in the film. It looks inside a person to transfer an idea or image to the viewer’s interior, to their sentiments as well.” '

Use Force to Save Starving Syrians

 'We should invoke the Responsibility to Protect, the principle that if a state fails to protect its populations from mass atrocities — or is in fact the perpetrator of such crimes — the international community must step in to protect the victims, with the collective use of force authorized by the Security Council. And if a multinational force cannot be assembled, then at least some countries should step up and organize Syria’s democratically oriented rebel groups to provide the necessary force on the ground, with air cover from participating nations.'

 I like the bit about helping the rebel groups the most. As we see the UN wash their hands of the starving young men seized by the Syrian government from the siege of Homs, it is hard to believe any responsibility to protect action by the US and others would not produce some squalid mess. More significantly, I don't think there is any desire in Washington or London or Paris to actually fight any sort of military action in Syria, so calling for direct intervention may just be a dead end.

 But the far more important thing is the support for the Syrian revolution, and the understanding that the military fight against Assad underpins the survival of Syria, let alone any progress. There probably will come a time when Syrians are far more divided about the way forward, as will those in solidarity with its aims. But at the moment there is unity about seeing the removal of Assad and his régime as the vital task, and those arguing within that framework are helping. Those who think this is an appropriate time to lecture the Syrians on the hypothetical dangers of the US bombing Assad's forces, rather than protesting that the world does nothing about the real bombs dropped on them by Assad, absent themselves from helping. And as the Syrian crisis gets worse, if the only two options are American intervention or doing nothing, we will end up with the first, especially if the argument to do nothing is based on what ifs, rather than any analysis.

Syrian forces bombard opposition stronghold of Yabroud

 'Yabroud had been relatively untouched.

 Home to a large Christian population, it was largely left alone by the government, and, while other opposition towns were being subjected to daily barrages of artillery, the opposition in Yabroud was able to administer the town, setting up local councils and running schools. Armed rebels were kept on the fringes, and foreign jihadists were not welcome. It was, for a long time, a model town for the Syrian revolution.

 The peace was always considered temporary however. With Yabroud being a key part of a supply line for weapons from Lebanon to opposition fighters in the region, it remained a thorn in the government’s side.'

U.N. aid convoy reaches Homs rebel enclave

 'The Assad regime detained hundreds of evacuees from the besieged city of Homs as soon as they were rescued, the top U.N. humanitarian official in Syria said.

 The world body now has no control over their fate, said Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. official heading the Homs mission. About 100 were released Tuesday after receiving amnesty, but the rest were held in a school in a regime-controlled section of the city, U.N. and local officials said.

 The governor refused to let news organizations visit the school.

 The military-age men "wished to get out and they put themselves at the disposal of the government and relevant authorities," Gov. Talal al-Barazi said in remarks quoted by the Journal.

 "The goal is to return Syrian citizens to the state's bosom," Barazi said.'

 I would think then that 'rescue' has the opposite of its usual meaning. 'Humanitarian' isn't doing so well either.

Battle against ISIS may help unify fractured Syrian rebels

 'The United States and European and Middle Eastern countries have expressed alarm at the spread of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. But in the struggle for al Atarib, Maarouf said, he received no assistance from the West or from Persian Gulf countries, some of which have been accused of surreptitiously funding ISIS.

 Instead, the fighters in their ragtag outfits relied on captured weapons and ammunition and had to push some of their vehicles to get them started.

 “For more than a year, we haven’t got anything but a very minimal amount of supplies,” Maarouf told “Frontline” in an interview made available to McClatchy. “We used to meet mostly with our brothers in Saudi Arabia, and they offered us a bit of support, but . . . it wasn’t enough. What we used to get from other countries was only promises. Even now we don’t receive anything.”

 Not even free advice. “Until now, we make our own plans, and execute them without guidance,” 1st Lt. Hazem al Murai, the commander who led the most crucial part of the operation, told “Frontline.” '

Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition

 'The engineer gave the cue that the station was on the air, and the keyboard player began a mournful tune. Then the night’s guest joined in, his rich baritone filling the small, rooftop studio here as it was being broadcast by pirate transmitters in pockets across Syria, his war-torn home.'

Orwell was hailed a hero for fighting in Spain. Today he'd be guilty of terrorism

 George Monbiot:

 'But he and his forces present a grave threat to many of the people of Syria. Is that not a relevant consideration when deciding whether people opposing him are terrorists or freedom fighters?'

