Hezbollah’s Syria Problem

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

‘Hell is never far away’

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

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

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

No Agreement Reached on Syrian No-Fly Zone

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

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

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

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

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

What on earth is Nick Griffin doing in Syria?

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

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

Secret British role in halting Isil 'massacre' in Lebanon

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



 Not much illumination from the New York Times:

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

We Leave, They Stay

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

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

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

Armed opposition groups announce new alliance

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

Agree to disagree on Syria

 This is more positive.

 ' “We have to stand up a viable ground force in Syria to be able to do that. That’s not the regime. It’s got to be the moderate Syrian opposition. And we need to facilitate a political transition. I think where we still need to get across the goal line in terms of our agreement is how our military-to-military cooperation is going to be synced up in those areas. But that’s not disagreement. I just think that – now that I think we are in a good place about what we’re trying to accomplish, we need to figure out what’s the best way for our militaries to work together to make that happen.”

 According to sources close to the meeting, Biden and Davutoğlu have agreed on the prospects of taking al-Assad out of the political equilibrium. But Turkey’s urgency creates jitters in Washington. The nuclear deal with Iran seems more important and the Obama Administration would do very little to shake the boat for at least several months.

 As Iran gets closer to the international scene as a major player, there will be little relevance of al-Assad anymore. Iran may not need him, Russia may not need him.'

David Cameron urges EU support for migration plans

 "We have offered sanctuary."

 To ninety Syrians. When the refugees are in their millions. As some Syrian pointed out on Facebook yesterday, more than that would have arrived if the British government had not slapped on visa restrictions to stop Syrians escape from Bashar al-Assad, his Russian weapons and his Lebanese and Iranian mercernaries. Arming the FSA with anti-aircraft weapons would have reduced the flood to a trickle, we wouldn't have the chaos with ISIS running rampant if that had been done, and it is still the only way out of hell on Earth for Syria. Every day that goes by and the Syrian people are not allowed to defend themselves and the disaster gets worse.

 There are some other reasons why Cameron's talking shit, but this is the most important right now, not to be discovered by those who go along with the idea that if we allowed our governments to help the Free Syrian Army, or anyone else who wants to fight Assad (and ISIS, but let's understand how the tolerance of one fuelled the other), they would just be creating blowback of mad jihadis ready to come back to Britain and blow us all up in our beds. Get real.

Hagel-ian dialectic

 'If there is no alternative to ISIS’ fighters, they will continue to be able to command unwarranted and unearned support from angry and desperate Sunni communities that have faced a regime that has had no compunction in using all forms of conventional firepower, as well as chemical weapons, to dispense with at least 200,000 of its own citizens in the past three years.

 And if those same communities conclude that the anti-ISIS coalition effort either wittingly or unwittingly benefits that regime, rather than stands as a new challenge against it, there is no way for them to embrace the effort. To the contrary, as Obama himself recently noted, such an impression would serve to drive Sunni Arabs in Syria toward ISIS, however reluctantly, and away from any support for the coalition's efforts.

 ...the fundamental contradiction that Hagel has identified — that the battle against ISIS cannot be won as long as US policy towards Assad remains ambiguous and ambivalent — remains unavoidable.

 As I've written many times in the past, the inescapable bottom line is that the administration will ultimately have to choose between presiding over a campaign against ISIS that achieves much less than the stated "degrade and ultimately destroy" goal, or finally biting the bullet and making regime change in Syria an inextricable part of the American project. Getting rid of people who irksomely point this out isn't going to alter an equation, like this one, that is hardwired into the reality of the problem.'

Assad brings down Chuck Hagel

 You have to subscribe to see content, but here's the whole thing:

 'US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s resigned on November 24 against a backdrop of profound disagreement with the White House and Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over US strategy against Islamic State (IS) also known as ISIS or Daesh. Hagel was in favour of air strikes against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, to destroy Daesh’s principal recruiting ground and legitimacy.

