Bashar al-Assad's interests and the west's coincide over Iraq

 Dreadful article calling for tacit cooperation with Assad.

 David Wearing:

 'And if uncoordinated and informal but nevertheless complementary moves from Syria, the US, the UK and Iran can serve to cauterise the wound in Iraq in a way that all sides feel serve their respective interests, then there is no reason why such tacit cooperation shouldn't take place.'

 Based on the acceptance that Syrians can't do anything for themselves.

 'But one explanation for the Atlantic powers' failure to intervene more forcefully in Syria – as they certainly could if they wished – is the fact that, in their view, there is no such viable alternative available. It is Isis and other jihadi groups that are seen as best placed to exploit the weakening or toppling of Assad, not those forces preferred by the west.'

 Playing down the cooperation between ISIS and Assad as best he can too.

Orlando Bloom Visits Syrian Child Refugees

 'He held his 4-year-old son's arm in the air and said, "My son is going to fight for the revolution when he's old enough." '

The struggle against the 'multi-sided' counterrevolution

 Michael Karadjis:

 'In Syria, this consists of all the armed manifestations of the Syrian revolution, from the secular Free Syrian Army (FSA, based heavily among the Sunni but not entirely, including some Alawite and Christian brigades and officers), moderate Islamist groups like the Mujahideen Army in the north and the al-Ajnad Union in the south, the Islamic Front, a loose coalition ranging from moderate to hard-line Islamists, and Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), the official wing of al-Qaida in Syria, which however is markedly less hard-line than ISIS since their split in May 2013. While a favourite western media discourse is “rebel in-fighting,” in reality this does not exist at all; rather, all these forces act in unison in their war against both the Assad regime and ISIS; it is the war of all of them against ISIS that wrongly gets labelled this way.

 These two struggles are related but different. The Syrian struggle began as a multi—sect democratic uprising which however has tended to become more Sunni in composition largely due to the class realities in Syrian society; the Iraqi struggle is explicitly Sunni against an explicitly Shiite-sectarian regime, and evolved out of a nationalist resistance to US occupation. The more advanced sectors of the Syrian revolution still hope to win non-Sunni support for a rising against then regime, no matter how unlikely that may now be; by contrast, the Iraqi revolt only aims to liberate Sunni regions – the ISIS-led attempt to conquer Shiite-dominated Baghdad or any other Shiite region would by definition by a reactionary and sectarian action.'

A hard sell

 'Washington’s inclination is instructive when considering Syria. The longstanding White House position has been to call for preserving Syrian “state institutions” – meaning, the regime’s army and security services. That is because, as US officials have repeatedly made clear, they do not wish to see an outright rebel victory, as that would lead to a jihadist takeover. In fact, some voices, likely reflecting certain White House preferences, have even counseled pushing the rebels to partner with Assad to fight radical groups. In any case, the White House has insisted on a negotiated settlement with the regime, and that is because it does not see the opposition as a viable partner, even if only to take on jihadist groups, the administration’s only priority in Syria.'

Zealous but untrained

 'Months into the revolution in Syria, for example, some of the Arab and international media started to alter the terminology used to describe the situation. Instead of referring to “revolutionaries” they started talking about the “armed opposition,” a term that may be thought to give some kind of legitimacy to the regime’s brutality as it equates the victims with the aggressor.

 The term “Syrian Revolution” has also sometimes disappeared from the international press, having been replaced by the “conflict in Syria,” another demotion in the ongoing campaign for freedom in the country. On more than one occasion, the international media, whose reportage has often been quoted extensively in the local media, has depicted the battles in Syria as a sectarian conflict – thus demeaning the original goals of the revolution.

 Neutrality, as much as it is needed in all reporting, has been twisted in this way, allowing the brutality of the regime to turn into a run-of-the-mill battle against rebels intent on bringing down the system by force instead of through the peaceful means of the ballot box.'

White House requests $500 million to aid Syrian rebels

 'Since nearly the start of the Syrian civil war more than three years ago, hawkish Republicans in Congress have urged the White House to take action against Assad, with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) going as far as to travel abroad to meet with rebel fighters overseas.'

 The bastard.

 Brian Becker, national coordinator for the anti-war ANSWER Coalition, conflates the actual rebels in Syria with ISIS and openly defends the Assad government.

 'They’re saying they demand unity in Iraq behind the central government, which is fighting what they call Islamic extremists from ISIL or ISIS, and yet, at the same time, they’re funding these same armed groups in Syria to take down an independent, nationalist and sovereign government in Syria.'

Syria Speaks: Arts and culture from the frontline

 'Four decades of rule by the Assad family has wreaked untold havoc on Syria and its people: dissidents describe horrific methods of torture and claim that the testing of chemical and biological weapons on political prisoners was routinely practised by Syria’s Air Force Intelligence.'

Beware the game of shadows in Syria

 'The Syrian regime has been playing a game of shadows in which this covert collusion with the growth of Isis has been used to undermine the democratic opposition and strengthen its own claim to be a bulwark against "terrorism". To accept Iran – and by implication Bashar al-Assad – as allies in the fight against Isis is to fall for this decepti

on.'

Caught Between ISIS and Assad

 The conflict in miniature, if 20,000 people starved by their government can be described
as miniature.

Molly Crabapple:

 'Bab al Salam houses 20,000 refugees, mostly women and children.
Under dusty tarps, these refugees live in horrid conditions. Barefoot kids play next to
rivers of sewage. Preventable diseases flourish. The Turkish government gives out two
meals a day, but the United Nations High Council on Refugees does nothing beyond
providing some of the tarps. The Assad government has forbidden them from giving aid
to opposition areas.

 The Saudis and the government of Qatar are showier, flaunting their generosity with
branded tents. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Gift to Humanity,” one read. The Gulf
states fund fighters—their charity is marketing.

 In this wasteland, young people like Yusuf are trying to cobble together a future. Before
the war, Yusuf was a year into an engineering degree. When the revolution hit, his father,
a higher-up in the Syrian army, defected. I asked Yusuf why he had joined the revolution.
“They were killing women, killing children,” he said.