Swedish socialist weekly celebrates 40 years

 "Our people are sacrificing their lives to change Syria from a dictatorship to a democracy. Our people are trying to stop all criminal activities committed by a terrorist regime, and their actions come as a reaction to the regime’s crimes."

One Day, it Will be an Alawite Who Finally Kills Assad

 'Failing to deliver on a military victory, and unable to take any steps towards a political settlement, his ability to exert control over elements within his own regime will continue to be undermined. Today, he can’t even deliver a prisoner alive and well to a friendly pro-Iranian British MP, or ensure the safety of a UN aid convoy. In the not too distant future, his inability to influence events will become clearer and more apparent, until his very life will be in danger from those closest to him, looking to replace him with someone who in their view can execute the war more efficiently, and not pussyfoot about unleashing every single drop of chemicals in the regime’s arsenal.'

Jihad, Then and Now

 'Abdullah Anas, the son-in-law of Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and a former comrade of Osama Bin Laden reflects on the differences between the struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980s and in Syria today.

 He's not impressed with the youngsters who run off to get martyred in Syria without worrying about whether they are liberating it or not.

 "Prisoners have full rights. We fed them the same food, gave them the same clothes and the same quality of life. After several months, many of the Soviet troops started to believe that they weren’t prisoners because we were on such good terms with them. Through our conduct we showed them we were not bloodthirsty people. Some of them became Muslims, others remain our friends to this day.

 The argument that God will forgive you if you execute prisoners because of the dangers is not acceptable. Killing prisoners is a big responsibility. They [the perpetrators] need to stand trial and judgment—without understanding their case one cannot decide if someone deserves to die or not. Unfortunately, this culture has disappeared now. I think the number-one responsibility for this falls on Al-Qaeda." '

Horrors of Syria’s prisons visit Geneva

 'If the regime admits to the presence of detainees, it would be condemning itself in front of the international community.

 This is simply because the regime killed a lot of them under torture. The rest of the detainees will be used as a bargaining chip.'

 As nothing has been done to allow Syrians to stop this madness, the situation grows more complicated. Those members of the government forces that have not defected know that they are more complicit in the régime's crimes as time goes on, and so more fearful that they will be held accountable.

 This is not an argument that nothing should be done; it is Assad's doomed fight for survival that produces the spiral of atrocity, it is ignoring the problem that has let it fester. It is not an argument for a US invasion, though many Syrians would prefer that to what they've got now. Firstly, put the blame where it lies, on the Russians who could pull the plug now and could have done so much earlier.

 When Assad is gone, the truth about the torture and the rape and the chemical attacks will come out. The people who have claimed that they were just Western propaganda to drag us into another Middle East war will look like fools. But if no alternative way of helping the Syrian people resist the genocidal attentions of its government has structured the public debate, full-scale Western interventions, with all their ulterior motives, will have been rehabilitated.

 Bassam Imadi: "Any authority that is taken away from this régime, it will crumble. It is based on corruption. After Gadaffi fell, we found out how many people actually supported him [not many].The only people who support it [the Assad government] are those benefiting from its corruption. There are Alawite villages now under siege." On al-Jazeera's Inside Syria. [https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-syria/2014/2/9/homs-ceasefire-a-turning-point]

It’s Time to Destroy Assad’s Air Force

 'Destroy Assad’s airpower, and you destroy his ability to project his power beyond the lines he currently holds, and you destroy his ability to support and aid his ISIS allies in the east of the country. The moderate opposition can roll back ISIS, while a homegrown political movement can come into existence, and possibly offer the country a way out of its horrendous situation. But first, Assad’s air force has to be obliterated, down to the last plane and helicopter.'

The truth about the criminal bloodbath in Iraq can't be 'countered' indefinitely

 John Pilger: 'The truth about the criminal bloodbath in Iraq cannot be "countered" indefinitely. Neither can the truth about our support for the medievalists in Saudi Arabia, the nuclear-armed predators in Israel, the new military fascists in Egypt and the jihadist "liberators" of Syria.'

 Actually, I just heard Paul Wood do a report where he claimed that jihadists were doing most of the fighting against Assad in Syria, and before that Fiona Bruce called al-Nusra an al-Qaida terror group. It is the voices of those trying to free their country that are overlooked, and undermine Pilger's credibility when attacking other targets.

