McCain right about hole in ISIS plan

 Robert Robb:

 'I usually disagree with John McCain about foreign policy. He is the nation's foremost advocate of a muscular U.S. role in the world. I'm generally skeptical of U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts and disputes.

 However, McCain does have a point, and a very important one, about an incongruity in the announced Obama administration approach to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

 The administration is vague about this, but the clear inference is that the United States plans to assist FSA when it fights ISIS and try to stay out of its fight with Assad.

 This has problems, logically and practically. If the United States is counting on FSA to be the force that ultimately "destroys" ISIS, how can we stand aside while Assad's forces diminish its fighting capability? And if we are providing air support to FSA fighting ISIS in Syria, how can we not provide air cover for it against attacks from Assad's forces?

 McCain's preference, of course, is for the United States to go all in and provide FSA the training, equipment and air support needed to prevail against both ISIS and Assad.'

The U.S. Should Arm The Free Syrian Army

 Obviously the date of 2010 is wrong. Maybe this will provide a new conspiracy theory that the US was funding an insurgency before the Syrian revolution began. The understanding of the balance of forces is right.

 'The Free Syrian Army is not perfect, but we should’ve armed them back in 2010 when they first began to ask for it. Secretary Panetta, Secretary Clinton, General Dempsey and General Petraeus all asked and recommended to the President in the summer of 2012, literally two years ago, that this organization be armed, equipped and trained, and he said no. We’d be much better off in Syria today if we had done such a thing, because it is the only organization that has taken on ISIS.

 The Free Syrian Army knows that both ISIS and the regime are both bad for Syria. This is a secular organization [that] wants to be inclusive with its government, does not want an Islamist state, and wants a democratic form of government.'

Six Steps Short of War to Beat ISIS

 Phyllis Bennis:

 'Arming the so-called “moderate” opposition in Syria doesn’t mean supporting the good guys. It means sending arms to the Free Syrian Army which, according to the New York Times, “went on to behead six ISIS fighters…and then posted the photographs on Facebook.” '

 The New York Times* says so, but the NBC report** does not, and I can't find anyone else who does.

 Clay Claiborne's latest, How a 24hr truce to pick up bodies became a non-aggression pact between ISIS & Syrian rebels,*** is about a similar story "being spread like wildfire by groups that hitherto have shown little concern for the 200,000 Syrians that have died in the last three years as a result of dictator Bashar al-Assad's vicious attempts to cling to power."
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/middleeast/american-fighting-for-isis-is-killed-in-syria.html]
**[https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/american-douglas-mcauthur-mccain-dies-fighting-isis-syria-n189081]
***[https://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-24hr-truce-to-pick-up-bodies-became.html]

Obama's air strikes won't deter Islamic State

 "I don't really understand this sudden fuss about Isis. They killed people, but Bashar has been killing for the last three years. But nobody seems to be interested in that anymore."

 "Instead of bombing ISIS from the air, we need support inside Syria to fight. It's the only way. Once Assad is gone, we'll deal with ISIS ourselves."

The Golan Heights May Drag Israel Into the Syrian Civil War

 Assad's never going to win the war, and there still is a Free Syrian Army. An Israeli is quoted as saying the Syrian army has been more dangerous for Israel than the current jihadists, but I don't see any evidence of that, and the article points out that the crossing was peaceful when Assad was in control.

 ' "The Syrian army has two divisions on its side of the Golan—Division 61 south of Kunetra and Division 90 north of Kunetra," says Idan Avni, a correspondent for Israel Radio. "But Assad has more urgent battles, in Aleppo, Damascus, etc. These guys over here haven’t received anything from him in months. No supplies, no arms, nothing. So they defect or surrender to the rebel side, or they simply lay down their arms and go home."

Kunetra and the border areas south of it are controlled by jihadists that are dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra. Further north, more moderate anti-Assad groups, like the Free Syrian Army (FSA), hold territory, as do members of the Druze sect.'

Free Syrian Army: From neglect to resurrection?

 This is why there is a problem with ISIS, not because the Americans created them.

 'The one group that stood out was the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which was created on July 29, 2011, when the peaceful opposition to President Bashar Al Assad became an armed insurgency.