 Yusuf works under the banner of the Islamic Front, an alliance of more or less religious fighting
groups. The Islamic Front has successfully pushed ISIS out of much of northern Syria, including
Azaz, where the Bab al Salam camp is located.'

Barack Obama Swept Aside The Entire Free Syrian Army In One Sentence

 'As The Institute of the Study of War detailed last year, the FSA drew on Syrian Army defectors to create a clear structure that gave it “the potential to serve as a check on radicalization and help to assert a moderate authority.”

 The real problem, according to Tabler, was that “as assistance didn’t arrive, the defectors became disheartened so not sure where they all are at the moment.”

 For the last two years, the main criticism on Obama’s policy toward Syria has been that the “United States, rather than read the signals early on and arm the Syrian opposition when it was making substantial gains, allowed a vacuum to form and then fretted when that vacuum was filled by jihadists.” '

Assad forces avoid ISIL strongholds in Raqqa

 'At least 15 civilians were killed and several others were injured on Wednesday in the city of Raqqa during an unprecedented aerial bombardment by the Syrian air force.

 The city is for more than a year controlled by the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), however the strikes of the pro-Assad air force were only limited to residential neighbourhoods in the city.

 Observers stress that the Assad regime avoids targeting ISIL strongholds in Raqqa.'

Obama turned out to be Judas Iscariot

 'It wasn’t circumstances that prevented Obama from helping the Syrian people against the regime’s genocidal slaughter; it was policy. A hidden policy in blatant contradiction to the Obama administration’s public statements and stated intentions. For years, Obama told America’s allies one thing, while deliberately planning something entirely different.

 A British government does not lose their party members’ support for a three line whip without very dire consequences either for the government, or the rebellious party members. One or the other usually goes.

 Except, apparently, on that vote on August 30th 2013, when a considerable number of Conservative MPs not only were absent from the vote, but actually voted against the government. The next day, it was business as usual.

 What is in dispute is that David Cameron ever intended to win that vote. The aftermath of a defeat on a three line whip are usually dire for all concerned. But in retrospect, it would seem that Cameron got exactly the vote he wanted. The rest is history, and Bashar Assad was allowed to get away with the worst single atrocity of the 21st century.

 It would be a waste of time to point out all the problems with Judas Obama’s statements that there was never a rebel force capable of overthrowing the regime (really Barry? then why does Bashar desperately need the help of his sectarian terrorist friend Hassan Nasrallah to mount any offensive), or that “teachers and dentists and farmers” make bad soldiers (then go disband your National Guards, and demobilize your men and women serving in the reserves. And eliminate your fucking Reserve Officer Training Courses you clueless community organizer).'

Syria’s moderate opposition is the only option

 'Why haven't the moderate ones won the war, and why does Obama think they are incapable of defeating Assad? It's because they're deprived from everything - from obtaining advanced weapons, having safe border zones and from recruiting inside refugees' camps. In addition, Russia and Iran are helping their enemy, the Syrian regime, and are providing it with weapons, food, information and funds.

 President Obama must accept the truth that Bashar al-Assad's regime is incapable of staying in power no matter how much support he receives from the Iranians, the Russians and others. Assad represents a very small minority. He's become wreckage breathing with an external lung.'

On ISIS and Iran

Robin Yassin-Kassab:

 'Now that ISIS has supposedly taken over vast swathes of northern Iraq (in reality, ISIS is a small minority of the Sunni Arab forces that have risen against the Malki government), the newspapers are full of articles telling us that the West should align with Iran to defeat the common foe. Of course, Iran’s sectarian and aggressively expansionist policy in both Iraq and Syria is a major contributor to the rise of ISIS and similar groups. Working with Iran against ISIS is as intelligent as working with Hitler against anti-Semitism. I discussed the issue with Hayder al-Khoi and Jeremy Paxman on the BBC’s Newsnight.

 I don't think there should have been sanctions on Iran in the first place, but it does seem very upsetting that there is a rapprochement at this moment; when we have this problem with ISIS, which to a large extent has been caused indirectly by Iranian policy, both in Syria, where Iran has got militias on the ground, and it's supporting the régime which is slaughtering the people, and in Iraq itself, where it's encouraged the most sectarian instincts of the Maliki government.

 What we've seen in Iraq is not the success of ISIS, which is a weak group, it's the failure of the Iraqi state, and of course the collapse of the Syrian state. Iran, along with other countries too, but Iran is very complicit in that collapse in both countries.

 So I think it would be, maybe in the short term, beneficial, to deal with Iran. I can see why people want to, because Iran has an organised military, and it's an organised country, and they could go in , they could establish order if they wanted to in Iraq. In the medium and long term, it's a disaster, because Sunni Arab communities are going to be more enraged, and maybe the sectarian backlash will become bigger if they see Iran walking over Syrian and Iraqi sovereignty...

 It's important to stress something that people don't normally realise, that since January - it was a grey area in Syria which side ISIS was on - since January there is no excuse for that greyness, because all of the Syrian opposition groups, the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front, even Jabhat al-Nusra (the Victory Front, which is al-Qaida linked, it is an extremist jihadist group); all of these groups have been fighting against ISIS. So ISIS is a common enemy of everybody, it seems, but it's been helping Bashar al-Assad, really.

 He's been producing the chaos in which ISIS thrives. He's been following a scorched earth policy in Syria. Any part of the country he can't control, he's been devastating, from aerial bombardment, and other means, sieges and so on. That means there are massive refugee flows out of the country, it means there are no schools, no hospitals working, no economy going. Into this chaos, it is very easy for -and sometimes with the help of neighbouring states, we were talking about Turkey earlier - jihad tourists, psychopaths and nihilists to come in. They came into Mali, they were in Iraq before, the people drove them out, it's got so strained in Iraq they've now been able to come back in. These people come wherever there's a chaos. Bashar al-Assad has created a chaos in Syria by committing a near-genocide, and a massive ethnic cleansing. This revolution in Syria started, and for many people continues, as a revolution for democracy and freedom and freedom of expression. It wasn't sectarian for the whole of 2011, and then under the strain of Assad's war, it began to be...

