U.S. Signals Shift on How to End Syrian Civil War

 I've seen five leftists post their solidarity with the struggle of the Vietnamese forty years ago this morning. Funnily enough, they are almost all people who have dismissed the struggle of the Syrian people as a foreign plot, replacing the anti-communism of a previous generation with an ignorance about Muslims.

 'The view that the United States supports Mr. Assad is spreading even among the groups receiving direct American financing, groups deemed moderate enough to receive arms and work with a United States-run operations center in Turkey. A fighter with Harakat Hazm, one such group, said Wednesday that America was “looking for loopholes to reach a political solution and keep al-Assad.”

 Tarek Fares, a secular Syrian Army defector who long fought with the loose-knit nationalist groups known as the Free Syrian Army but who has lately quit fighting, joked bitterly about American policy one recent night in Antakya, Turkey. “This is how the Americans talk,” he said. “They say, ‘We have a red line, we will support you, we will arm you.’ They do nothing, and then after four years they tell you Assad is the best option.” '

Plan to expand bombing campaign in Syria stalls

 Once again, "Western-backed" is a misnomer, when the White House says Assad's departure is an important goal their actions belie the claim, and as we'll see in the last paragraph quoted, at most they want just Assad to go so that his régime can be protected from revolution. The proposal to bomb ISIS north-east of Aleppo is presumably taking a long time because they want to make sure that nobody attacks Assad's forces while they are about it.

 'Turkish President Recep Tay­yip Erdogan “continues to have a different geographic priority,” a senior administration official said, and is still primarily focused on Aleppo and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

 “We want to go after ISIL,” the official said, referring to the Islamic State.

 Assad’s military surrounds, and regularly bombards from the air, Western-backed moderate opposition fighters and civilians in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, in the northwest corner of the country.

 Although the administration has called for a negotiated solution to the conflict between Assad and the moderate opposition, some U.S. partners question how that can be accomplished as long as Assad and his military remain relatively strong and the opposition is increasingly weak.'

Aleppo Back To Life

 "The locals say that the régime tactic of attacking from the air is because they are unable to fight people in the street."

Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Efforts

 About fifty minutes through there's a press conference reply from President Obama, with the key bit in the Guardian*.

 'Obama said the US had not been “standing on the sidelines” during the Syrian war. “It’s true that we did not invade Syria,” he said.'

 This is the same distortion the phony anti-imperialists perpetuate, that the alternative to doing nothing was to invade, when it was always about the failure to support the Free Syrian Army, starving them of weapons while Assad got them by the planeload from Moscow, plus planes from which to drop them. And President Obama talks here of "working with partners in the region," vagueing over that that means working with the iranians who are assisting in mass murder in Syria, rather than the FSA, who have been fighting Assad, Iran and ISIS.

*[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/jan/16/obama-cameron-joint-press-conference-meeting-live]

Is Hezbollah Going Broke?

 They've lost 1,000 fighters killing Syrian freedom fighters. They've lost none fighting against ISIS as far as I'm aware, because they and Assad have coordinated with ISIS, not fought them. The régime left open a corridor so that ISIS could establish itself in the western Qalamoun mountains, where Hezbollah has been taking one hell of a beating from actual rebel groups. The piece is also interesting on the growing divide between the poor Shia, and those who have grown rich from distributing Iranian largesse, important if the Shia community in Lebanon is going to reject involvement in the genocide in Syria.

 'Hezbollah’s budget woes come at perhaps the worst possible time for the organization. The group recently uncovered a Mossad spy high in its ranks, and its militant wing has reportedly lost nearly 1,000 fighters in the Syrian civil war. As Hezbollah takes on a growing role in the battle against ISIS and Syrian rebel groups, that conflict further threatens to strain its resources.'

Are Israel, Jabhat al-Nusra coordinating on attacks in Syria?

 No. This nonsense started a few months ago, and it's taken this long for John Rees and his Counterfire, the ex-leadership of the SWP who have been the closest on the Left in Britain to openly supporting Assad, to pick it up. The support for any Syrian rebels comes down to two unidentified boxes that could have contained medical supplies, the evidence that Israel is cooperating with Jabhat al-Nusra is zero. It's this sort of adoption of conspiracy theories via the internet that deny Syrians agency, and claim they are just proxies in a Saudi/US plot to Talibanise/seize Syria's oil, that will most discredit the Left when an accounting of what happens in Syria occurs, unfortunately all those who do support the oppressed when it is most important will get dragged down by the idiots.

“Our lack of weapons puts us in a position of weakness”

 'Questions to Lorca, Midou and Abu Layla [1], officers of the Popular Liberation Factions (FLP), a military structure created by the Current of the Revolutionary Left (CRL), a Syrian revolutionary Marxist organization.'

 I think their ultra-leftism doesn't help too. When they lump the Islamists fighting Assad together as reactionary forces, they are falling into the same sectarianism that had the German Communist Party of the 1930s see the "social-fascists" of the Social Democratic party as as bad as Hitler. That they can only get limited cooperation from even FSA battalions suggests their purity isolates itself. Which is a great pity, because if there is going to be anyone who defends the progressive principles of the revolution, it will be these people, and if they are busy blaming the Saudis as much as the Iranians for the mess Assad has created, they aren't going to have much traction with the millions whose lives have been devastated by the régime.

What’s Cooking in Moscow?

 'Today, in Syria, we are facing a humanitarian tragedy made worse by Washington’s endorsement of Moscow’s positions, giving its implicit blessing to the Moscow conference. It is also important to recall that what has brought about this catastrophic situation inside Syria and its neighboring countries is Washington’s continuous rejection of calls from the opposition and the genuine “Friends of Syria” for no-fly zones and safe havens.

 Washington’s inaction has led to the following:

 – By not acting against Assad despite issuing several warning, the Syrian president has been left free to use every weapon in his possession against his own people.