 Washington demurred when Riyadh readied shoulder-fired missiles and anti-tank launchers, and vetoed such transfers. The FSA’s fighting hands were thus tied allegedly because Western powers were not sure if some of these lethal weapons would fall under extremist control. In time, sophisticated American-made anti-tank missiles reached the FSA, though Al Nusra and, more recently, Isis boasted more advanced weapons. Timidity towards the FSA, ostensibly because its leaders maintained correct ties with moderate Islamist factions, translated in an entirely different outlook for Syria.'

The Syrian Holocaust Branch 215

 'Due to the unimaginably -horrible testimonies and pictures sent to us from Branch 215 (Raid Squad), we will try, in this report, to shed light on Branch 215 which alone has more than 7,500 detainees all of whom experience daily the most brutal and horrible torture.'

Robert Fisk on Isis campaign

 Fisk is just talking out of his arse now. Also in CounterPunch along with 'Obama Declares War on Syria'*, which doesn't bear reading either.

 'Then there’s the reinvention of the “moderate” Syrian opposition which was once called the Free Syrian Army – a force of deserters corrupted and betrayed by both the West and its Islamic allies – and which no longer exists. This ghost army is now going to be called the “Syrian National Coalition” and be trained – of all places – in Saudi Arabia, whose citizens have given zillions of dollars to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Isis, Isil, IS (you decide on the acronym), Jabhat al-Nusra and sundry other bad guys whom Obama now wants to “vanquish from the earth”.'
*[http://www.counterpunch.org/…/…/obama-declares-war-on-syria/]

In Syria's Aleppo, school is a basement under air raids

 "We come up to play a bit and have some fun because we've been underground for a long time," says Jaafar, wearing a grey hooded top, as his classmates hop and twirl around him. "But we can't stay for long because we're scared a plane might come and bomb us."

Congress shrugs off legal concerns to support Obama over Isis offensive

 Reminds me of much of the left continued.

 'Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is standing down in November, said she would not vote in favour of any bill authorising US training for the groups out of fears they were allies of Isis rather than enemies and she questioned whether so-called “boots on the ground” could be avoided.'

Obama Is Just 'Tickling' ISIS

 “The FSA has been fighting against ISIS since the beginning of this year,” said Al Marie. “We continue to fight them. The problem now is that they came back to the fight with sophisticated weapons, weapons they stole from the Americans. We are losing our brave fighters on the front against ISIS. We’re just asking the West for some cooperation, some support to be able to fight these monsters and free our lands with our hands. That’s what we want.”

Chemical Attack Survivor Haunted by Memories

 “All we asked for is to help us take away Assad's ability to use barrel bombs… and especially chemical weapons to keep punishing the Syrian people for asking for their freedom.”

Metro Detroiters applaud efforts to quash extremists

 'Ruthanne Ashkar of Manchester, who wed a Syrian native last year, eagerly listened to the address and supported measures to stop ISIS.

 “They need to be eliminated but I just have to shake my head because this is something we have been warning will happen since the revolution started in Syria,” she said. “If the opposition wasn’t supported, these radical extremist groups would step into the vacuum.” '

Forget About Working With Assad

 Thomas Pierret & Emile Hokayem:

 'The case for working with Assad conveniently ignores that it was other rebel groups, not Assad, who dealt the Islamic State its most serious setbacks when a coalition of anti-regime forces took heavy casualties to push it away from much of northern Syria earlier this year. These successes came because these rebel brigades could count on local support and intelligence and had legitimacy as Syrian nationalist forces. Unfortunately, the already outgunned rebels, because they lacked fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition and because they manned another front against Assad forces, could not sustain these advances.

 The idea of Assad as a lesser evil has little traction among Syria’s Sunnis. This is only too understandable: It is the House of Assad, not the Islamic State, that has tormented them for more than four decades. Many of these Syrians wonder why the jihadis’ beheadings warrant intervention while Assad’s far more numerous atrocities do not.'

Why US policy is fraught with danger

 'Their violent sectarianism is not very different to that of Isis.'

 Same shit from Cockburn, different day. He's not talking about the Assad régime, which has unleashed far more violent sectarianism than ISIS (though which is more horrific is still up in the air), but about those who are disgusted by both. It is a "pretence" that there is a moderate military operation, then in the next paragraph they are all over the place, only they "report to the CIA", as if they are nothing more than an American proxy. Any weaponry given by anyone else will end up with ISIS, because some of their anti-tank rockets are the same as those the Saudis provided to the FSA (not some jihadi militia, you note). Maybe they got them when they captured a load of American military equipment in Mosul.