 I think making a deal with Iran is the wrong idea. certainly, pressure the Saudis and other Gulf countries, make them pressure the private donors, who may very often be important people, to stop donating, they're not helping the Syrians. Even the Syrian Islamists don't want these ISIS people there. They are obviously not helping the Iraqis, they're confusing the issue, and making it more difficult for Sunni Arabs to get their rights.

 I'm happy to see Obama saying he's not going to take action until Maliki changes his approach on the Sunni Arab issue. I hope he's also leaning on the Iranians, ' OK, we need your military security help to face this monster that has just exploded', but the reason this monster has just exploded is because of the sectarianism of the - democratically elected - Iraqi government, and because of the genocide going on in Syria, which Iran is supporting, which is radicalising Sunni opinion around the world.'

ISIS’s Violent Extremism Has No Place in Syria

 'The Free Syrian Army’s opposition to ISIS has not been matched by the Syrian regime. On the contrary, Assad and his loyalists have not merely ignored the threat posed by ISIS, they have actively exacerbated it.'

MPs’ letter on Assad’s sham election, and on military aid to moderates

 I met Kellie Strom over the weekend, and was very wary of him, as I'd seen him write stuff about the Middle East before that I disagree with to say the least*. But if the Syrian revolution has driven many who opposed the Iraq war into dishonesty and denial because they can't see a progressive movement that isn't against the US, it has left some coming from the opposite direction supporting a struggle that really is a people's uprising against a Russian and Iranian backed dictator. Good for these nine MPs.

 'We commend the Friends of Syria for pledging to increase support not only for the Syrian Opposition Coalition, but also for its “Supreme Military Council and associated moderate armed groups”. The Assad regime will not countenance a political solution while it continues to believe it can win militarily. It is therefore vitally important that more military support, within the known constraints, is given to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), thereby forcing Assad and his backers to accept a political solution.'
*[http://airforceamazons.blogspot.co.uk/…/comparing-israels-o…]

Washington and London Ignored Warnings about the ISIS Offensive in Iraq

 'As the Syrian civil war intensified, the Assad regime that ISIS was supposed to be fighting adopted a strategy that actually helped spur the group’s extraordinary rise. When ISIS started gaining strength—along with a reputation for beheadings, crucifixion and other barbarities—the manipulative Assad was careful not to target it. ISIS also turned its guns on other less radical rebel groups.

 Meanwhile, indirect assistance from the Assad regime came in many forms—from buying oil from ISIS-controlled wells in eastern Syria to relatively mild air strikes against ISIS compounds in contrast to the pounding other rebels suffered.

 At the start of the uprising against his regime, Assad released hundreds of jihadist detainees from Syrian jails, a move that has prompted moderate Syrian insurgents to charge that ISIS is in league with Damascus and that the terrorist organization was “regime-made” and “inserted into the body of the revolution,” all part of an effort to poison the insurgency and allow Assad to argue he was fighting extremists.

 As the Syrian civil war intensified, the Assad regime that ISIS was supposed to be fighting adopted a strategy that actually helped spur the group’s extraordinary rise. When ISIS started gaining strength—along with a reputation for beheadings, crucifixion and other barbarities—the manipulative Assad was careful not to target it. ISIS also turned its guns on other less radical rebel groups.

 The West fell deeper into the trap benefiting both ISIS and Assad by refraining from assisting the moderates “even when the latter confronted the increasingly powerful ISIS on the battlefield,” argues Murhaf Jouejati, a Mideast expert at the National Defense University.'

Refutation of Mother Agnes Mariam’s narrative on Syria

 'The view that "the majority of anti-Assad fighters in Syria are foreign" is presented as "widely accepted", yet all reputable media outlets like The Financial Times and the BBC regularly report that whilst there are indeed now many foreign fighters inside Syria, they began in small numbers and only started expanding a year after the uprising began. Even now they account for less than 25% of the total opposition. Assad himself has of course brought in far greater numbers of foreign fighters – from the Lebanese Shia group Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - to defend his own regime, but no mention is made of that.'

O'Donnell's good question and Obama's bad answer

 'From the very beginning the only military help the Syrian opposition needed or asked for was help with weapons, ammunition and supplies. They have been adamant that if they had the weapons they could do the fighting, no foreign boots needed, no thanks, and if they were allowed modern anti-aircraft defence systems, they could enforce their own 'no-fly' zone.

 The capture of Raqqa by ISIS represented a turning point in this conflict. Even at that late date, had the moderate rebels received adequate support in their struggle against the ISIS for Raqqa it is likely they wouldn't be leading the capture of Mosul and threatening of Baghdad in Iraq today.

 Obama's promise to attack Assad and failure to follow through was to weaken the FSA and to strengthen the Islamic extremists like ISIS.'

Syria air raids kill 16 in area seized by jihadists

 'Air raids killed 16 people in Syria's Deir Ezzor province Saturday, most of them people gathered at a mourning tent for rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) officers murdered by jihadists, an NGO said.'

 Air raids by Assad's forces. Against the same Syrians ISIS has been fighting all year, while ISIS have been fighting against Assad not at all.

Obama: Notion that Syrian opposition could have overthrown Assad with U.S. arms a "fantasy"

 What he actually did is get the CIA in Jordan and its Jordanian clients to stop heavy weapons getting to the Free Syrian Army. That's why they can't defeat Assad and ISIS, though they chased the latter out of Aleppo and fought the former to a standstill, so his disparagement of the FSA is uncalled for. It is telling a lie with the truth, if you just handed over water pistols, that wouldn't defeat Assad either. Hopefully this is a sign that there is pressure to actually arm the FSA.

 "When you get farmers dentists and folks who have never fought before going up against a ruthless opposition in Assad," Mr. Obama continued, "the notion that they were in a position to suddenly overturn not only Assad but also ruthless, highly trained jihadists if we just sent a few arms is a fantasy. And I think it's very important for the American people - but maybe more importantly, Washington and the press corps - to understand that."

Iraq Crisis: ISIS Terrorists were Trained by US in 2012 for Syria Conflict

 And the bullshit begins:

 'As per several corroborated reports, hundreds of ISIS militia were indeed trained by US instructors for covert operations to destabilize Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, though the training was strictly for Syria.'