 – Washington’s passivity has stopped the uprising’s momentum, so mass desertions of politicians and military fizzled out when they discovered the long concealed truth that President Obama was unwilling to confront Iran and Russia, and would not force Assad to abdicate.

 – Through the same passivity, Washington has emboldened Iran to order Iranian, Lebanese, Iraqi and other (Shi’ite) fighters to back Assad militarily, with Russia taking care of arms supplies.

 – Washington has weakened and disheartened the moderates in the Syrian opposition camp, turning the Free Syrian Army (FSA) into the weakest fighting force on Syrian soil, while allowing—during 4 long years—thousands of extremists to come to Syria from all corners of the world. These extremists, in turn, have now undermined the uprising’s credibility and blemished its image.

 This means that what is being planned in Moscow is nothing more than a conspiracy, not a conference, against Syria and its popular uprising.'

Assad’s Crimes And The Syrian Nuclear State

 Mint Press News has printed some dreadful pro-Assad propaganda, so I'm surprised to see this piece.

 'International powers do not need to commit to a full scale ground invasion to turn the tides in Syria. A no fly zone, taking away the regime’s ability to drop barrel bombs, would benefit the people greatly. International sanctions to cripple the regime economically would be wonderful. Some support of the local rebel groups like the Free Syrian Army or the Kurds with income or weaponry could turn the tides of battle.

 There are many ways the world could help Syrians achieve a goal they have been fighting for since early 2011: a peaceful, true democratic state where individuals can live freely and pursue happiness. After all the Syrian people have been through, I think they deserve it.'

Trailer of "Our Terrible Country"

 "Is this the freedom you want?"

 "If I were free to choose, then no. I would have preferred a more chic and less costly freedom. However, it seems this is the price we're forced to pay."

 'The film, which is being shown on Saturday at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and on Feb. 18 at Artists Space in TriBeCa confronts those divides with painful honesty and illuminates the personal calamities that ensued for those who staked their lives on revolt.'
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/arts/in-our-terrible-country-mohammad-ali-atassi-explores-the-syrian-revolt.html]

They told me they were going to melt me in acid

 ' "Those people, who are literally monsters, they are brainwashed to serve that guy [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]."

 Shaheen wants to change that. She wants men like her torturers to be integrated back into the society. She wants Syria to go back to normal. And she feels every single Syrian can make a difference.

 "I never felt like, 'oh, I was tortured, so I have to run away,'" she says, "I feel a lot of people in Syria depend on me." '

US to Train Thousands of Syrian Rebels per Year

 Telesur, propaganda mouthpiece of ISIS.

 ' “In the east of Syria, there is no Free Syrian Army any longer. All Free Syrian Army (FSA) people (there) have joined the Islamic State,” a senior Islamic State group commander told the Washington Post in August 2014.'

 This isn't true. There was a substantial contingent of the Free Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor when ISIS over-ran it in June 2014. They appealed for weeks for some arms to be sent so they could resist ISIS*, when it didn't come they didn't join ISIS, but left to fight on other fronts, some of them to Kobane, and maybe some of them stayed. When Ha'aretz reports, "Islamic State has beheaded or shot 17 men in Syria in the past two days as it faces increasing attacks from unidentified gunmen in areas it controls,"** I think they might be identified as the Free Syrian Army. But Telesur prefers to go solely with the extremists version of events.

 And with only the negatives of what American officials have to say.

 'According to Defense One, the training program's biggest hurdle is establishing a vetting process for potential recruits.

“(I)dentifying rebel fighters who don’t have ties to Jabhat al-Nusra, the main al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is extremely difficult for a Pentagon with limited resources on the ground,” Defense One reported.'

I've looked at the Defense One story***, and that quote is immediately followed up by, 'Still, the Pentagon is confident its forces can identify, recruit and then train a moderate force. American military forces, particularly Special Forces, have decades of experience screening foreign military forces for training, Pentagon officials said. “We also know the Syrian opposition better now than we did two years ago through the programs we’ve had providing non-lethal assistance.” '

 Even so, Telesur is only following what those administering Obama's hands-off policy have been telling us for the last three years, that you can't trust Muslims because any of them might be a jihadi. Defense One doesn't ignore the alternate view, " frustration from critics arguing that the Obama Administration has not moved faster to assist the floundering moderate forces inside Syria."

 In other good news, Greta and Vanessa, the two revolutionaries kidnapped by al-Nusra, have been freed.****

*[https://m.naharnet.com/stories/en/134406-syria-rebels-urge-arab-support-against-isil-jihadists]
**[https://www.haaretz.com/2015-01-16/ty-article/middle-east-updates/0000017f-dc57-db5a-a57f-dc7fbc1b0000]
***[https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/01/us-send-400-trainers-and-hundreds-more-troops-syrian-train-and-equip-mission/103068/]
****[https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/syria-italian-hostage-aid-workers-greta-ramelli-vanessa-marzullo-freed-1483614]

Snowfall adds to refugee misery in Syrian city of Aleppo

 Finally a BBC report where you don't have to dig too far to understand that the aerial bombardment and targeting of Aleppo is by Assad's forces, and that's why millions have fled, not from some impersonal violence affecting Syria. Oddly there is no narration over the video footage.

 'Heavy snowfall in Aleppo, Syria's second city has added misery to the lives of those who have chosen to stay in the city despite devastation caused by aerial bombardment.

 Almost three million Syrians have left the country and many of those have fled from Aleppo, where fighting has been heavy and virtually continuous.

 Aleppo has been hit hard by the violence afflicting Syria, control of the city is divided between rebels and those loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have been targeting the city.'

Medieval occupiers force children to donate blood

 If we do not support revolutions, they will have to look for support for imperialist powers when at their weakest.

 ' “We know American soldiers will protect us,” one woman said defiantly. “Then it will be game over.”