 For several weeks Hagel had also pleaded for drastic reinforcements for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in accordance with the analysis of Saudi Arabia’s GID and Turkey’s MIT (IOL 722). Sources who accompanied Mutaib bin Abdullah, the head of Saudi Arabia’s National Guard, to Washington last week say that a disillusioned Hagel complained that the US Air Force had become Assad’s proxy. His departure marks the victory of Dempsey’s strategy. The US military chief is in favour or rehabilitating the Damascus regime as the last rampart in the region against jihadism.'

The big picture in Syria is bigger than any one group

 'In light of these developments, do you not think that ISIS and the PYD are taking advantage of the situation and are just focusing on their own political interests while the Assad regime is still standing and fuelling the inhuman internal conflict. The preceding statement might be harsh from the Kurdish perspective since they have been oppressed for longer than a century - but what about the Sunni majority and their historical memory of Assad's killings? Therefore, opposition groups leaving ideological obsessions aside and concentrating on their common enemies - ISIS and Assad - seems to be the path to take.'

Children's toys scattered among human flesh in Raqqa

 'After the regime massacred nearly 100 people.'

 The US State Department had the following to say:

 "Government in ‪#‎Syria‬ has launched airstrikes designed to hit ‪#‎ISIS‬ in‪#‎Raqqa‬; civilians caught in the crossfire."*

 If they hadn't been Arab children, would this have gone down exactly the same way?

*[https://twitter.com/StateCSO/status/537384003624787968]



 Note 11/4/25, State Department tweet deleted.

Syria’s southern rebels draw up new game plan

 What the article makes clear is that the West and the Gulf countries have not been backing the rebels in the sense that they want them to succeed, but because to do nothing would be considered an outrage by their own people. The idea that the rebels were proxy forces that would carry out some unidentified policy of their masters rather than the revolution against Assad was always impossible to take seriously, all that could be done was neuter them by promising support and not delivering. That is still the threat, that the US will use the threat of the rebels to negotiate a transition that maintains Russian and Iranian domination of Syria without Assad, and sell out Syria permanently if they can get a deal.

 'In contrast to the north and east, where Syria shares frontiers with Turkey and Iraq, the southern border with Jordan has been relatively well policed, preventing the kind of influx of foreign extremists that have aided the rise of ISIL and Al Nusra.

 That had made the southern front the best hope for the West and Gulf States, and the moderate rebel groups they are backing, to bring pressure to bear on Iranian reinforced, Russian supplied regime forces in and around the capital, Damascus.'

A Syrian Activist Plans To Behead An ISIS Fighter

 “I feel that the world will forget us and forget what we stood for.”

Millions in Aleppo under threat of siege

 ' “People have grown accustomed to the barrel bombs; we are nearing a year of this regular bombardment,” said Hamdi, referring to the near-daily government airstrikes using a particularly indiscriminate weapon. “But people fear the thought of siege, the thought of hunger, the thought of being cold - this is what people fear the most.”

 For more than two years, the government has employed siege tactics - what the opposition calls “kneel or starve” - to retake or pacify areas it was unable to seize militarily.

 Earlier this year, the government reached truces with opposition-held communities around Damascus, the capital, and in Homs, Syria’s central city, once called “the capital of the revolution,” which had been under siege for months. Before the deals were made, some residents had died for lack of food or medicine, local activists reported.

 The cease-fire agreements were seen as a blow to the rebels and a victory for President Bashar Al Assad in that they pacified individuals and groups who had called for his ouster. Whereas the government portrayed the deals as part of a broader effort at national reconciliation, the opposition viewed them as an effort to undermine its support among the population.'

 Nice rainbow on Friday.

Assad Is The Disease

 This site comes with ads for arms manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

 'Militarily, there are already signs of strain in the U.S. strategy of treating Iraq as the main effort in its war with ISIS, with the Syrian front only an afterthought. Recent events suggest that until the U.S. openly supports the ouster of Assad, the Syrian proxy force of between 5,000 and 15,000 “moderate” and vetted rebels is unlikely to materialize in time, if at all, or else will prove prone to aligning itself with Islamic extremists who share its ultimate objective of getting rid of Assad. Some experts also believe that Russia and Iran will refuse to drop their support for Assad as long as U.S. commitment and goals remain ambiguous.'