 What reports?
 What operations?
 Who was trying to restrict the training to Syria, and how did they hope to achieve this?

 'Back in February 2012, WND had reported that the US, with the help of Turkey and Jordan, was running a training base for Syrian rebels in the Jordan. German weekly Der Spiegel also confirmed in 2013 that the US was still training Syrian rebels in Jordan.'

 Not actual reporting, just relaying the stories of spooks, possibly Syrian ones.'Several knowledgeable Egyptian and Arab security officials claimed the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels.' And rebels, not ISIS.

 'The report noted that the organizers of the training wore US Marine uniforms, and the training focused on the use of anti-tank weaponry. The ISIS terrorists, who now hold almost the entire north of Iraq, have quite effectively neutralized most Iraqi tank battalions put against the invading forces.'

 This must be it. Someone might have had some anti-tank training. ISIS, or someone in Iraq, stopped some tanks from an army that was running away from the . Bingo! It would be funny how pathetic this is if it wasn't important.

 'The German magazine had also reported that the US would be training a total of 1,200 members of the Free Syrian Army in two camps in the south and the east of Jordan.'

 Again, the Free Syrian Army, not ISIS. Do all Arabs look alike to these writers?

 'A USA-ISIS tie-up is plausible, considering the fact how the CIA was responsible for the strengthening of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.'

 So the US has collaborated with radical Islamists, so we can infer anything. 9/11 an inside job? Entirely plausible. Kidnapping Nigerian schoolgirls? The CIA's fingerprints are probably all over it. I choose not to live in this conspiracy wonderland, however engaging and reassuring it might be.

How Syria’s Assad Helped Forge ISIS

 'From the first days of the revolution (in March 2011), Assad denounced the organisation as being the work of radical Salafists, so he released the Salafists he had created in his prisons to justify the claim ... If you do not have an enemy, you create an enemy.'

Syria's descent into a Somalia-style failed state

 'The Free Syrian Army has been left to fight both Isis and the Syrian army unaided. President Bashar al-Assad got what he wanted from the cruel farce of UN peace talks. Refugee camps are now bombed by the Syrian army, while the Free Syrian Army has been left to fight both Isis and the Syrian army without help.'

 Usual stupidity in the comments:

 "Brian Devlin takes the simplistic view that bombing a country and killing lots of people on the side of Islamist militants will force the country into peaceful loving western style democracy."

UK + Irish Leftists Form Syria Solidarity Movement, Fight for Syrian Refugees

 'While phony anti-imperialist forces like Stop the War Coalition have done fuck all for Syrian refugees since 2011 except support the regime that is wiping them out by vigorously opposing U.S. airstrikes against their oppressors, this series of protests on their behalf was SSM’s first major action!

 Below is a reprint of International Socialist Network/Left Unity member Luke Cooper’s report on the day of protests.'

Ex-Syrian players form opposition team in exile

 "Now my dream is much bigger," Saadeldeen said. "I want these guys to become really strong and proud players, so that one day we become the national team and we raise the revolutionary flag in a game that the whole world will be watching."

Friday demo 06/20/2014

 'Weekly Friday demo slogan 06/20/2014:

 “The steadfastness of Ghouta in Damascus needs support. Eastern Ghouta does not dismiss you, so don't dismiss it”.'

The Will to Heal

 “When Al-Safirah was attacked with barrel bombs there were body parts and blood all over the streets. I would work into the night. Vegetable carts piled full of men, women, and children would arrive at my clinic, some with their hands gone, their legs gone, their eyes gone. We had very basic surgical capabilities, no general anesthetic, and we were just three doctors, myself and two pediatricians, but the neighbors were very helpful.”

We should intervene to stop ISIS atrocities in Iraq

 I don't agree with the language of intervention. It enables one of the narrative-determining untruths of Assad's war on Syria, that empowering the FSA with the weapons to stop Assad's attacks would be a rerun of the Iraq invasion. Indeed that is the point, the willingness to allow Assad to drag Syria further over the brink is what has caused region-wide instability and sectarianism, which in turn rehabilitates the idea that the West should sort things out.

 'The crisis in Iraq is a direct consequence of the disaster which has engulfed Syria for the last three years. In the aftermath of war crimes committed by the Assad regime, including the widespread use of chemical weapons and ‘barrel bombs’, the West at large – unlike me – remained unmoved by the suffering of the Syrian people, despite the fact that their plight was transmitted to millions of TV screens daily and dominated internet news around the clock.

 Regardless of that, intervention was spurned by the British and American people, with consistent polls demonstrating a public consensus against the use of military force to alleviate the effects of the awful civil war.

 After that, support for more extreme groups, such as ISIS, grew. Pro-Western rebels, such as the fairly moderate FSA, were usurped by assorted Islamists and radicals. Suffering tends to push political opinion towards the fringes, and the Syrian people have suffered more than anyone would wish upon them.'

Iraq, Syria and the rise of the Islamic militants

 Brian Slocock:

 "For the past nine months it has not been the Syrian regime but the Syrian opposition that has been fighting Isis. Its armed forces, in alliance with Kurdish fighters, had managed to defeat Isis in several areas by February, and in April the courageous people of Manbij called a general strike to demand the withdrawal of Isis from their city. If western governments want real allies in a fight against Isis this is where they should be looking for them."

No end in sight for Syria

 There is also a review of Thomas Pierret's Revolution and State In Syria, but that bit is hidden behind the paywall.

 'In displaying contempt for his people, their self-esteem and their demands, the President was setting the pattern for the regime’s response to the uprising.

 The result thus far of this brazen refusal to compromise has been the loss of an estimated 160,000 lives and the ascendance of jihadist Islam in large areas of what was a staunchly secular state. The appearance and success of the Islamists, Raphaël Lefèvre explains in Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, is attributable in part to the policies of the Assad regime itself – first under Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar. In a compact and compelling account, the author describes in detail the build-up to an Islamist uprising in the city of Hama in February 1982. The regime’s draconian response, in a foretaste of events after 2011, left tens of thousands of people dead and areas of the city flattened.'