 Meanwhile, Robert Fisk is losing touch with reality completely. His latest is a Bosnia comparison with invented views imputed:

 'Odd, isn’t it, how we took a vaguely similar view of those Muslims who originally travelled to Syria to help overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The peaceful revolution was being ruthlessly suppressed and we were happy to send money and guns to the opposition – and turn a blind eye if Muslim “humanitarian” workers were so angered by events that they joined the rebels. Only when the toughened fighters of Afghanistan and Chechnya and other Muslim nations turned up to take over the battle did we suddenly express our horror.'
[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/after-the-atrocities-committed-against-muslims-in-bosnia-it-is-no-wonder-today-s-jihadis-have-set-out-on-the-path-to-war-in-syria-9717384.html]

HARDtalk: John McCain

 John McCain:

 "They [the Obama administration] have not provided the Free Syrian Army with the weapons it needs to be a viable force, and it's being destroyed as a result."


 "Should there be American boots on the ground?"

 "No, of course not, the American people would never put up with that. The Free Syrian Army can still succeed, but they're in dire straits."

Assad thinks he is winning

 'After three years of fighting, the army is depleted and tired. Assad is indebted to local militias trained and funded by Iran, as well as to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, for his government’s most important victories. Many of the Iraqi Shiite militias who also helped have gone home to fight the Sunni extremists on their own turf.

 The government sustains its efforts to repress the rebellion by bombing communities that oppose it from afar, further fueling the grievances that enabled extremism to thrive.

 Even if the United States wanted to partner with Assad to defeat the extremists, “it’s not clear what he would bring to the table,” said Jeff White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 “What we’re seeing is the overall, uneven degradation of the regular military forces­,” he said. “They’re becoming less and less capable over time.” '

Kerry leads diplomatic drive to boost Arab support in fight against Isis

 Don't strain yourself.

 'Backing for "authorised" Syrian rebels is also likely to be discussed if only because the crisis in the two neighbouring countries has now merged into one.'

Dick Cheney urges hardline military stance against Isis

 In the continuing series, Reminds Me Of Much Of The Left.

 'He basically said that President Obama has actually done things that have supported the Muslim Brotherhood. But on the other hand the Muslim Brotherhood is really the beginnings of all the Islamist groups that we’re now dealing with; Hamas, Isis – all of those groups.'

Syrian Series “Bab Al Hara” and the Need to Combat Traditional Images of Women

 'The Syrian regime and security forces have been known for several decades for their brutal treatment of civilians, especially the opposition. Given that reputation, it was not easy for most of the people to stand up against the regime and ask for freedom; otherwise, the consequence of that would be disappearing forever in the dark cells of the intelligence, or the Mokhabarat. For the team of Bab Al Hara, nothing has changed in the story or the plot. Members of the Syrian series likely feared talking about any issue related to the uprising, because the consequences are known to them: shutting down the shooting locations, or imprisoning members of the team, especially if the shooting locations are inside Syria.

The other day, I was browsing through my Facebook timeline, and I found a video of this very brave lady challenging all enemies if Syria. She inspired me to write this piece, and will always give me hope that women can make the change societies need. She is called “The Woman in Pants.”* This brave woman used to go out every day holding a sign in the middle of Al Riqqa, a Syrian city, and calling members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant to leave town. People around her were too scared to salute her for what she is doing, fearing they might be seen by the ISIL militants. In pants, she used to express her thoughts and opinion with no fear. Watching such women in real life standing against injustice creates examples for producers of television dramas to follow. These women are the inspiration we need in our lives, in order to show that wars and battles for freedom are not only fought by men, but there are also women standing hand in hand with them.'

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpAFd-Oz3lk]

From Green to Black

 Hind Kabawat:

 'A week later when I was back in South Turkey, I went to a small village near Kassab on the Turkish border, where Syrian youth were helping Syrian children in a school run by two Syrian women, both of whom were previously detained by the regime for nine years. Here I found reasons for hope. These are the women, youth and children who are the hope and future of Syria. I can feel it, I can see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. I can feel the hope emanating through those women, youth and children in the middle of an ugly war.'

The Syrian Civil War Is On The Verge Of Getting Even Worse

 There are millions of Syrians within and without the country who won't accept either choice, but the military situation is serious.