Syrian rebels turn to tunnel warfare

 There isn't any mention of the advances the rebels have made in the South, but there is a desperate need to get rid of Assad, that gets more urgent each day.

 'When Assad's soldiers stormed through towns and villages in the early days of fighting, they left behind threatening graffiti: "Assad or we burn the country." And though the rebels say they are torn over their role in Syria's gradual demolition, their desperation has pushed them toward extreme strategies.'

In search of a reliable and trustworthy FSA

 'The FSA commander was full of disappointment, emphasizing the FSA’s moderate attitude and its ability to secure such weapons from being seized, sold or channeled to extremists. “We don’t want tanks or any other vehicles. All we need is anti-aircraft equipment,” he said, pledging the FSA ability to win the war once such weapons are channeled. The U.S. source was skeptic about the “full moderate” attitude of the FSA, saying that the White House still sees the FSA as made up of hundreds of radical fighters who have links with al- Nusra and ISIS. “The U.S. administration is certain that hundreds of radical fighters from the Syrian Islamic Front, Fajr al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, and others have been enrolled in the FSA.'

The press in service of imperial foreign policy

 "Why is it that every national newspaper with the exception of the Independent supports this war?"

 Back to front as usual. Most of the media is reflecting the shock at ISIS atrocities (which get more publicity than those of Assad), but there is no clamour for British forces to go and fight there. The Independent takes its line from Robert Fisk, whose most recent contribution was a friendly interview with a commander in the shabiha, the thugs who rape and torture where their aren't enough of Assad's soldiers to do it, and Patrick Cockburn, who now promotes a Western alliance with Assad, having seen him as the lesser evil all along.

 Richard Seymour goes on to discuss classic lies in support of US foreign policy, like the story of Kuwaiti babies being ripped from incubators. The big lies of the Syrian conflict last year were that it wasn't Assad who used chemical weapons to kill 1500 people, and that the claim was a ruse to justify an American invasion. It should be clear today that there was never going to be an American invasion, and our concern about media lies should be on the actual victims of this conflict, the Syrians murdered in their hundreds of thousand by Assad, the tens of thousands tortured every day in his prisons, today. I did not bother to watch any more of this video.

Daraa province slowly falls into Syrian rebel hands

 'On Nov. 14, rebels destroyed an army Fozdeka combat vehicle using a Russian-made Fagot missile targeted at the outskirts of Brigade 82.

 The opposition media office in Nawa stated on its Facebook page that 25% of the homes of the city are no longer habitable and called on “revolutionary bodies working in the field of human rights” to secure housing and shelter for hundreds of displaced families that returned to the city and found themselves homeless.'

 What a gay day. It is easy to overestimate the effect that opposition victories have, but there is hope that Syria might wake from the nightmare that is the fall of the House of Assad, and that's vitally important. Let's hope that pressure doesn't mean allowing the régime to survive Assad, the more Syrians are empowered militarily rather than having outside powers determine their future, the less likely that is to happen.

 'Syrian rebels in the south are trying to present a model of a moderate opposition capable of achieving field victories, far from the Islamist character that has so far marked most rebel factions. Jabhat al-Nusra has a limited presence in the south and the military structure of the opposition’s joint command in Daraa was restructured to include a civilian administrative structure. This might encourage Western powers and their regional allies to support rebels in the south as a means to exert pressure on the Assad regime in Damascus.'

 Without Damascus, the régime would have no legitimacy as a state actor, and the recognition of a new government would likely be swift, if there is anything of Syria to recognise by then.

 'The southern front is the most dangerous for Damascus. Through all the battles to the south of the capital and to the east toward Ghouta, the regime aims to protect Damascus as its center of power and to confirm its continued control of the Syrian central state. Without Damascus, the regime is little more than another armed faction on the ground in terms of power and influence.'

Rebel Alliances Pose Threat to Assad

 So there aren't any mass defections.