Muslim Brotherhood: The People Will Ultimately Triumph

 'We also see the effects of this in hesitant and wavering attitudes in the face of the ugly killing machine of the Baathists in Syria, who did not hesitate to use even internationally banned chemical weapons in the killing of Syrians. Those Syrians who – even if they escape the chemical weapons and explosive barrels, fall into a painful death from hunger and homelessness, all while the so-called international community watches without moving a finger, justifying this cowardly inaction by feeble claims of extremist elements being present among the ranks of Syrian resistance.'

President Obama can 'bypass Congress

 'Last year, the president abandoned plans for punitive military strikes in Syria following a deadly chemical weapons attack once it became clear that Congress would not give its backing.'

 Or he went to Congress for a vote so that he would have an excuse for not helping the Syrian people at all. Along with never spelling out what these punitive strikes would be, enabling supporters of doing nothing about Assad to paint the most lurid picture of what they would amount to.

Bush, Barack & Bashar BFF to Islamic Extremists in Iraq & Syria

 'The only force that is doing it right, the only force on the ground that is actually fighting ISIS and winning is the Free Syrian Army and its allies and the best course of action for those concerned about the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham is to see that they get the arms and supplies they need to defeat both ISIS and the Assad regime and set Syria on the road to a democratic future.'

Isis breach of Iraq-Syria border merges two wars into one 'nightmarish reality'

 I'd go for the SNC's explanation as the straightforward one. "Take them more seriously" ignores the evidence that he simply wasn't taking them on at all.

 'Last weekend the Syrian air force staged its first raids on Isis bases in Raqqa, Hassakeh and Deir al-Zor. That was noteworthy because Assad's enemies have often accused him of tolerating Isis or tacitly cooperating with it in order to split rebel ranks and present himself as a secular bulwark against al-Qaida and jihadi fanaticism.

 According to reports from Raqqa, Isis fighters inexplicably left their barracks 24 hours before the attack. In Deir al-Zor, planes seemed to fly in and out of Iraqi airspace, perhaps suggesting collaboration with Baghdad.

 The Syrian National Coalition, the main western-backed opposition group, quickly dismissed the raids as "a ridiculous decoy". Assad, it claimed, "aims through this fake air strike against limited Isis administrative centres to send a message to the international community and to rebuild trust with it, after its close relationship with Isis was exposed".

 Another more straightforward explanation, however, could be that developments in Iraq have forced the Syrian president to take the jihadis far more seriously than he appears to have done so far.'

ISIS & the Assad regime: from marriage of convenience

 Owen Jones has just been claiming on Channel 4 News that leaving Syrians at Assad's mercy has done nothing to strengthen ISIS, here's why he's wrong.

 'This memo is just a small sample of testimony from FSA fighters that describe events on the ground where regime forces have been protecting and assisting this group. Accounts go further, saying that regime forces are intimately intertwined with this group, whose objectives are one and the same: to destroy moderate Opposition forces and establish control over as much of Syria as possible. Accounts of this kind are so widespread, most Opposition fighters can add their own personal accounts to this collection. We would encourage those interested to independently reach out to Syrians inside the country to hear their testimonies first-hand.'

Defiance inside Damascus rebel suburb

 "My wife is an Alawite. We want a state of justice and after that eventually to be like Turkey or Malaysia. We'd like the war to finish. We don't like killing and we don't want to be killed."

 There are a couple of good quotes in this piece, though Jeremy Bowen still finishes with the Assad version. I saw recently analysis that opposition support in Syria has risen from 50% to 60%, while that for the régime has fallen from 17% to 9%. Even that underestimates, while the threat of government terror is a reality, a reluctance of those who might find themselves ruled by Assad again to admit their feelings, and is a tribute to a people unwilling to be bombed and starved into submission.

 "This is our home, our country. We have no other place. God willing, the rebels are going to win. The regime is unjust and unfair. History shows that injustice doesn't last."

Hope

 'Increasing support to the FSA may be the most likely Western response, rather than cosying up to Assad.'

 From Newsnight intro. Robin Yassin-Kassab is in the studio.

To Save Iraq, Look to Syria

 I'd only argue with the description "Sunni" applied to rebel groups. They didn't make this a sectarian war, Assad did.

 'Syria’s mainstream Sunni rebel groups – and not the Assad regime – are already fighting and dying in a war on ISIS, with little U.S. support and against tremendous odds, including the regime’s siege and starvation campaigns.

 Only Syrian moderates can stop ISIS. While Maliki deserves his fair share of the blame, ISIS' success in Iraq resulted directly from its control of territory and resources in Syria. Unless Syrian moderates receive more robust U.S. support, including funding, arms and training, ISIS will win in Syria. Its rivals also desperately need relief from constant air strikes by the Assad regime, which make it impossible for them to fight the jihadists effectively.'

Barrel bombs in Syria leave at least 36 dead

 'The Syrian Revolution General Committee said in a statement that the regime's helicopters attacked a market place where many women and children were among those killed.

 The opposition said that civil defense teams are continuing their rescue operations but the regime's helicopters have bombed other regions of the city too.

 Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committee of Syria, reported that Syrian warplanes have destroyed a hospital in Tell Rifaat district, in the north of Aleppo, but they did not give casualty numbers.'

Protest at the Home Office

  

 'The Syria Solidarity Movement, Movement Against Xenophobia and No One Is Illegal have called a protest at the Home Office for 6.30pm on Monday 16th June.'

 It can make you angry when people suggest that the problem in Syria is the funding of the 'Western-backed' opposition, rather than the lack of support that allows Assad to kill with impunity. And then such liberal commentators will claim that there is an irony between that support and the closed door to refugees, a further insult to Syrians who can see the lack of support in both cases, especially the ones legally settled in the UK or the US who get stopped as suspected terrorists when they travel outside those countries. The lie that the struggle against Assad is a jihadi quagmire we need to run and hide from is what has left the conflict to fester, and as could be predicted, that has rehabilitated demands for straightforward use of American force because something must be done about ISIS. Wouldn't have this problem if all the whining about how the chemical attacks were just a story to drag us into another Iraq stopped any debate about empowering Syrians to overthrow Assad and rid the country of ISIS.