Novelist Khaled Khalifa on breaking the barrier of fear

 “The regime thinks it has always been in control,” he says. “The reality is that the regime lived outside the homes of the Syrians because it was unable to offer them anything of value. It only got inside the homes to conduct sabotage.”

Humanitarian Aid rather than The Humanitarian Aids

 'Kafranbel‬ Demonstration Feb-7th 2014.'

 Reminds me of the South Park episode, Jared Has Aides. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzlfedO7UFs]

Return To Homs

 'He is enthusiastic and stubborn by nature, found his voice in the early protests, and led thousands singing and chanting for the dignity of the Syrians and their freedom. As the protests were met by force, and with Saroot on the run after losing family members under their demolished apartment in Homs, the former goalkeeper abandons his soccer gloves for good, and embraces the armed fight. His attachment to his rifle is that of a kid to a new toy, it also embodies the evolution of the Syrian uprising and its transformation into an armed conflict.'

Aleppo Prison Liberated

 'Insurgents in Aleppo have declared the prison “fully liberated”. About 300 prisoners have been released, but evacuation of others has been impeded by fortified stairways and other barriers, some of them booby-trapped. There are still sporadic clashes.

 Sayfullakh Shishani, leader of a mainly-Chechen faction fighting alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, was killed in the final assault on the prison.

 Jabhat al-Nusra called in Liwa al-Tawhid, a leading group in the Islamic Front, which provided enough tanks and troops to complete the takeover of the prison.'

Geneva 2: Crossroads for the U.S. and the Opposition

 'The past three years of U.S. Syria policy were wasted, stuck on autopilot: passive policy pronouncements asserting “Assad must go” while saying “no” to everything that would help him go. This led to the following results:

 - Syria’s revolutionary war expanding into Lebanon and Iraq in the form of sectarian strife.

 - An unprecedented refugee crisis.

 - Not one but two Al-Qaeda affiliates setting up shop in Syria.

 - Last but not least, Saudi Arabia threatening to go off the reservation.'

 I'm not sure I agree with Nott George Sabra's unrestrained optimism about the shift in US policy, when it has been a series of false dawns rather than a beacon in the night, but certainly those who thought that the Syrian opposition would use Geneva to accommodate the régime were wrong.

US condemns Aleppo barrel bomb raids

 Rajesh Mirchandani: "The Assad government has been accused of using barrel bombs."

 When you have pictures of them doing it the qualification may not be necessary.

Volunteers play piano in rubble of Yarmouk

 'Yarmouk is one of the worst sites of the starvation facing Syrians in areas besieged by the government. But amid the devastation, musicians with a battered piano are making music for their neighbours.'

In the Shadow of the Krak des Chevaliers

 Patrick Cockburn, embedded with Assad's forces, gives the impression that there are roughly equal levels of sectarian atrocity on each side. Or worse on the rebel side, with supporters of the government those who voice concern at barbarism. It's just not true. The arbitrary killings by Assad's forces are a systematic war policy, those by the opposition isolated and condemned.

 'Syrian army officers said that these worsened recently when two Christians, a man and a women, had a late dinner at a hotel called the Alwadi and were stopped by armed men as they drove home. “As soon as they said they came from a nearby Christian village called Marmarita they were killed,” said an officer. In another sectarian killing a Muslim from al-Hosn village was reportedly killed by Christian militiamen.'

 If the rebels are so shit, how come the government has only one military victory to speak of, that required thousands of Hezbollah soldiers to achieve. Compare these two quotes from Cockburn, and wonder if the Free Syrian Army are winners more than is often allowed.

 'The rebels are fragmented in organisation, lack heavy weapons and are too short of ammunition to launch big offensives.'

 'Last June the government and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, had one of its few clear cut victories when they captured the rebel town of al-Qusayr a few miles east of Tal-Kalakh.'

 And the idea that the government is the one - we don't hear from the revolutionaries of course - that wants to stop destruction to Syria's heritage is a lie. "Bashar, or the country burns" has been their slogan all along, literally.

The Syrian Opposition Is Disappearing From Facebook

 'In a country where foreign and independent Syrian journalists are barred, and the regime’s expansive network of citizen-spies makes public discussion of the revolution dangerous to this day, Facebook was one of the first refuges for Syria’s dissidents—and now it has become one of their last.'