 Theodore Bell:

 "The regime has launched counteroffensives that have failed, resulting in ensuing regime frustration, which manifests itself in the execution of Syrian Arab Army officers and defections of generals because they’re afraid they are going to be executed or penalized.

 There was a report of the president sending the Minister of Defense south to personally oversee a counteroffensive after Syrian Arab Army officers were executed as punishment for the strategic loss of Tel-al Hara in the south.

 When the regime faces a major setback, they frequently lash out with air power, which can take the form of surface-to-surface scud missiles etc. We’ve seen barrel bombs with chlorine gas canisters in them in Damascus, reports of at least three chlorine gas attacks on a very consistent north-south axis along supply lines, responding to rebel advances."

Struggling to shine a light on victims of sexual violence

 'She said,"There was a lot, a lot of torture," and I said, "What kind of torture?" She kept repeating, "A lot, a lot of torture," and I kept pressing until I wore her down and she finally began telling me specifically about the rape.'

Season of Monsters

 Lina Sergie Attar:

 'History is long. No people in the world knows this fact better than the Syrians. Our memories, however, are short. We forget and we forgive. Even after being forsaken by the world, we still try to relate to you. To tell you the the truth about Syria: in a book of names of the dead; in the hundreds of YouTube videos that are uploaded every single day by moderate Syrians you claim don’t exist; in Kafranbel’s unrelenting banners and cartoons raised every Friday without fear of Assad’s bombs, ISIL’s beheadings, or the U.S.-led coalition’s drones.

 Syrians are no longer a people of the past or the present. They are a people in limbo, waiting to emerge from of their country’s blood and ashes, from of the world’s hypocrisy, from barbaric extremism and ruthless tyranny.'

Syria's 'hospital' of horrors

 'Douma, where I live, is hit practically every day by artillery fire and air and ground raids. It is also located in the Gouta area, which is held by the Free Syrian Army and which was attacked with chemical weapons by the regime in August 2013.'

A Syrian's Struggle To Get By

 ' "What are people saying about U.S. policy toward Syria?"

 "It's either stupid or [people] don't care. They say that the [Syrian] regime killed more than 200,000 people and no one in the world did anything. When ISIS killed 3,000 people, all the world gathered and said we should fight it. When the Syrian regime strikes with chemical weapons and kills 1,500 in one day and none of the world did anything to stop that.

 So people, they have no hope in the universe. They see themselves as so alone and depend on nothing but themselves. Under the very heavy need in every sort of life comes a new creativity we did not know about before." '

The Hunger Game

 'When Waed and Hassan fell in love, they were students in a neighborhood of internet cafes and all-night parties. Then the Assad regime turned their world into a medieval hellscape.

 While the Syrian regime made global headlines with its use of chemical weapons, its use of starvation has largely slipped under the radar, even though it is far more pervasive. Assad has been trying to prevent food and medicine from entering opposition-controlled parts of Syria, while also destroying 60 percent of the country's hospitals. Parts of Homs were cut off from the outside world for three years, and most of southern Damascus came under siege by last year, as did large parts of Aleppo. As this story went to print, some 250,000 people—the population of Orlando, Florida—were living under siege in Syria, completely cut off from outside food or aid.'

To Lars Klevberg, The Norwegian Film Institute and Arts Council Norway

 "Syrian children have been the target of snipers, barrel bombs and massive atrocities for over three years, much of which has been documented, painstakingly, by citizen journalists and journalists alike in the most dangerous and dire of circumstances. This film undermines the work and the people who continue to document crimes against humanity. Rather than engage in thoughtful debate using existing evidence, of which there is plenty, the film calls to question, both ethically and professionally the work being done to document these crimes inside Syria."

Kassig's hometown reacts to his death with grief

 "If I could apologize to each American, one by one, I would," Agha said, weeping. "Because Peter died in Syria, while he was helping the Syrian people. And those who killed him claimed to have done it in the name of Islam. I am a Muslim, from Syria, and he is considered a part of the Syrian revolution."

Is Turkey right on Syria?