 The refugee thing also shit in Canada. Pretty much all over if you're a Syrian.

 'The war in Syria has forced more than 2.5 million refugees to flee their homes, and Canada has promised to make room for 1,300. So far, three years into the conflict, only a handful have arrived.

After repeated attempts to get the exact number as to how many Syrians have arrived in Canada under the program, our conversation with the Minister was interrupted abruptly when he appeared to hang up on us.'
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140617120949/http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/features/2014/06/11/chris-alexander-citizenship-and-immigration-minister/]

ISIS’ Iraq offensive could trigger Hezbollah to fill gap left in Syria

 'With the Syrian army decimated by desertions and exhaustion, the regime relies heavily on its allies, chiefly Hezbollah as well as Iraqi paramilitaries. It is estimated that there are around 5,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria at any one time and the party represents the main offensive force in launching operations backed by Syrian airpower and artillery to recapture territory. There were an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Iraqi Shiite fighters serving in Syria before the ISIS offensive in northern Iraq.'

Iraq: three kinds of blowback and the threat of war stoked by western meddling

 John Rees:

 'The most consistent element of Western policy has been support for the Free Syrian Army (FSA). This has been diplomatic, strategic, monetary and military, though the arms supply has not included heavy weaponry.'

 The consistent element is not giving them weapons to fight Assad and ISIS.

 'The FSA and their political representatives have been duly supplicatory, repeatedly making pro-American statements, attending the imperial-generated Syrian conferences, in the hope of gaining more aid from the US and its allies.'

 They asked for weapons to defend themselves.

 'The problem with the FSA strategy has been that it undermined their standing inside Syria. The fact that leaders of the FSA often had less standing with Syrians than with the US government undermined their credibility. The fact that they were so cravenly pro-Western further eroded support in Syria where the population, as in many Arab countries, historically contains a wide swathe of anti-colonial sentiment (indeed this is one of the ideological reserves of the Assad regime).'

 This strategy was undermined, because the Americans stopped any heavy weaponry getting through, while Assad's supplies of weapons and foreign troops were unabated. Rees has consistently tried to appropriate the anti-imperialist feeling of those who want to fight Assad with the régime's narrative that it is anti-US.

 'It was this hollowing out of the FSA, a direct result of Western nomination of ‘acceptable’, ‘moderate’ forces in Syria, which created a vacuum which was filled by various Islamic forces, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS)..'

 It was the lack of support to moderate forces that left the more extreme to fill the gap, and the very extreme to take advantage of the vacuum.

 'The arms supplies from the Saudis to ISIS and others may not have been enough to defeat Assad.'

 ISIS has made no attempt to attack Assad, let alone defeat him. The Saudi government has not supported ISIS. Even Rees' link to Robert Fisk, who may be reliable these days in his misreporting, talks only of " the Saudi Wahhabis and Kuwaiti oligarchs". The Saudi government have their own reactionary kingdom, they don't want some idiot to mess up raking it in from oil sales by establishing their own caliphate. That's why the Saudis fight al-Qaida, even though many of us might have trouble telling the difference.

 'Bombing will kill civilians, and so worsen the detestation of the West and produce more terrorists.'

 Assad's bombing of civilians has unsurprisingly killed many civilians, and caused millions to flee. This has worsened the detestation of the western left for refusing to support any action against it, and denying revolution is taking place at all.

World Cup: Qatar Goes to Penalties

 'Its most controversial stance – alarming the White House and infuriating its Arab neighbours – is its continued support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.'

 So it is opposed to the military régime that has killed thousands since the coup? Good.

 Likewise we get a couple of pieces of bullshit about Qatar and Syria, where only the arms it has provided to more secular groups have prevented the extreme jihadis and Assad displacing them entirely.

 'It wants to do its own thing, not to be pushed around. Its support for the Brotherhood reflects its preference for Islamist parties rather than military dictators, as demonstrated in Libya. But it is in danger of over-reaching itself and giving succour to extremists, particularly in Syria...

 It is supportive of Islamists, from Hamas and Hezbollah to rebel groups in Syria. But how much money it channels to which groups and where it draws the line is murky.'

Understanding a Revolutionary Syria

 'As army defections increased and people clamored for weapons to defend themselves with the non-violent resistance suffered one serious blow after another. Two hundred soldiers joined the Free Syria Army within the first three weeks of June. Alawite security forces who harassed civilian Alawites for joining the anti-government demonstrations began to refer to them as “Jews” and “Zionist traitors.” The Syrian people did not expect mainstream allegedly pro-Arab solidarity outlets in the English speaking world to remain sinfully silent even in the face of such gruesome evidence, and they definitely did not expect the likes of staunch Republican John McCain to be the one to reveal these photos to his colleagues on the senate floor, demanding the West to step up to plate and intervene constructively. The American leftist community places itself on a humanitarian pedestal, yet it could not have been less interested in stopping the Ba‟athist killing machine.

 The basics of Syrian history and the long trail of Muslim victims who have perished at the hands of Russian imperialism are unknown to them, whether they be Crimean, Chechnya, or Syrian. The Syrian diaspora in the US who had marched against American aggression in Iraq in 2003 found themselves berated at various liberal gatherings. Syrian, Russian, and Iranian state propaganda was spewed back out at them by bourgeoisie hipsters who had zero awareness of Syria‟s history, people, and their seemingly never-ending struggle against Ba‟athist tyranny.'

Are people really this fucking dumb

 'Or do they like to play dumb?'

New Opposition Umbrella Group in Aleppo

 'An independent, national revolutionary organization that constitutes a legal entity. It unites all the rebels in the city of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside who have taken part in the revolutionary movement since its inception and who have proved that they have not deviated from the principles and goals of the revolution.