 But in Raqqa, Mosul and the countless smaller cities and villages where longtime residents remain trapped, living under the bloody sword of ISIS, fear persists that the daily scenes of beheaded bodies and devastated buildings is scarring children and damning the future.

 “The hopes of entire generations have been destroyed,” RaqqAwi said. “But we will continue our revolution and fulfill our dream, or we will die trying. We dream for Syria a free country – long live Syria – prosperous and strong.” '

Kerry voices US support for Russian effort

 'It is time for President Assad, the Assad regime to put their people first and to think about the consequences of their actions which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad.'

 Like the Western liberals, he calls those fighting Assad terrorists, whereas the real terrorists are ISIS who prey on the revolution and rarely fight Assad, and Assad himself. And Kerry supports the idea of enabling the régime to prolong Syria's agony through the UN plan for local ceasefires.

Turkey’s border lifeline for some, road to jihad for other

 Remember this next time some idiot leftist claims the problem in Syria is Turkey not policing its border.

 'On a recent trip, one Syrian told this reporter that the ''revolution and many thousands of other people'' would be dead right now were it not for the humanitarian stance of Turkey in allowing injured Syrians - both civilians and fighters, sometimes difficult to distinguish between given the nature of the popular uprising itself and often without a passport - to receive basic emergency treatment at its public facilities.

 In contrast with Syria's other neighbors home to large numbers of refugees - Lebanon and Jordan - Turkey has not been criticized by Amnesty International for restrictive border policies harming those fleeing the war.'

Wood fires choke Dera'a

 After four years, I'd call it a strategy rather than a tactic, but that's chessplaying for you. Of course it's illegal, but half the world thinks that punishing Assad for war crimes would be an American trick to take over the Middle East, and the other half don't care.

 'Abu Jamil, the head of a local village council in the rebel-held east of Dera’a, said his village was experiencing an acute shortage of heating materials, particularly diesel. After four years of war, Abu Jamil sees this as a tactic.

 “Diesel is a basic necessity for the people of Dera’a. This shortage is collective punishment by the Syrian regime, punishing all the civilians who live in areas controlled by the opposition. They’re depriving us of all living services, including heating methods,” he said.'

Bashar al-Assad dared to spend night in refugee camp

 'All the victims, also including a one-year-old girl in a southern Damascus district, lived in areas under opposition control, where shortages of food, heating and medical equipment are rife, it said.

 In neighbouring Lebanon, at least two Syrian refugees died last Wednesday due to plunging temperatures and lack of heating.'

From Bad to Worse

 'In 2014, indiscriminate bombings continued in many parts of the country; in some cities like Aleppo, they have been stepped up. Barrel bombs have left the city practically deserted. The opposition-controlled area is unrecognizable, with many of its neighbourhoods suffering destruction comparable only to World War II or Grozny in the 1990s.'

New photos of of mass torture

 Though the Americans weren't posing with corpses. There are not two equal sides in Syria, it will not get better if it is ignored.

 'Some of the photographs will take back the reader to the torture memos of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003 when the U.S. soldiers used to take photos with tormented inmates. Here the Syrian soldiers are doing the same.'

A Free Syrian Army fighter stands in his wheelchair

 'Abu Nejme, a 21-year-old Free Syrian Army fighter, stands in his wheelchair in Aleppo January 10, 2015. Nejme lost his legs from a barrel bomb about six months ago as he was searching for survivors of a barrel bombing by warplanes loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad on Al-Sukkari neighbourhood of Aleppo. Nejme says that he still fights with the Free Syrian Army.'

Short Cuts

 Tariq Ali lies about the Syrian opposition again, claiming that they are the people in ISIS they have been fighting for their lives against for the last year, while ISIS has swallowed up liberated territory with the connivance of Assad. How very far from socialism and the truth he has travelled.

 'Sent first to Iraq to kill Americans and more recently to Syria (with the connivance of the French state?) to topple Assad...'

We Rattled Too Many Cages

 "In the book you talk about how Assad's forces knew they were shelling a media center. Why do you think he was targeting journalists?"

 "The night before Marie and Remi’s murder, Marie had given three interviews, to CNN, C4 in the UK, and the BBC World Service. The next morning I could clearly define the firing pattern of the regime gunners. They were bracketing in on us, which is adjusting fire with the use of a drone, until they had precisely targeted the building. They then fired four rockets directly into the media center.

 Why? What was happening in Baba Amr was wholesale slaughter, Marie had the audacity to report live from the scene. We had witnessed the butchery and that crossed the boundaries as to what the regime would tolerate. We rattled too many cages in Damascus."

 "Russian President Vladimir Putin said that perhaps it was the rebels who staged a chemical weapons attack. What do you think of that?"

 "The polite answer to that is ‘complete rubbish,’ my heartfelt answer is, ‘utter bollocks.’ I spent time with these people; they are fighting for their lives, for survival. They showed Marie and I warmth that went beyond the need to get western journalists in and out of the country. People died on our behalf, they died in an effort to show the world the horrors of what was happening to their own people and families. The concept that they gassed their own families to garner Western support is an anathema to me."

Syrian rebels to receive US training to fight Assad

 'The senior FSA official praised Washington’s “response” to the FSA’s calls to amend the military plan and allow the FSA to target not just ISIS, but also Assad regime forces. “This is something that we insisted on.” '

 If you are abandoned by the world, especially when you are derided as the problem and any aid you receive seen as the problem, it's a good idea to be extra grateful for any actual help. But you can see clearly from this that getting rid of Assad has never been part of America's plan. It's not surprising that the US is happy to see dictators remain in power, the question is why the rest of the world has refused to help Syria, to stop the carnage, the destabilisation of the region and the rise of ISIS that have resulted from letting Assad get away with murder.