 The Greens have generally been as shit on Syria as the left. Good for Jean-Pierre Filiu.

 'Already a year ago, he spoke out strongly against the Western reluctance to arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The inevitable result would be an increase in the influence of jihadist factions on the rebel side. The only way to save the Syrian uprising from being hijacked by the extremists, according to Filiu then, would be the establishment of a revolutionary government of moderate nationalists and Islamists inside Syria. The anti-Assad administration should be given a chance and the only way to shield them would be the establishment of safe zones where they would be protected from air raids and artillery bombings. It was basically what the Turkish government has been saying for a long time now.'

#chigagoGirl dedicates her life to taking on a dictator

 'When she heard on the news that children in Syria were being tortured and killed by the regime, here current activities suddenly didn't feel so important to her anymore. Because of her Syrian roots, Ala'a feels deeply connected to the country and its people. She decided to dedicate her life to helping the people that wanted to bring down Bashar al-Assad and join the revolution. Through social media she's now helping the people on the ground take on a dictator.'

Obama, Khamenei and the making of Syrian tragedy

 'Throughout the conflict, President Obama used the inevitable divisions and squabbling among some of the Syrian opposition groups that sought Washington’s support to highlight their deficiencies and to distort who they are. President Obama was disingenuous, to say the least, when he kept referring to the moderate opposition with his now infamous labels of: farmers, pharmacists and teachers, ignoring the fact that many of those who took up arms against the Assad regime initially were former members of his armed forces.

 These were the nationalists who preceded the Islamists who would dominate the later stages of the conflict. Obama’s inaction at that crucial time; that is before the destruction of some of Syria’s famed cities such as Aleppo and Homs, before the emergence of the murderous Nusra Front and ISIS and more importantly before Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah took charge of the counter revolution, that inaction is in part responsible for Syria’s descent to hell.

 In a moment, certainly not befitting the memory of Pericles, President Obama at an impromptu press conference on Aug. 19, 2012, issued a warning to Assad that the use of chemical weapons would constitute crossing a red line that “would change my calculus.” Obama stressed that “We’re monitoring that situation very carefully. We have put together a range of contingency plans.”

 A year later, the Syrian army unleashed a barrage of rockets laden with sarin gas against the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, killing 1,429 people, a third of them children. What followed were an embarrassing series of fumbles and missteps that exposed Obama’s leadership to severe criticism and ridicule. After committing himself publicly to punish the Assad regime militarily and after dispatching naval assets to the Eastern Mediterranean to deliver the pounding, Obama characteristically backtracked saying he would seek congressional approval.

 The military option died when the Russians saved Obama by committing Assad to discard his chemical arsenal. As David Rothkopf noted in his excellent new book National Insecurity: “The red-line fumble prompted an avalanche of questions from some of Obama’s closest allies and supporters about not only his own leadership but on America’s future role in the world.” '

How ISIS Erupted From The Syrian Revolution

 'The Second Front: Journalist Muhammed Ali travels with FSA fighters to the second front in Syria's brutal civil war.

 "You can be martyrs together."
 "Don't say that."
 "Today ISIS, tomorrow Assad!" '

Syria rebels’ aliases grow into new personalities

 ' "Qusai was born from a tragedy and deprivation, from a revolution, from death, from chemical weapons and siege," said Qusai Zakarya, an activist from the town of Muadhamiya, on the outskirts of Damascus. "So he has a strong presence inside me. It's not just a nickname."

 Zakarya, 28, whose real name is Kassem Eid, created his alias in 2011 by combining the names of a beloved uncle and an actor who starred in a Syrian soap opera considered groundbreaking in its portrayal of Syrian corruption.

 But it wasn't until the summer of 2013, after a chemical weapons attack on Muadhamiya and other Damascus suburbs, that the nom de guerre took over his identity. One of the few residents fluent in English, he accompanied a United Nations team investigating the Muadhamiya attack. Soon he became the voice of the town, especially as a government-imposed siege began to claim the lives of residents.