 'If Aleppo falls, the idea of a united Syria could fall with it. The only combatants left would be a serial human rights abuser that's beat a tactical retreat to a sectarian enclave in the west — and ISIS, perhaps the richest and best-armed jiihadist group in history.

 The rebels have endured a series of setbacks since mid-2012, when some observers believed the Assad regime was on the brink of collapse.

 The American-brokered Syrian chemical weapons deal effectively destroyed any chance of game-changing U.S. support against Assad, a development that the Crisis Group says fractured the rebel coalition and forced certain factions into a pragmatic alliance with al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra.'

ISIS in Syria

 'The regime may not have been so much as negligent here, as perhaps having reached some kind of “understanding” or “agreement” with ISIS, whether openly or behind the scenes. This is what explains the lack of air and rocket attacks by Syrian government forces on ISIS bases and fighters. To make the point even clearer: ISIS’s leadership and main bases in Syria are concentrated in the city of Raqqa.

 The group’s foreign nature was no obstacle to its attempting to spread within Syria, infiltrating other armed Islamist groups such as the Ahrar Al-Sham and spreading in poor, disaffected areas lining the route between the rural areas of Deir Ezzor and Aleppo, passing through Raqqa. It exploited the dearth of weaponry and funding which some elements of the Free Syrian Army were suffering from, breaking them up and fighting others, while always subsequently creating an atmosphere of oppression and terror wherever it went, murdering residents of occupied areas in order to keep them quiet and under control. In this way, an “Al-Qaeda in Syria” was created, its presence and resources all no doubt directed against the Syrian people and their revolution in all those areas where the regime has lost control.

 To conclude, regarding the matter of ISIS in Syria, we can say it is a purely “functional” organization, there to carry out a foreign agenda compatible with that of the Assad regime. The group’s role in Syria is akin to Hezbollah’s in Lebanon, or that of the armed militias in Iraq, only differing in the nature of the allegiances and the slogans, and what follows in terms of its actions. This means that the fight against ISIS runs parallel with the war against Assad and Hezbollah and the Iraqi militias. It is one war, one that cannot be divided up in any way: a war against both terror and extremism.'

Syrian Filmmakers Expose ISIS

 'En route to Raqqa, Yassin's hometown, he discovers that it had been overtaken by ISIS, the same organization that had kidnapped his two brothers. Given the brutality of both the Syrian regime and ISIS, Yassin finds himself compelled to flee to Istanbul, his place of temporary "enforced" exile.'

Bassam al-Rayes, only one of the forgotten victims of ISIS

 'Bassam Al-Rayes, a 28-year-old local man, left college at the beginning of the revolution and started filming the anti-Assad demonstrations. He covered the peaceful resistance while preparing and producing TV reports, and was a member of the camera crew in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus.

 Later on he joined the Zubair Battalion which belongs to the Army of Islam brigade, worked there for a while and then he moved to the media office to become one of the most respected cameramen in this region, covering most of the battles he witnessed and taking exclusive and dangerous videos of fighters in their battles.

 After clashes between IS and the Army of Islam in the small villages around Damascus and in Meda’a town to the north-east of the city, IS detained Bassam and five of his friends, tortured him and then slaughtered him without reason or remorse.'

Rand Paul Wants to Team Up With Assad and Iran

“If we were to get rid of Assad, it would be a jihadist wonderland in Syria.”

 Much the same position as Patrick Cockburn and his acolytes on the Left.

The FSA and the anti-ISIS Alliance

 'The most difficult aspect in all of this is acknowledging that eradicating ISIS cannot be accomplished by air strikes alone, especially since this terrorist group is hiding out in city centers, using civilians as human shields. This is precisely what Al-Qaeda did in Iraq in the past. So how will NATO forces and regional allied countries be able to eradicate ISIS with air strikes?

 We are sure that the air strikes will fail. The solution lies, first and foremost, in “coordinating” with a Syrian ally on the ground. However, the only Syrian ally ready to fight ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar Al-Sham and the rest of these terrorist groups remains the Free Syrian Army.

 The FSA’s main mission is to gain control of the capital Damascus and establish a new government that represents all Syrians. This new government would then be responsible for the liberation of the rest of Syria’s territory from terrorist groups and mercenaries. Therefore, the new anti-ISIS alliance has to recognize and support the FSA to take the lead in pursuing and destroying ISIS. The FSA must do this not just for the sake of Syria and the Syrian people, but also for the Arab world and the West.'