 There's a report that 3000 rebels in the Qalamoun have allied with ISIS*, because they receive no support, and the alternative is giving in to Assad and the sectarian foreign legion that is Hezbollah. People have been forced to such desperate choices when they are given no alternative. It isn't the safe option to say nothing can be done to help, that's how it's got as bad as it is.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150401000000*/http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/3000-fsa-fighters-defect-isis-qalamoun-mountains/]

 Note 23/02/15: I've now seen that Al-Masdar News is an untrustworthy pro-Assad source.

The Gutman Report

 If Syrians were merely fighting a dictator, as the Nicaraguans with Somoza, or fighting a foreign invasion, like the Vietnamese with the Americans, for the rest of the world not to offer solidarity would be a simple abandonment of principle. But when they are doing both of those, and in addition are the frontline against a terrorist threat we all say we would like dealt with, the abandonment is criminal.

 'Gutman reported being told by Syrian opposition leaders of being ignored by the Obama administration last April when they warned of a major ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) offensive brewing. The alleged warning centered on Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria rather than on Iraq; still, nationalist opposition requests for more material to fight ISIL were reportedly ignored. According to Gutman, “Moderate rebels, despite their battlefield setbacks, have unique assets, such as ground-level intelligence about the locations and movements of the Islamic State, a grasp of local politics and the drive to expel foreign-led forces from their country. But they’ve failed to gain traction with the Obama administration for their plans to fight the terror groups, and recently they’ve had trouble even getting a hearing.”

 It is not too late for American policy to change fundamentally, especially given the requirement that ISIL be beaten in Syria—not just Iraq. But the administration seems single-minded in its pursuit of a nuclear agreement with Iran—a worthy goal to be sure. Is the goal made more achievable by bowing to Tehran and its client in Damascus? And if it is, who will want to confront the bill—particularly the itemization of children slaughtered and innocent lives brought to ruin? Perhaps this too can be blamed on those who had the temerity to risk all for civilized governance in Syria.'

Syrians prepare for 200th Friday anti-regime protest

 'One researcher and activist involved with the Syria conflict goes by the name of Not George Sabra, and his blog “Democratic Revolution, Syria Style” compiles a list of the weekly demo slogans. He believes that the slogans still function as a way to identify the main groups in the Syria conflict.

 “They’re not really ideological, but represent the broad masses who are friendly to both the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front [militias], but are hostile to Assad and ISIS.” '

Yassin H Saleh: Palestinization of Syrians

 'A radical solution to the problem of the Syrian refugees requires standing in solidarity with them as they work to reclaim their country, instead of acting as if Syrians fled their country as a result of a natural disaster. It requires understanding that the entity who Palestinianized Syrians is, mainly, the local Israel - the Assad state.

 Aspects of the Israelization of this “state” are many. It has a complete monopoly over the air force. It has been protected from condemnation by four Russian-Chinese vetoes in the Security Council, just as the United States has done to protect aggressive Israel. It has categorically refused to recognize the opposition as negotiation partners and has expressed no interest in negotiating with them. It has developed a ‘modernizing’ ideology complete with an array of symbols that conceal basic matters of justice and political equality. It dehumanizes Syrian protestors and resisters and accuses them of being terrorists, with the tacit cooperation of the international community as marked (for example) by the granting of a UNESCO award to an organization led by Asma’ al Assad, the tyrant’s wife. And the public killer at the head of this state is supported by all the fascists and Stalinists of the free world and is interviewed in its free press!

 The West’s exclusive focus on Dae’sh marks the other side of the dehumanization of Syrians, and reduces their much larger struggle to this single, fascist entity. With this move, the society of Syrians inside and outside the country is completely obscured, and as people, they become invisible. This outcome is not a matter of lack of information or knowledge, it is a matter of politics - a politics of the elite, even though some of them argue that they represent the masses.'

The White House-Kremlin position on Assad

 'What’s curious about these Russian priorities is the extent to which they dovetail with White House talking points — especially post-Geneva II. After that conference went nowhere, the US emphasis shifted to fighting terrorism and a humanitarian cessation of hostilities. A year-end statement posted on the Facebook page of the US Embassy in Damascus perfectly illustrated this shift. The statement defined the US role as leading efforts “to meet humanitarian needs, defeat ISIL, and foster a peaceful resolution to the conflict.” Nothing in there about removing Assad.'

Differences remain between U.S., Turkey on training Syrian opposition

 I suspect the second part is exaggerated, due to the Turkish tendency to vilify the PKK and anyone associated with it, which undermines the important part, that far from being an equal partner in a sectarian proxy war in Syria with Iran and Russia who have invested billions in weaponry and tens of thousands of troops, the West has done as little as it could to help the resistance to Assad.

 There was a claim a few weeks ago that Turkey was entering a new deal with Russia, and was abandoning the desire to be rid of Assad. Like a lot of the conspiracy stories about those with some real claim to be opposed to Assad, it doesn't seem to be the case.

 Elsewhere, Tariq Ali* is telling more lies about Syria. He has his own TV channel now. That's going to be an embarrassment for anyone associated with it some day. The Stop The War Coalition has reposted a piece by John Rees** about the causes of terrorism, which doesn't even bother to mention Syria, and there's a new one by Lindsey German*** recycling the lies about the opposition in Syria, and Western funding thereof, being responsible for ISIS. However muddled the SWP is, these people are a lot worse, whitewashing Assad's crimes only a step away from openly justifying them.

 ' "They (Western powers) say we won't enter in a land war. Then we told them, if you do not enter yourselves, let's support the Free Syrian Army (FSA). They did not support the FSA," he said.

 Erdogan also criticized the U.S. for airlifting weapons to the Kurdish-populated Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane, near the Turkish border, saying that some of the weapons ended up in the hands of the IS, and others went to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).'