 America's U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, used his testimony under the name Qusai Zakarya to explain her vote in the Security Council to refer the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court. Under that name, he has also appeared as part of a U.N. panel about life under siege and has met with diplomats from the United States, France, Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.'

How the BBC News Channel reported on Syria in the morning

 Amr Salahi:

 " -Presenter says 200,000 Syrians have been killed by the government and opposition, without saying how many had been killed by each side.

 -Lyse Doucet embedded with regime troops in Aleppo.

 -Lyse Doucet interviews man from Aleppo Chamber of Commerce who supports regime barrel bombs. She challenges him weakly that civilians are dying. He says that its true civilians are dying but the barrel bombs are killing ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The interview finishes there.

 -Absolutely no coverage of the devastation caused by barrel bombs.

 Whitewash..."

Wars of convenience in Syria

 'There is a full-fledged war in Syria that requires attention and while extremists in Daesh must and can be confronted, US credibility is on the line. Under the circumstances, writing a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamanei to seek his assistance in fighting Daesh will not accomplish much of anything, save to further alienate Arab allies. But more importantly, it backstabs pro-American, yes pro-American, moderate Syrian revolutionaries.'

Iran’s Policy In Syria and Iraq

 'In 2011 when protests started in Syria Iran came to the aid of Bashar al-Assad’s government. It didn’t trust the armed forces so it helped create paramilitary groups to break up the protests and then battle the rebels. As the war intensified Iran brought in militias from Iraq, took over military strategy, and sent in not only its own advisers and fighters, but also those from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.'

Syria's War

 "We're talking to the people of the Syrian conflict."

 My low hopes that the BBC's couple of days on Syria would spread anything but confusion
were lowered hearing Jeremy Bowen interviewing a volunteer for the Red Crescent in Damascus.

 No mention that she is working on the government side, that rather than facing occasional casualties from mortars, those civilians targeted by Assad face the most horrific injuries and death from his barrel bombs, just comments like, "The people there are crazy sometimes."

 I thought the item on Syria's disappeared* might avoid this false equivalence by pointing out that it is Assad who has arrested tortured and murdered tens of thousands, not the opposition; instead we get, "Held incommunicado by the regime or militant groups" and "Yet many more Syrians are also suffering at the hands of kidnappers from violent rebel groups
or government security forces."
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29653526]

How Bashar al-Assad created the feared shabiha militia

 It is a sign of the jihadi obsession of the British liberal media that its readers are more likely to be familiar with Jabhat al-Nusra than the shabiha.

 ' "They told us they were worried that the army, in front of the world's media, couldn't use the necessary force to stop the protests. They couldn't be seen to be shooting the protestors. So their idea was: 'Let's keep our hands clean and create a paramilitary group to do the dirty work.'

 "They wanted to put each of us in charge of the shabiha militia in different parts of the country. They briefed us that the shabiha should set out to terrify protesters. They really believed they could scare the opposition into submission and that soon everyone would go home."

 Syrian officials have consistently denied using pro-regime militiamen to intensify the crackdown on protesters and commit atrocities on its behalf.

 However, Mr Salam said the order he was given in that meeting were "specific". "They told us to kill protesters, armed or unarmed, and top 'torture those you capture'," he said.'

Iran in Syria

 There were Ashura celebrations in Damascus recently. There didn't used to be. It's a Shia festival and there didn't used to be many Shia in Syria. There are now, because the Iranian government has stolen thousands, maybe tens of thousands of homes from Sunni Muslim Syrians, and given them to Iranian settlers. This is why Iran and Hezbollah are in no sense a resistance to imperialism, in Syria they are the imperialist genocidal force that is killing Syrians, stealing their homes and their country, and are the Syrian people's number one foreign enemy.

Obama is doubling down on an Isis war with no end in sight

 I don't know who this idiot Trevor Timm is, but he's fairly typical of left-wing people who think they know what is going on in Syria, but don't. The phrase "so-called moderate rebels" sounds increasingly orientalist in the hands of people who have no idea of the politics or religion of the people they dismiss. And if the Americans were providing 'millions in weapons' (slightly bad phrasing, is that millions of guns or millions of dollars worth?), the FSA wouldn't be losing. That's the big lie here.