Once full of promise, Syrian football has been destroyed by civil war

 There will be no proper football until Assad is gone. End of.

 'Players such as Abdul Basit Saroot took off his boots to join the revolution, becoming an instant icon, while his compatriot, the Syrian international Musab Balhous – before he reverted after his release – spent time in prison accused of sheltering armed rebels and strengthening an armed organisation composed of Al-Karamah club-mates against the nation’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

 Others left the country either in protest or for their own safety. Firas Al-Khatib – regarded as one of the finest footballers Syria has produced – has refused to represent his national side in solidarity with those seeking freedom and liberation, and now plies his trade with China’s Shanghai Shenhua.'

Islamic State in Syria

 I don't think this is an accurate assessment of the feeling of Syrians. On the one hand she is saying that for a lot of people Assad now offers stability, on the other they are asking why noone is intervening to help them.

 "When you contrast him with ISIS he looks a lot better, and that's what's going to keep him there for some time."

 Some arsehole called Richard from Bristol, called to say, "this war's going to end up as a NATO intervention, we spend too much time fighting firefights in the Middle East, we need to deal with the extremists among our own allies, replace the petrodollar..."

 Karen Leigh: "We don't have anyone who can help on the ground in Syria, not the Free Syrian Army."

In Syria, Uncovering the Truth Behind a Number

 I remember when Cockburn was citing the SOHR's figures to claim that the rebels had done most of the killing, I said that many of the régime's victims were undocumented, and there were probably 250,000 dead already.

 'Patrick thinks the total may prove to be twice the number of documented deaths. For every one of the 191,369 confirmed deaths, there may be another victim known only to loved ones, or to no one at all.'

Deadly barrel bombs 'hit taxi stand' in Syria's Aleppo

 'At least 12 civilians, including a child, were killed in a Syrian air strike on a taxi stand in Aleppo. At the scene, bloodied bodies were removed and rescue workers scrambled to treat the injured.'

The Funeral That Brought Syria's Revolutionaries to a Church with Red Roses

 'If the regime has stolen what’s left of my family, the revolution gave me a family that is capable of unconditional love. Anyone can talk about sectarian cheers, and make claims about the nature of the Syrian conflict, but, deep inside, I trust that this revolution pulled us all out of the thousands of shells we used to hide in. This grief has united us and reformed us in its essence.

 Great is the debt I owe them, deep is my gratitude for their compassion, and dear to me is every tear they shed with me, and long—so long—is the road we still need to cross together, with whomever is left.'

America doesn't need Assad's help to strike Isil

 'Syria's pilots do go into action quite frequently. Day after day, they bomb their own people in defenceless towns and villages. The lesson is obvious: this is an air force which specialises in killing helpless civilians on the ground. The one and only task of which Assad's airmen are capable is murdering the very people they are supposed to defend.'

The Case For an IS 'No Drive Zone' in Syria

 American Thinker appear to be anti-Clinton obsessives, but this beats the Let's Not Fight WW3 on behalf of al-Qaida and the CIA line that passes for analysis on parts of the left hands down. I'm not sure 'superiorly' is a proper word.

 'Specifically, in addition to a beefing up provisions of sophisticated weaponry to the rebel opposition, the U.S. can rim rebel-IS fronts with ‘No-Drive zones’ that, enforced by UAVs and/or fix-winged attack aircraft, could: a) revitalize a frayed rebel-opposition that is beleaguered and outgunned by enemies on multiple fronts; b) compel IS to turn its barrels on the Assad regime, thereby detracting resources from their campaigns against the rebels and allowing the forgoing the breathing room to organize into more cohesive and capable fighting entity.

 Incidentally, it is precisely in strategically vital Aleppo province that Syria’s revolution -- whipsawed and struggling to stay afloat against encroachments by superiorly armed enemies (i.e. the Syrian Arab Army [SAA] and IS) on multiple fronts -- is on the brink of collapse.

 For some, such an outcome is ideal. With the rebels out of the picture, choosing sides becomes ostensibly easier; and external support for Assad’s ‘war on terror’-- if only tacit or ‘under-the-table’-- more forthcoming.