* "Libe is reporting that two of the three CharlieHebdo suspects who they identify as French brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi from Paris had recently returned from Syria, where they had fought among anti-government rebels. If true this would be part of a pattern. EU intelligence agencies (the French and British hyper-active on this front) are perfectly aware of who is being recruited from within the Muslim communities to fight where. It was the same in Bosnia where one of the LSE students was radicalised and latter assassinated an investigative US journalist in Karachi.

 The French were preparing to back an invasion of Syria and regime change. So it would be useful for critically-minded French and British journalists as to what has been really going on before the emergence of Frankenstein ISIS scared people a bit...Its a murky story and is bound to come out sooner or later..."
[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=855589144482634&id=100000946684702&pnref=story]
** [https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/what-you-need-to-know-about-terrorism-and-its-causes-a-graphic-account/]
*** "ISIS has received weapons and money from the Saudis and Qataris, has grabbed weapons provided by the west for other anti Assad groups, and has received material support from Turkey."[http://stopwar.org.uk/…/paris-massacre-lessons-that-need-to…]

ISIS and counter-revolution: towards a Marxist analysis

 The only mention of the Free Syrian Army is an unverified, and unverifiable claim, as the footnote link loops back to the article, that they are linking up with ISIS. The SWP seems to get more ignorant about Syria as time goes by.

 'Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and Islamist factions in Syria were reported to be seeking alliances with ISIS in late November as US bombing intensified.'

 More writing off of the actual revolution in Syria from the SWP, leading to the Islamophobic approach of reducing all the forces fighting Assad to puppets of the Gulf states or America, and identifying them with ISIS. And beginning with the claim that Western states are using humanitarian rhetoric to justify an Iraq-style intervention, ignoring the actual humanitarian disaster they are feebly responding to, and largely ignoring when it comes to Assad.

 'The question of sectarianism at a regional level was not of course confined to rhetoric but had by 2012-13 taken the form of interventions by regional powers into the spiralling conflict in Syria, with Sunni Islamist forces armed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf States confronting Hizbollah’s Shia Islamists backed by Iran alongside Assad’s troops.'

 I noticed this from 2012 earlier:

 'It may be time to read, even re-read, Edward Said’s Covering Islam. Critical intellectuals did not believe US propaganda about al-Qaida's links to the Iraqi regime prior to the 2003 invasion. Shouldn’t the same criteria be used in the case of Syria? The regime there has also justified its repression of the popular movement from spring 2011 by depicting it as the work of"Salafis" and "foreign agents" funded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France, Britain and America. A similar scepticism about the Syrian authorities and their claims would be welcome.'

[https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/syria-neo-anti-imperialism-vs-reality/]

Why Assad Still Must Go

 'If most rebels acted out of religious zeal, how did they earn support from members of Syria's minorities? Salamiya, a majority-Ismaili Shite town of105,000, which held its first protests against the Assad regime in April of 2011, has hosted massive anti-regime protests deep into the Revolution's armed phase. The Free Syrian Army head in Salamiya is himself Ismaili. Is he acting out of Ismaili religious zeal? Syrian Christians have also established multiple anti-Assad brigades . Did they raise arms out of passion for Jesus? Just two weeks ago, a group of 30 armed Alawi draft-dodgers urged others to join them because "We are shooting at [other sects] for Bashar al-Assad...Enough." Were they acting out of love for Ali?

 We know why Syrian Christians, Ismailis and even Alawis have taken up arms against Assad, because they tell us why in their defection videos: the regime is "corrupt" and "tyrannical." It "perpetrates massacres" and "destroys houses onto the heads of children." These were the same reasons given by most Syrian Sunnis who defected. They are related to simple dignity and humanity, not religious zeal.'

Russia's stance on Syria creates scepticism

 When we're talking about what to do about Syria, worrying about what Obama might do comes a long way behind stopping what Putin is doing in Syrians' lists of priorities.

 'Russia has provided significant support for the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. It has used its right of veto in the UN Security Council, along with China, on four consecutive occasions to defend the Assad government from international intervention. The flow of arms and ammunition from Russia to Syria has remained entirely uninterrupted, despite significant international pressure on Moscow to disengage. Opponents of the Assad regime consider Russia to be a partner in the government's crimes, violence and killing of the Syrian people.'

Report reaffirms Syria chemical weapons use

 'Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from the UN, said that western members of the UN Security Council blamed the Syrian authorities for the attacks as only they had access to helicopters.

 US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power tweeted that "32 witnesses saw or heard sound of helicopters as bombs struck; 29 smelled chlorine. Only Syrian regime uses helos ." '

 Those shitheads who denied Assad's responsibility for the sarin attacks last August look more stupid every day. The idea that it was a US hoax designed to enable Iraq Mark II is ever more foolish in the light of the lack of action by the US or anyone else. Even now there is no threat to take action if the Security Council fails in its responsibility to protect the Syrian people from these war crimes, as the US prefers to use Syrian suffering as a card in its competition with Russia than to bring it to an end. Still it is Russia that has the main responsibility for the destabilisation of Syria and the region, by supplying Assad with weapons and denying his crimes.

 The Guardian reports photo is captioned, "The UN Security Council has been intensely involved in the issue of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria." The is headlined, "Syria Used Chlorine Gas In Attacks", but then says the experts failed to apportion blame, and we hear the lies of the Syrian régime and the Russians before a truncated version of Samantha Power's remark is added as an afterthought.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/07/syria-chlorine-chemical-weapons-attacks-opcw]

Massive Protest In Damascus Against Al-Nusra and Assad

 "No To Authority, And No To Control!"

 The people united, and stuff.

Sisters 'scarred for life' by war

 Not scarred by war, but by Assad, a bomb wasn't just dropped, but dropped by his airforce.

 ' "There are lots of Syrians who need treatment and can't get it."

 And he prays quietly for Rahaf's recovery, and for all those suffering without help.'