 The document says the group’s objective is to “overthrow Assad’s regime and all its symbols, maintain the unity of the Syrian nation and territory and the Islamic identity of the state; and work on the application of tolerant Sharia law in all areas of life.” '

"Assad is only protecting himself"

 Martina Sabra:

 'Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad likes to present himself as a champion of his nation's religious minorities, in particular the Christians. But increasing numbers of Syrian Christians in exile are resisting this narrative.

 "Belief in Christ is for us the source of support for the rebellion against the Syrian dictator and the basis for the battle for freedom and dignity. The regime of Bashar al-Assad was and can never be the guardian of Christian minorities. It only safeguards the interests of the dictatorship's mafia-style structures." '

What Do Syria's Rebels Want From The West?

 'While most people in our sample have favorable views of Turkey (78 percent) and Saudi Arabia (78 percent) and unfavorable views of Russia (91 percent) and Iran (92 percent), the public is divided on its support for the West.'

 I think this is the most reliable result in the survey. When the Assad government started killing a lot of people in 2012, the divide between the way Syrians felt, with deep hatred for the Russians and Iranians and gratitude for those that showed support for them, and the left, which continued to see the US as the real threat in the situation. When 65 percent strongly believe that Western powers deserve blame for the protracted conflict, it isn't because they've helped too much.

 On the question of democracy, the time taken to complete the survey is important. Last year, when the only supporters of the Syrian revolution seemed to be those in the Gulf, the Front issued an Islamic charter that seemed to reject representative democracy. Now that it appears that such policies act as propaganda for Assad, and lessen the chance that the US would allow any proper weaponry to get through, they have issued a much more democratic covenant. I don't see this as cynicism, though a dose of that is good for anyone fighting a war against terrible odds, but as a sign that people change with the political landscape, and the sooner Syria achieves freedom the more likely armed groups are to follow the will of the population as regards the future political set-up rather than the other way round. This is also a simpler way of viewing the conflict, rather than asking who are the rebels, asking who they are fighting.

A Pre-emptive Strike

 'Notice though that the only "intervention" that was seriously proposed was this - basically, hurling a bunch of cruise missiles at Damascus like some kind of expensive, more professional Hamas halal picnic day-out or something.'

 Notice that that was the only intervention Flying Rodent was prepared to acknowledge was proposed, the lying little prick.

In the war on terrorism, only al-Qa'ida thrives

 'Of course, the hypocrisy does not end there. For all his triumphalism over the turnout in Syria, Assad's way of dealing with parts of Syria not under his control is to shell them and drop barrel bombs on them. Nor is the opposition much better when it comes to targeting civilians, except that its means of destruction are much less than that of the state.'

 The hypocrisy starts here. The opposition hasn't engaged in the mass murder of civilians. Anyone not looking at the conflict through thick ideological glasses can see the difference. But Assad is an official enemy of the West , so his crimes could only be an excuse for western crimes, so can't be that bad.

 'A reporter in Aleppo, who writes under the name of Edward Dark for the online magazine al-Monitor, mentions a case that "clearly illustrates the ludicrous nature of this inhumane conflict that happened to the Sheikh Maksud neighbourhood in Aleppo". He relates how, when this district was held by Assad's forces, it was regularly shelled by the rebels who said it was full of pro-government militiamen. When the rebels stormed and captured Sheikh Maksud in March 2013, it was the Syrian army that blazed away indiscriminately into the civilian houses that were still standing.'

 The opposition tried to kill the shabiha, the murder and rape gangs that have filled the gaps in Assad's terror, the Syrian Army targeted civilian dwellings. I don't see the equivalence.

 'The Syrian war has turned into a Syrian version of the Thirty Years War in Germany four centuries ago. Too many conflicts and too many players have become involved for any peace terms to be acceptable to all.'

 Assad goes, major problem solved. ignoring that the demand of the revolution is for an end to Assad's police state, that he clears civilian areas because there can be no compromise on that demand, is of no consequence to Cockburn.

 'Saudi Arabia and Qatar are arming and training a new "moderate military opposition" that will supposedly fight Assad and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) along with other al-Qa'ida-type groups. But it is not clear that the "moderate" military opposition really exists except as tightly controlled cats' paws of foreign powers.'

 It is not clear to Cockburn because he has been denying that there are any revolutionary forces in Syria, or pretending that those out of arms give no support to those that fight Assad. The fewer the strings on arms supplies the better, the credit for their supply inevitable, but this seems much more like a fear that this will happen than a fear it will fail. It is the flipside of the assumption that any weapons will end up with al-Qaida, how anti-aircraft weapons placed in the hands of those determined to protect Syria from Assad will remain hamstrung or get out of control I really can't see, and all seems like an excuse to get away from the lack of support being the cause of the Syrian disaster.

 'So long as the Syrian civil war continues, it benefits groups such as Isis, which wants to create its own state and not just get rid of Assad, because fanatical armed groups, with fighters prepared to be killed, always benefit from conflict. By the same token, moderates lose out or are marginalised as the situation becomes more and more militarised and Syrian public opinion counts for little.'

 Hypocrite. He doesn't care about the vast majority of Syrians who want Assad out.

Why is Jabhat al-Nusra no longer useful to Turkey?

 One of the commonest untruths used to support arguments by those supposed to be on the Left against the Syrian revolution is that Turkey has been supporting Jabhat al-Nusra, an extreme Islamist group with ties to al-Qaida, though not as extreme as the Assad-collaborating ISIS, which crucified some people recently and is now rampaging across Iraq. We get this from the loony end like Seymour Hersh, who claims Turkey got al-Nusra to launch the chemical weapons attack in Damascus in August, but also from those who are meant to be a bit better like Owen Jones. When I saw Eamonn McCann repeat this in his piece defaming the opposition as possible sarin users, it was obvious that he had swallowed this titbit without any attempt to verify it. It is sad to see Ireland's greatest Trotskyist turn into a gullible fool.

 Turkey had a military government for years, that ruthlessly defended a secular nationalism particularly against Islamists, Communists and Kurds.

 The military is still there, these days co-operating with an extremely moderate Islamist government. The idea that they would choose al-Nusra as a proxy in Syria is ludicrous, when there are so many brigades with a more amenable way of thinking. In fact al-Nusra thrived in Northern Syria was the US was effective in stopping any flow of heavy weapons to the Free Syrian Army or to spontaneously formed rebel brigades.