 Unfortunately, political science says that a regime victory has dangerous implications. “Violent insurgencies”, writes MIT’s Roger Peterson, “often involve death, destruction, and desecration -- all of which can create powerful emotions” that are unlikely to disappear under any postwar Assad regime; especially not one that is likely to act as authoritarian, if not more so, than ever.

 Some have retorted that it’s too late; that the opposition is way too fragmented and abounds with Islamic extremists for any Western-aided rebel victory to bear fruit. But, in what Wendy Pearlman describes as a “cruel irony”, it is Western inaction that “is a cause contributing to fragmentation in Syrian rebels’ ranks as much as it has been a reaction to that fragmentation.”

 How rebels are expected to cohere while being subjected to incessant carpet-bombing and assaults from two superiorly equipped foes has never been properly articulated. And considering that the average duration of civil wars since 1945 is about 10 years -- Syria’s is going on 3.5 -- neither has the argument that it’s ‘too late’ to act.

 Working to rehabilitate and empower the non-global-jihadist rebel camp (the IF included) is the only way forward. The delivery of advanced weaponry/supplies is a necessary step towards this end, but it must be coupled with a strategy that magnifies its effects.'

Golan residents worried by Syrian terror threat

 'The Syrian government is "not our cup of tea," said Gabi Kuniel, an Israeli who tends vineyards recently damaged by mortar shells when the violence spilled over to the Israeli-held side of the strategic Golan Heights.

 But "we prefer that the Syrian army controls this region and not a group of radical al-Qaeda Muslim people." '

Why Did the Syrian Opposition Falter?

 'Would arming the FSA more adequately have allowed it to defeat the Assad regime, or prevented the emergence of the Islamic State? The evidence shows that, in the struggle between state and society in Syria, the FSA did not falter because it consists of [militarily untrained] “farmers and dentists,” as US President Obama famously argued. It faltered because US assistance to it was, at best, reluctant. By contrast, Russia, Iran, and Hizbullah provided the militarily superior Assad regime all the help it needed to survive, and then some.

 Had Washington equipped the FSA with the necessary military hardware, like anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank missiles, and had US airpower backed the FSA as it currently is the Kurdish “Peshmerga” in northern Iraq, the Assad regime would have collapsed long ago.'

Syria Muslim Brotherhood Former Leader Bayanouni: Islamic State Major Threat to Syrian Revolution

 'The international community's callous, even conniving stance led to the number of martyrs, missing persons, detainees and injured exceeding one million people, with the forced displacement of more than half of the entire Syrian people from their homes, towns and villages. It also led to the emergence of extremist groups, a strange and alien phenomenon in Syria, which is well-known for its tolerance and peaceful coexistence among all factions and segments of the society.

 In spite of all this, the Syrian people are determined to pursue their revolution until they achieve their goals: freedom, dignity ousting the criminal regime, establishing a democratic pluralistic system of governance where all citizens determine their own future and participate in the rebuilding of their homeland.

 The revolutionary battalions are not interested in foreign support attached to special agendas that, mostly, do not want the Syrian revolution to win. As a result, the last few months have seen remarkable progress for the revolutionaries on most fronts, although some of these are preoccupied with confrontations with the so-called Islamic State (IS), which has – for a number of reasons – become a major threat to the revolution.'

U.S. has no Syrian plan

 I was thinking yesterday about the number of air forces with the capacity to take out the ISIS headquarters in Raqqa, and no apparent inclination to do so so far. There's Assad's, Iran, the US, Israel; probably Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey too.

 'Tuesday, the target was Jobar, in the Damascus suburbs, and Wednesday it was apparently a school bus in Deir al-Zor. And every day it is Aleppo, which is being pounded by barrel bombs, and other sites across the country, struck with a ferocity seemingly reserved for civilians and moderate rebels – for when the regime occasionally decides to strike ISIS, it does so rather mutely.

 Thankfully, it appears the U.S. and its partners have realized that even though they share a common enemy in ISIS, the Syrian regime cannot be trusted. But unfortunately it does not appear that they have any clear strategy to combat the threat posed by ISIS in Syria, and this is despite us knowing exactly where certain ISIS units are at any given time, as they constantly publicize their territorial gains. They are not an invisible enemy.'

'Difficult to find relationship between Qatar and IS'

 'Does Qatar have any type of leverage with the 'Islamic State'? And if so, how does that tie in with rumors that Qatar is providing financial support for IS?