 From two years ago*, when the narrative that this is a civil war rather than a government assault hadn't solidified. The failure to play is reminiscent of Iraqis under American bombing:

 'This is the story of one Syrian family who survived government shelling and reached safety - and treatment - in Jordan, when so many others have not.

 "They are not the same children that they were before. They used to play with other kids ... but now they don't like to go out."

 "We thank God that we were saved," says Abu Abdul Malik. "There are still people under the rubble - whose bodies have not been collected. We pray for them." '
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19554875]

Syrians entering Lebanon face new restrictions

 'Mashha is Sunni, like the bulk of the refugees.'

 90% of those in Lebanon, because the millions are fleeing from the Alawi-dominated state of Assad which has terrorised Sunnis in particular since the revolution began, not just "displaced by the civil war as rebel forces try to oust President Bashar al-Assad," as the BBC would have it.

Why no one cares about Syria

 'Just because the UN Security Council cannot find a solution is no more evidence of complexity than if my cat can't do long division.

 Are they as bad as each other, al-Qaida on one hand, Assad on the other? This is the argument of equivalence, and reasonably well-informed commentators use this all the time in relation to Syria. But the truth is, the Assad government has carried out such unbelievable crimes against its people, whether it is barrel bombing, whether it is the use of chemical weapons, whether it is the targeting of innocent populations of women and children, whether it is the targeting of hospitals and universities, these things are happening all the time. Sometimes, in the media, they talk about indiscriminate targeting, it isn't indiscriminate. It would be indiscriminate if they were collateral damage to a specific military target, but there is no military objective here, they are targeting their population, so it's not indiscriminate. And when Obama said, give us your chemical weapons, he handed a permission slip to Assad to do his worst, as long as it didn't involve chemical weapons.'

 Also shows a Punch cartoon from 1847 with the same dismissal of the Irish as violent savages that is employed against the Sunni Muslims of Syria. "Spare a trifle your honour, for a poor Irish lad to buy a blunderbuss with."

The rise and ugly fall of a moderate Syrian rebel

 'Moderate rebels “are living literally hand to mouth,” he said. “The West never provided much help, the Saudis never provided much.”

 “In the absence of reliable support, of course you’re going to have commanders desperate to find resources for their troops,” Ford said. “This American caution aggravates problems. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” '

Syrian Coalition Slams Iran’s Arrogant Remarks

 The real foreign intervention, the war we should be trying to stop.

 'Saleh calls upon the international community to force Iran to pull its terrorist militias out of Syria and stop aiding Assad in his barbaric war on the Syrian people. “Such practices reflect the insistence of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime to try to transform the popular uprising in Syria into a sectarian war that will lead to dire consequences not only to Syria but the whole region.” '

Inside the Islamic State caliphate, life goes on

 Unlike the Independent's opinion formers, who want us to side with Assad.

 'Asked if he would rather live under Assad or Isis, Ibrahim considers. "I will choose neither … in both any mistake can cost you your life." '

US ignored early plan to stop Islamic State

 'The plea for immediate financial support for moderate forces in the east, backing for a rebel offensive in Aleppo that would divert Islamic State forces, and relief and medical supplies in the east went unanswered.

 “Two or three million dollars would have changed the whole thing, but we never heard back from them.”

 “Unfortunately, the current strategy being implemented results in the increase of terrorism,” said Bahra, the businessman who heads the Syrian Opposition Coalition. “Some battalions are not being supplied with anything: food, clothing, fuel, what they need for survival. You are pushing them to be the prey to any extreme terrorist organization that offers assistance. But no one is listening.” '

Protests from Homs to Aleppo

 'Video from Friday points to protests in Syria from Homs to Aleppo, demanding a lifting to regime sieges and expressing support for insurgents.'

 I was also looking at this* from March 2013, about what a shit Tariq Ali has become, and how the central issue remains the same.

 'Former leftist icon Tariq Ali spoke on Russia Today of “Russia and China resisting attempts by the West to take Syria over.” Russia is resupplying the Assad regime with the materiel with which to slaughter the Syrian people, making Ali’s performance on Russia’s satellite as unedifying, and as distant from reality, as that of a commentator telling Fox News that Palestinian resistance is simply an Iranian attempt to take over Israel.

 Syrians need weapons to finish Assad before the crater of this disaster is too deep to climb out of. Commentators who claim that more weapons will just make things worse, that neither side can win the fight, should acknowledge that vast swathes of the country have already been liberated. This was achieved despite the commitment of the regime’s sectarian hardcore, the success of its divide and rule tactics, and its fundamental weapons advantage, for the simple reason that al-Assad has long lost legitimacy in the eyes of the vast majority of Syrians. Any uptick in weapons supply therefore immediately translates into the liberation of new territories, as seen recently in Dara’a province and the Damascus suburbs.'
*[https://qunfuz.com/2013/03/30/a-subtle-shift/]

If Only They Would Leave

 In which Patrick Cockburn brings the same lies to the situation in Iraq that he has to Syria.
Why do Sunni Muslims in Iraq tolerate or support ISIS? Because of the sectarian massacres of the Iranian-supported Shia government and its militias. Cockburn agrees formally that the government is the problem, but the Iranians are completely whitewashed. 

 'They now have American and Iranian help, which is an advantage.'

 And so Cockburn makes more minor features the central problem. The Iraqi army is corrupt, the Kurdish forces couldn't defend Mount Sinjar, Sunni leaders who claim they would resist ISIS are living in five-star hotels - just as Cockburn reduces the Free Syrian Army to generals living in five-star hotels in Istanbul, and the complaints about inefficiency and corruption displace the major worry of the forces, ISIS or Iranian-backed, that are massacring them. His crocodile tears for the Sunni Arabs do not impress.