 'The so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels receiving millions in weapons are now being defeated.'

The militants will remain until the region's Sunnis feel safe

 'The US problem is that it has never had a credible partner on the ground in Syria in three years of war.'

 If you pretend there never was a Free Syrian Army like Cockburn has, or that it was being funded and armed by the Americans when clearly it was not. The gall of the man.

What does Isis look like from the air?

 Western journalist runs out of Arab taxi drivers, and has to resort to airline pilots for his story.
Fisk is still pretending that the Syrian airforce is bombing al-Qaida when it's only going after Syrian civilians.

 'A smiling colonel greeted me with a handshake that almost broke my fingers, and a soldier asked him casually whether the local Syrian fighter jets should be re-armed. Yes, said the colonel casually. Another mission was to be operational the same day. In Syria, you can’t forget the war. Why, you can even look down from the heavens with a cyclopean eye on Syria’s enemies.'

America’s Mideast policy after the midterms

 'Washington has all but adopted the Russo–Iranian perspective on the Syrian crisis, whereby the whole crisis is now limited to confronting the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - despite ISIS appearing on the scene two years after the initially peaceful popular uprising was answered by the Assad regime with brutal force.

 Washington’s refusal to adequately arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with advanced weapons, and its rejection of the creation of no-fly zones and safe havens to protect liberated areas and displaced civilians, have made the FSA the weakest fighting force on Syrian soil. This has allowed ISIS to seize control of considerable swathes of territory in eastern and northeastern Syria to make gains in the southwest of the country while advancing on the northwest.'

'I Am Another Syrian Doctor Killed During Duty'

 "I was killed when my car was targeted with a heat-seeking missile by a Syrian fighter jet
I bled to death. No emergency crew was able to reach me on time. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN are not allowed by the government in my hometown behind rebel lines. They stay away safe in the capital. They have to abide by the system's bureaucracy. The system does not protect me or my patients. There were no news reports of my death."

Eamon Bradley in court to face weapons charges

 Not a terrorist.

 'Mr Bradley spent two months attending camp run by the Army of Islam group, learning to use various guns, mortars and explosives.

 He claimed he was involved in battles against ISIS forces and the army of the Assad regime, however, he added he did not use his weapons during the fighting.'

The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War

 ' "The Boy from Aleppo who Painted the War" presents the Syrian conflict through the eyes of Adam, a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome, who can only speak the truth. As the war creeps ever closer to home, it devastates and disrupts the life of his family. Struggling to make sense of the conflict, as he and his family try to survive in an impossibly brutal world, Adam paints as a way to record and cope with the horrors he witnesses.'

Towards Syrian safe havens?

 'The regime has gone on besieging villages and towns, firing powerful but imprecise rockets at residential areas and using artillery to pulverise any area suspected of sympathising with the revolution. Hospitals and marketplaces have not been spared, and in some cases have been bombed during the medical evacuation of the victims of earlier raids.

 Before the conflict in Syria started, the Syrian army was one of the strongest in the region, with over 320,000 men under arms and an air force of 450 planes. Now it is down to perhaps one fourth of its personnel and one fifth of its planes.

 The Syrian regime is now left only with the crude power of missiles and barrel bombs, which it is using to kill innocent people in an attempt to hold on to power.

 Without safe havens to tip the balance in favour of the opposition, it is unlikely that the regime will be forced out of power, that the revolutionary combatants will win, or that an interim government will be able to put the country back together.'

What led to the battle for Kobanê?

 There's stuff in here the emphasis of which I don't agree with - I don't think that seeing Assad as the major evil in Syria means desiring US intervention - but mostly I agree with it.

 'Faced with the heavy-handed military response of the Assad regime, the Syrian revolution was forced to arm itself. The regime's militarization of the conflict is what invited international intervention--not just by the U.S. and Gulf monarchies, who were looking for a way to interfere with the revolutionary wave, but Russia and Iran, which provided Assad with weapons, ammunition and boots on the ground.