 The IS jihadists contacted Qatar to pay a ransom for James Foley. The amount was huge and Qatar said no - and Washington also said no. Qatar has good relations with Jabhat al-Nusra [an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria - ed.] and they are the enemy of the 'Islamic State' fighters. Qatar has had a good relationship with them since the beginning of the revolution in Syria. We have no evidence of IS funding.'

13 civilians killed in bus attack in eastern Syria

 'A Syrian government airstrike hit a bus carrying civilians in eastern Syria on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, most of them children, opposition activists said.'

The Unbearable Emptiness of a New York Times Op-Ed

 A series of commonly perpetuated untruths, here purveyed by Peter Beinart.

 'John McCain and Lindsey Graham want Obama to confront ISIS now. They don't specify how.'

 They do, just not in the paradigm Peter Beinart wants to impose on the conflict.

 'It starts with a lie: that Obama said “we don’t have a strategy yet” to deal with ISIS. In fact, Obama was speaking solely about ISIS in Syria.'

 And without a strategy to deal with them in Syria, there is no strategy.

 'Last year, when George Washington University’s Marc Lynch surveyed scholars of civil wars, he found that “most contributors are … deeply pessimistic about the prospect for ending Syria’s civil war any time soon” because “Syria has among the worst possible configurations [of any civil war]: a highly fragmented opposition, many potential spoilers, and foreign actors intervening enough to keep the conflict raging but not enough to decisively end the war.” McCain and Graham don’t explain how to overcome all this.'

 Marc Lynch tells us, "The literature tells us", rather than analysis of what's going on in Syria. It isn't a serious counterblast to the reality that the FSA has been victorious against ISIS wherever it has received support.



 'Any serious proposal for expanding American military involvement in Iraq into Syria must do one of two things. 1) Explain, in some detail, how bombing ISIS will strengthen the moderate Syrian opposition rather than other Sunni jihadist groups (for instance, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate) and/or Bashar al-Assad. Or 2) explain why it’s worth bombing ISIS even if we strengthen other Sunni jihadist groups and/or Bashar al-Assad.'

 So setting to one side that arming the FSA properly would strengthen it in relation to all other groups, which would render the concern in 1) irrelevant. Beinart doesn't specify how bombing ISIS would strengthen their trading partner Assad, or suddenly convince the millions who have fled his rule in the last three years that he is a viable option.

 'They cite Jimmy Carter’s decision to abandon détente with the Soviet Union after Moscow invaded Afghanistan, Bill Clinton’s decision to intervene in the Balkans, and George W. Bush’s decision to implement the “surge” in Iraq. What do these cases have in common? They’re the best examples McCain and Graham could find of when a president chose military escalation and it worked (sort of).'

 I'd pick other examples which wouldn't appeal to the senators, such as the support the Soviet Union gave to liberation movements in Latin America in the sixties and seventies. Which highlights the problem that things could have been kept simple if the FSA had been allowed to overthrow Assad when there was no ISIS, and until they are, the inability of a genocidal government and a murderous caliphate to offer any future for Syria will continue to spiral the level of atrocities. Now it's more complicated. They had no interests to protect in Syria, whatever those who see geopolitical intrigue behind every revolution might say. Now the conflict has moved to Iraq where the do have influence, the chances that their fundamental interests in exploiting foreigners as much as possible will poison any intervention are that much greater.

 Scott Lemieux* suggests that "the John McCain and Lindsey Graham Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Wankery Goes To…John McCain and Lindsey Graham" for this, I wouldn't.
*[http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/…/john-mccain-lindsey-g…]

ISIS executed Syrian Muslim journalist Bassam Raies

Razan Saffour:

 "2 weeks ago ISIS executed Syrian Muslim journalist Bassam Raies. The world didn't give a damn."

The Guy Behind FSA Kittens Has Little Hope for Syria

 'I saw the cutest of cats as something that was directly challenging the narrative and showing that the Free Syrian army were human beings, they had the overwhelming support of civilians around them and were kind to animals. In contrast, Assad’s soldiers have machine-gunned livestock and donkeys and, in one case, swung a cat around on a chain. The regime actively tortures and kills opposition activists and shows the same cruelty towards animals.