Black Holes and Media Missionaries

 'Foley and Satloff aren’t the only journalists IS has killed: there have been many more—Iraqis and Syrians—whose names remain unknown to the world. And IS isn’t the only force in Syria killing journalists and aid workers: Bashar al Assad’s regime has been doing it far longer.

 The regime killed Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times along with the French photographer Rémi Ochlik when, in the first major escalation of the war, it used artillery on the Baba Amr district of Homs. A month before that it had killed Gilles Jacquier of France 2. Damascus has tried to control the narrative by making it too dangerous for journalists to report from Syria—unless they embedded with the regime.

 In Syria, the hack reporter’s need for balance has created a misleading picture of the conflict. One often hears the bien pensant liberal lament how “both sides” in the conflict are just as bad as the other. But “both sides” in the conflict are not equal. One side is a state with its hierarchies, chains of command and coercive apparatus intact; the other side is a diffuse, uncoordinated and disorganized opposition. The crimes of the former reflect policy; those of the latter only reflect on the group or individual perpetrating them. The regime’s crimes have been sustained and wholesale; the crimes of the opposition are retail and sporadic.'

Syrian conflict has claimed 76,000 lives in deadliest year yet, say monitors

 This wasn't on the frontline, the guy on the right has his safety catch on. Why is Assad pictured and quoted, and nobody from the opposition is? The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been questionable in some of its reporting often omitting to mention Free Syrian Army involvement on the rebel side, and I think it accepts exaggerated figures for government losses, allowing Patrick Cockburn to claim in 2013, while calling the SOHR pro-opposition, that the rebels were killing more people than Assad. I can't find any more details about this on their website, but clearly the Guardian doesn't care to divide the groups according to whether they fight Assad or not, and give any idea who 'the rebels' are.

 'More than 15,000 rebel fighters were killed, as were nearly 17,000 militants from jihadi groups, including Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.'

Syria's children behind bars

 'Marwan Abdulsalam, a former detainee at the Military Intelligence Branch, told al-Araby al-Jadeed that "there were more than 30 children there; some of them were younger than ten". There were times when the children were beaten with a flexible silicon rod," he said. "They were in pain and screamed, but the interrogators didn't stop beating them to get more information out of them, about their families and relatives."

 According to SNHR, children are subject to almost the same torture methods employed on adults, including sexual violence.'

Two female Italian aid workers have been kidnapped

 You can see from the Free Syrian flag they're wrapped in that they aren't just aid workers, but revolutionaries. Supporters of an uprising that has been going on in Syria against Bashar al-Assad since he had schoolkids tortured for anti-government graffiti in 2011. Unlike those who have bought into the Russian and Iranian propaganda that those fighting Assad were Muslim terrorists, often recycled in the Western media in a six of one half a dozen of the other OMG it's all so confusing manner, they could see that Assad was waging a war on the Syrian people, and it would be an act of solidarity to provide aid, to limit Assad war strategy of forcing those he couldn't control out of Syria by bombing and starvation. So it is wonderful news that they are safe and well. I assumed for the longest time that they were dead, as they would have been in an ISIS beheading video by now.

 The bad news is that they are being held by Jabhat al-Nusra, the Victory Front, the most extreme of the Islamist militias that is fighting to overthrow Assad, not like ISIS simply wishing to take advantage of the chaos to set up their own caliphate. Not as RT* claim today, "They are believed to be currently held either by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front or their fearsome allies, Islamic State." Granted they aren't as opposed to ISIS as the Free Syrian Army. Where they have had power, they have sometimes been intolerant of opposition, but nothing like the wankmag version of the seventh century you see with ISIS, or Assad's equal brutality. Which is why it makes sense for supporters of the revolution in Syria to demand that al-Nusra release the women unconditionally, because Nusra are supposed to be in the same fight.

 And it is only supporters of the revolution who do have the authority to make such a demand. It would be good if the Italian government were to do everything in its power to get the women released. If al-Nusra get a large ransom, and they use it to buy weapons to use against Assad, still shame on them for kidnapping innocent supporters of the Syrian revolution, but not the worst outcome. If the West had done the right thing, and given the Free Syrian Army a fraction of the weaponry Russia has given to Assad, we wouldn't have any of these problems. But instead the world has been happily seduced by scares of America as the warmonger in Syria. Something only really believed in Syria by Jabhat al-Nusra, who have been bombed by the Americans, on the bullshit pretext that they had some Khorosan group (which I suspect comes from a Clash song) at their heart. Not a pretext that I recall the conspiracy theorists of the left who post pictures of John McCain claiming he's a supporter of ISIS bothering to examine too closely, because it didn't fit the agenda of only being opposed to bombing if it was by the Americans on Assad, which was the great hoax of last year that denied solidarity to Syrians in the wake of the chemical attacks.

 Al-Nusra gain support among those who see the Americans as the enemy, and when the Americans have done so little to dislodge Assad but are happy to attack his enemies, it's easy to see why. On the other hand, as I said at the time, if you're going to declare allegiance to al-Qaida, you are asking to have the Americans bomb you, and that goes double when you kidnap revolutionaries.

*[http://rt.com/news/219199-italian-hostages-syria-video/]

Charlie Brooker's Wipe 2014 - Adam Curtis

 'In Syria, we are told that President Assad is the evil enemy, but then his enemies turn out to be even more evil than him.'

 This is not true, and Adam Curtis has fallen into exactly the trap he says he is trying to expose. Assad has committed enough crimes to be dragged before the International Criminal Court a dozen times over, yet nothing is done, because he is not an enemy the West is trying to get rid of as the dominant media narrative would have us believe. The narrative has gone along with his propaganda that he is fighting terrorists, so despite the fact that it has been the Free Syrian Army that has battled ISIS while Assad has done deals with them, ISIS are still labelled as his enemy.