 Who does fund al-Nusra? I can't precisely say. I understand that it is wealthy donors in the Gulf. What I am fairly sure is that if Turkey was supporting them, some evidence would come out of weapons shipments and the like - the Americans would be the first to blow the whistle - as there is nothing, I think this can be taken to be as much of a fantasy creation as the WMDs in Iraq.

 So here is the statement of the Turkish foreign minister, which I think can be taken at face value.

 “Jabhat al-Nusra is the result of the quagmire there. Continually referring to it is having the effect of making it loom large. While they were a controllable group comprising 500-600 people initially, today they number 5,000-6,000. In other words, declaring them a terrorist organization has resulted in more harm than good. Otherwise, we see Jabhat al-Nusra the way we see al-Qaeda.”

 A false reading of "controllable" would see it as an admission that Turkey is controlling al-Nusra. But I think he's saying that Syria is a mess, and that al-Nusra wasn't the most serious problem. Turkey has the Syrian army to worry about, and any penetration into Turkey of Assad's forces to worry about, and concentrating on weeding out a force that is fighting against Assad was not a priority.

 If Turkey had really been supporting al-Nusra, and getting them to launch chemical attacks, we'd get to hear about that now that turkey is calling them terrorists. But we won't.

 There are a number of distortions in this article I thought I might go through individually.

 "The Erdogan government has no choice at this point but to also accept that as far as the United States and Europe are concerned, the emphasis in Syria has shifted from toppling Assad to combating the al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist groups in that country."

 There never was an emphasis on toppling Assad.

 "Looked at in retrospect, these groups have posed the most important obstacle to Ankara’s policy of pushing for international military action against Assad. They have also prevented the Syrian opposition from being armed with the necessary weapons to fight the Syrian army."

 The last sentence is true, and re-states the implausibility of al-Nusra as a Turkish front. It doesn't help that JAN has grown, especially when lifting the obstacles the West has placed on the rebels getting weapons has impeded the fight back against the massively armed régime. For a long time more secular revolutionaries took the view that with the fight against Assad a life-and-death one, and no support coming from anywhere in the world, stopping the growth of extreme Islamism was too much for them.

 When the Islamists were getting arms denied to more secular groups and with Assad armed to the teeth, there wasn't any option. ISIS has shown itself to be no part of the revolution at all, and so real rebel groups have been forced to attack it, far more succesfully than the Iraqi army in the last couple of days, which tells you who the real bulwark against al-Qaida is.

 JAN is a more complicated question, along with that of the Islamic Front, leaders of which are responsible for kidnapping the activists, the Douma 4* and the involvement of Saudi Arabia. Some revolutionaries think they are reactionary forces who are as equally unwelcome in Syria, which is a position that I think lacks nuance. In the Spanish Civil war the Russian secret police had its own murderous spree on the Republican side, but that didn't make sense to demand that the Soviet Union stop supplying arms. The shift in policy against JAN will only work if it is accompanied by real support to the rebels in Syria.

 "The United States and some Western countries, like France, were not averse at first to arming the Syrian opposition with sophisticated weapons. These countries even appeared willing to start a bombing campaign against Assad’s forces after chemical weapons were used in that country."

 Two untruths. A lot of people fell for the second one.

 "They pulled back, however, not only because it could not be established conclusively who used the chemical weapons, but also because of the fear that jihadist groups could fill the political vacuum left by the Assad regime if it were to be ousted by a military intervention."

 The first is rubbish, we know when and where Assad's forces used their rockets, and when Assad falls, we will hear in detail from those who did it. The second does reflect the fears of Western policy analysts, the truth is that the idea that this was a Sunni sectarian rebellion was always propaganda by the government, and that it is the lack of support for secular opposition forces that let the jihadis thrive.

 "The idea of providing the Syrian opposition with heavy and sophisticated weapons was also overridden by fears that these could fall into the hands of radicals and be turned against the West in the future."

 It was untrue, and there were such weapons in the hands of America's enemies already, but it became a convenient excuse for doing nothing about the mass chemical attack.

 "The main attack of this sort, which concentrated Turkish minds and turned the public even more against the government’s Syria policy, was the Reyhanli twin car bombing on May 11, 2013, which left at least 50 dead. Although the government was quick to blame Assad loyalists, the opposition in Turkey still insists that it was jihadist groups that carried out the attack."

 I think it was Assad loyalists**. Why would jihadists groups do it?

 "Meanwhile, the so-called “Sunni Axis” against Syria, comprising Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, fell apart without having influenced the course of events against Assad."

 There never was a Sunni axis. When it melts into air so easily, it never was a bloc in the first place. It is Assad who created the sectarian conflict, torturing prisoners until they blasphemed against their Sunni beliefs, getting brigades of Iranians into the country to commit sectarian massacres under cover of claiming to protect Shi'ite shrines. The countries of the region have helped the Syrian revolution sparingly and in ill-coordinated fashion. If they hadn't been monarchies liberal and reactionary or moderately Islamist capitalists they might have been more help, but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

 "Turkey’s banning of Jabhat al-Nusra is vindication, not just for Iran but also for Russia, of course. Both countries, which support the Assad regime, have been arguing from the start that Syria is under threat from radical terrorist groups that are being aided by outside powers."

 Assad's forces have started dropping a second barrel bomb thirty minutes after a first, in order to kill survivors. That's terrorism, and the radical groups are strengthened by Assad's destruction and the weakness of a real alternative, things will get worse while he stays, unimaginable as that is.

 "All that is left for Turkey to do at this state is therefore to cooperate with the United States and other allies against these groups, and to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists,” to use Obama’s words. There is, however, no guarantee that this will expedite Assad's demise, which Erdogan clearly dreams of."

 Supplying anti-aircraft weapons will stop low-tech attacks from helicopters. I don't think Syrians need a guarantee to go for that.

*[http://www.syriauntold.com/en/story/2014/05/27/9592]
**[http://arabsaga.blogspot.ae/…/turkish-bombings-linked-to-ba…]