 In this context, the U.S. attempted to strike a delicate balance. It didn't want the Syrian regime to win because that would strengthen Russia and Iran, but it also didn't want the Syrian Revolution to wipe out the regime and inspire similar uprisings in other countries, especially the oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf.

 So the U.S. limited the kinds of weapons it allowed to into Syria from Turkey. It interfered with arms supplies to the Free Syrian Army, blocking heavy weapons like anti-aircraft missiles and heavy guns.'

What Went Wrong in Idlib?

 'For weeks, US actions and statements telegraphed to JAN that its best interests lie in moving quickly against its moderate rivals, before they received enough US support to pose an actual threat. In addition to ISIS and the regime, our ostensible allies can now count among their rivals one of Syria’s most formidable militant groups. Had the United States seriously and meaningfully supported the mainstream rebels, this would not necessarily be a bad thing. As it stands, the United States appears to have done everything in its power to condemn Syria’s moderate opposition to failure, while ensuring its jihadist opponents succeed.'

Hearts, Minds, and Missiles

 'Coalition airstrikes in Syria, though temporarily offsetting groups like IS and JN, come at a high price. As airstrikes have evidently come with little to no coordination with rebel groups, US and coalition governments appear not so much as saviors, but as self-interested Assad allies weakening the Syrians' revolution.'

Social media did not create ISIS

 'Whilst the U.S. is bombing ISIS, Assad’s warplanes are still barrel bombing Aleppo and other cities. The English-speaking media went into overdrive in covering the executions of American and British hostages held by ISIS but all too frequently Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese victims were just footnotes. For Arabs, Muslims and indeed many others across the globe the contradictions are massive.'

Life in Raqqa under IS

 'The first battle against IS was on Aug. 1, 2013. The Free Syrian Army [FSA] felt the danger of IS and tried to throw them out of the city, but it didn’t have enough weapons and the international community didn’t care. The FSA lost after 13 days of fighting, and then on Jan. 4, 2014, it tried once again. But this time, IS won full control over the city. Today, it enjoys the support of only 10% of the population, along with chiefs of some clans who are benefiting from the current situation.'

Inside al-Waer, safe haven under siege

 While Fisk is using the Independent to give Assad's story (with a thin cover of putting the other point of view, and listening sagely while Assad's propagandists tell their lies), it's down to the right-wing press to report the actual savagery.

 'In al-Waer, a satellite town on the periphery of Homs city, thousands who fled the earlier violence are once again trapped, with little food and under constant shellfire.

 For the past eight months government forces have blocked the entrances to the district, limiting the entry of food and medical supplies.

 "There is some food but not enough to eat every day," Waleed al-Fares, an activist speaking from inside the besieged district told the Telegraph. "The soldiers have stopped the food lorries."

 There is electricity for only a few hours every day. Winter is closing in and there is no heating, residents said.

 Video footage, filmed this week, shows the scale of damage in the district that had until recently had a newly built feel. Every window of every apartment in the high rise blocks is shattered from shell blasts. Fire rages through apartments hit by the artillery strikes. There are so many that no one bothers trying to put them out.'

US plan for proxy army to fight Isis in Syria suffers attack

 Sad that it has come to this.

 “It is obvious that the US is supporting Assad,” he said. “Don’t bother trying to argue with me or anyone else about it. They are aiding the war against us. Their leaders are weak and they are liars.”

From Sheikh Miskeen today

 'Civilians shot at by regime snipers as they try to flee the town.'

Western fascination with 'badass' Kurdish women

 I've seen this posted a few times. One of the idiot parties is Flying Rodent on his blog. More the problem seems to be that it is OK for Kurds to defend themselves, but if Syrian Arabs do it, they are jihadis and/or proxies for America and Saudi Arabia. See past articles by David Wearing in the Guardian culminating in the conclusion that all the opposition are no better than ISIS, so we have to ally with Assad. Whether this is due to racism against Arabs isn't the way I tend to think of things, but there are people who logically put it together that way.