 Turned round, Curtis' analysis could help us see the holes in the anti-Syrian narrative of the world's media. The way in which the Russian state has provided aid for the opposition to discredit it when the funding is exposed, is like the way the Syrian opposition is condemned for accepting weapons from the Gulf states and the US, ignoring the vastly disproportionate arming of Assad by Russia and Iran.

Besieged Aleppo residents turn to farming

 'Al-Maysar neighborhood’s story is the same as all other eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, from which more than 80% of its citizens were displaced due to the military campaign of the regime on the city and the barrel bombing, which started around a year ago.

 Aleppo was the most populated city in the country before the outbreak of war, counting around 2.3 million people. A worker at the relief office in the local council affiliated with the opposition told Al-Monitor in October that only about 300,000 people live in the part of the city that is under the rebels’ control today.'

Damascus’ stifled voice from the left

 'As the uprising went through its gradual transition towards militarization, the Syrian Revolutionary Youth attempted to sustain the peaceful side of the uprising, maintaining that peaceful activism and armed struggle can go hand in hand. While generally supporting the Free Syrian Army, they frequently held banners criticizing what they considered violations by the armed opposition groups and insisted on defending national unity and rejecting sectarianism.

 The Palestinian flag was lifted alongside the Syrian revolutionary flag; chants in solidarity with Palestine, and Gaza in particular, were chanted alongside slogans in solidarity with besieged and rebellious Syrian towns and cities; the names of Palestinian martyrs were mentioned in protests alongside the names of Syrian martyrs; young women and men protested and sang side-by-side; and calls for bread, gasoline and a dignified life for all were inseparable from their calls for the downfall of the regime, and the achievement of civil liberties and political freedom.

 This December 30 marks one year since the arrest of seven of the collective's activists from a Rukneddine home by Syrian security forces. Their arrest remained largely unpublished with the families of the detainees demanding anonymity out of fear for their children’s well-being. Anonymity did not help. All but one of the seven detainees taken during that night raid have been reportedly killed under torture as confirmed by their cellmates.'

The South Will Rise Again

 'Bashar al-Assad is well aware that the relative endurance of rebel rule in Daraa challenges his narrative that the West must choose between his regime and the terrorists. In the coming months, it is likely that the regime will try to retake Daraa to prevent just this sort of a secular, nationalist alternative from emerging. Therefore, any international efforts to “freeze” the conflict in areas such as Aleppo should take into account that the regime may use any freed-up forces and assets in order to turn its firepower southward. Freezes in fighting in the north should not come at the expense of those in the south, where rebel rule is providing one of the few blueprints for how Syria could emerge from this crisis.'

Response to “Selling ‘Peace Groups’ on US-Led Wars”

 'The real crime of CISPOS is not advocating “regime change” in Syria but calling attention to the genocidal policies of the Baathist tyranny. It is quite depressing that people on the left can stoop so low as to sweep its crimes under the rug but a lot of this has to do with Islamophobia. As the term phobia implies, there is fear and hatred of the Syrian poor who invoke Islamic rhetoric in a desperate struggle to keep their spirits up in a war that has cost 200,000 lives. If Syria were as populous as the USA, this would equate to 3 million dead, all within four years.'

Response to the attack on Syria peace activists

 Andrew Scott Berman:

 'Nothing better describes this descent into dogmatism and betrayal of solidarity than the tragic attitude of many who call themselves “anti-imperialist” towards the people of Syria. For 50 years the Assad family and its cohorts have ruled that nation with a tyranny that rivals the worst in human history. All opposition is crushed with the iron fist of massacre and industrial-level torture.

 And while the situation in Syria has indeed been made complex by the intervention of many outside forces with contending interests, the base of the conflict, a popular rebellion against tyranny, remains.

 Today, there are some, but not enough, US peace groups that recognize this and stand, in the best tradition of the US peace movements, stand in solidarity with the Syrian people’s quest for a just society. Far too many, totally ignorant of Syria’s proud history, see the conflict only in terms of the role of the US, with meaningless slogans like “No US War on Syria”, while by far the greatest death and destruction in Syria is now caused by the despotic Assad regime, armed to the teeth with Russian and Iranian supplied weapons.'

Broadcasting House

 Maureen Lipmann has been an apologist for the Israeli government for many years, see her dig about descending rooftops (as the IDF kills families) in Gaza here. It is the abandonment of Syria by many of those who see themselves as pro-Palestinian and by the liberal media that have made this a propaganda coup for supporters of Israel, because it's true.

 "My story is the seven million Syrian refugees, that's going to run, and run, and run, and we're not doing anything about it at all. I think we're taking ninety people, ninety refugees, and we have to somehow look at history, and say, this is exactly what happened in 1938, when they wouldn't take any refugees from Germany, and it resulted in the Holocaust; and just because we're frightened of Assad, another military dictator, it doesn't mean we shouldn't help.

 I have seen no pictures, I've seen nothing on 24-hour news. I am well accustomed to seeing every rooftop that descends in Gaza, because that's where all the reporters are, in the same hotel, all chatting away, and swapping photos; but as far as Syria's concerned, they're absolutely petrified to do anything or report on anything."

 Angela Rippon: "That was picked up on one of your sister programmes on Radio 4, on PM, when Eddie Mair did that amazing programme where he gave over half the programme to Dr. David Nott, who is a surgeon who has spent the last twenty years going to places of conflict around the world, to help as a surgeon; and he's now spent six weeks of the last two years in Syria, and he was making precisely that point. He did a brilliant interview where he said the terrible injuries he as a surgeon was seeing, in that hospital, but the point that he was making, was that the reason why nobody is taking any interest there any more was that the journalists are not there because it is too dangerous, and therefore it has fallen off the news agenda."

Escaping Assad’s Rape Prisons: A Survivor Tells Her Story

 'During one session, the commander tied her legs apart and they beat a male detainee viciously in front of her with his head jammed between her spread legs.'