Children among dead in assault on Aleppo

 'The wanton assault on Syria's very being continues.'

 Barrel bombs on Aleppo leads Channel 4 news.

The Vilification of Foreign Fighters in the Syrian ‘Conflict’

 'Hypocritical as this may seem, the approach of the European and American ‘friends of Syria’ is that they would prefer that their citizens stuck to opposing Assad and assisting the Syrians with their rhetoric only. If they go to fight and protect them, they’re ‘terrorists’, and are arrested and ostracised as such.'

 Mirroring the West's general approach to Syria.

Meet One Of The Few Syrian Refugees Who Made It To The United States

 “I think we need political action, not aid,” he said. “The Syrian crisis isn’t just a humanitarian crisis. [...] If Bashar Assad is gone, Syrians can come back to Syria and you will spend less money for that.”

Razed to the Ground

 'Owners were given one hour to evacuate their homes. I saw people throwing their belongings from the windows. I wanted to help but I was afraid because the Syrian army was there.'

 This is one of a number of such accounts on the Human Rights Watch site. I guess the neighbouring district of Yarmouk is the location of the Palestinian refugee camp currently being starved by the Syrian government.

The Big Questions

 Series 7 Episode 5 of 21

 "Where the dictators have been in power, as long as they keep their heads down, Christians have been alright."

 Nadim Nasar says,

 "The suffering of the Christians is not more important than any Syrian."

 The truth is that the vast majority of refugees are Sunni Muslims, fleeing the attacks of Assad's forces. That's why if Britain only takes 500 refugees, and prioritises Christians, it is failing to address the problem.The biggest clap was for the audience member that said, "I think we should be ashamed that we are only taking five hundred."

Dateline London

 Agnes Poirier: "In 24 hours the troops would be going."

 This was supposed be what was happening over Syria in August, and it never happened.

 I saw Sunny Hundal described as a "tenth-rate Polly Toynbee", on her level of ignorance displayed here, to belittle the Syrian opposition, that would be quite something.

 "Just think how worse it would have been if the Brits and Americans had started bombing [which they weren't going to do, but hey they might have damaged Assad's military capability a bit]. As if that would have helped in any way. We certainly wouldn't have talks round the table, we certainly wouldn't have any question of the weapons disarmament [actually it was the threat of force that got both those things]. Who knows, really, if this is going to go anywhere; but we wouldn't even be here, and the extraordinary thing is the rather weak British opposition was the party that prevented us doing that." [Funny that. Almost as if Cameron wasn't actually trying to drag us into a war at all].

 Gavin Esler: "People don't want to get involved in a foreign adventure with unforeseen consequences."

 Polly Toynbee again: "Quite rightly, they look at the opposition; if it was a clear-cut rebellion against Assad and that was it, but when they see the extent to which they are all these warriors, there's a civil war going on within the anti-Assad camp, so who are we supporting, for what, and where does it come out? [You arm the Free Syrian Army, so they can defeat Assad and isolate the extremists, and it comes out smelling of roses. One of the other correspondents points out that Assad doesn't fight the extremists, and using them to blame the opposition helps Assad]. Do we know it will be better in the end? [It'll be worse the longer Assad is in power]. You can only intervene if you're clear you're going to make things better. [Anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons would stop Assad's attacks on civilians. Clearly better]. It's pretty clear to most people in Britain rightly, but not to Cameron, it would have made things worse."

 Mina al-Oraibi: "Look at the conversation we're having here: we're scared of the radicals, we're scared of the terrorists, maybe Assad is better the devil you know; these kinds of conversations actually work to the benefit of the government, and they have been able to frame a large part of the narrative."

Sunny Hundal wants UK in Syria

 What Sunny Hundal actually wants is a no-fly-zone and the bombing of Assad's military capability. Found it via the circle-jerk among Indecent Leftists here*, who think that if anyone wants to help Syrians they are demanding Bomb Something, Preferably Syria, But Bomb Anything, and a catalogue of other nonsense to convince themselves they're doing a public service.
*[http://flyingrodent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/syriasly-yo.html]

Syrian government accused of 'starve or surrender' policy against civilians

 Because it is a war of the Syrian government against those civilians.

 The first comment engages in whatabouttery over US conduct in Iraq. Don't look here, look there! And then we get the claims that the rebels are forcing civilians to stay as human shields.