 The Assad regime defector "Caesar" recently gave his report to Congress detailing, with 55,000 photographs, the industrial-scale torture and execution of opposition activists. It was little more than a footnote on CNN. Syria is old news, despite the fact that it’s ongoing. The coverage amounts to, “Well, there’s not a lot we can do and we’re not really sure who the good guys are.” People forget that the Syrian revolution is about pursuing freedom and that it started in a non-violent way.

 Whereas Assad forces have butchered and tortured both humans and animals alike, IS highlights their kindness to animals while simultaneously publicizing their extreme brutality to people they deem enemies or heretical. The actions of Assad forces can be explained by cruelty towards life in general. The paradoxical actions of IS can only be explained by religious extremism.'

Syrian Army continues to pound Jobar with parachute bombs

 Assad's forces are attacking civilians with parachute bombs in Jobar, one of the suburbs of Damascus he hit with chemical weapons last year.

Meet the ISIS 'truthers'

 I'd go a bit further.

 'Cockburn says that by fighting ISIS in Iraq and supporting its objectives in Syria (toppling President Bashar al-Assad), the U.S. "has created a situation in which ISIS can survive and may well flourish." But Cockburn also accuses the U.S. of arming ISIS — not just because U.S. weapons and vehicles given to Iraq's army fell into ISIS's hands, but because it armed other militias in Syria, some of which were known to be allied with jihadists.

 Cockburn also says the U.S. enabled the rise of al Qaeda, ISIS, and other Islamist groups because it didn't take on allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, "the two countries that fostered jihadism as a creed and a movement."

 Still, while the facts may be correct, the chain of causation in this theory seems a little weak.'

Why I Decided War Reporting Was No Longer Worth the Risk

 Now, of course, the same people who form opinions without bothering to find anything out about Syria, would take from this that there is no 'moderate' resistance in Syria any more.

 ' “I’m a journalist covering Syria.”

 Without hesitation, she bore in: “So, is your reporting truthful?” She inserted the question the way someone might confront a WWE wrestler about whether what happens in the ring is real. We all know it’s made up. Just admit it.

 She continued to press, telling me she was certain the media wasn’t giving her the whole story. She wanted to know why. She knew that President Bashar al-Assad was bad, but who exactly were the people in the opposition? (This was the December 2012, when moderates still held sway in the Syrian resistance.)

 I met Jim Foley once or twice working in the Middle East, but knew him mostly by his reputation: A friendly, laidback guy who could make people laugh even in the most dire situations. Now that he’s gone, I wish I could believe that such an extraordinary person died striving to inform an American public yearning to know the truth. It’s harder to accept what really happened, which is that he died while people eagerly formed opinions on his profession and the topics he covered without bothering to read the stories he put in front of them.'

Syria's Silent War Crime: Systematic Mass Rape

 'Evidence is piling up that the Damascus regime has used rape - of daughters in front of fathers, wives in front of husbands - as a targeted weapon.

 “Compared to this, Abu Ghraib must have been paradise,” she says with a faint smile, alluding to the American prison in Iraq. “I’ve been through everything! I’ve been battered, flogged with steel cables, had cigarette butts in the neck, razor blades all over my body, electricity in my vagina. I’ve been raped while blindfolded every day by several men who stank of alcohol and obeyed their superior’s orders, who was always there. They shouted: “You wanted freedom? Well here it is!” Many of the women, she explains, in addition to their pain, thought their families might kill them if they found out what had happened to them. Her determination to enroll in the Free Syrian Army became only stronger. When she was released, she became one of the rare women to lead a battalion, at the head of 20 men, before being seriously injured and evacuated by her fellow rebels.

 As early as spring 2011, he says, campaigns of rape by militias were organized inside homes, while families were still there. Daughters were raped in front of their fathers, wives in front of their husbands. Men became crazy with anger and yelled that they would defend themselves and avenge their honor. “I used to think we had to do everything we could to avoid getting into a militarized phase, and that arming the revolution would multiply the number of dead by 100,” Ghalioun said. “But the use of rape decided otherwise. And I think Assad wanted it this way. Once the revolutionaries were armed, he could easily justify the massacres of those he already called ‘terrorists’.”

 Yes, she does have stories to tell, says Sema Nassar. Specific cases, with dates. Dozens of them. Like this young girl from Hama, currently a refugee in the United States, who was at home with her three brothers when soldiers burst in and told the three men to rape their sister. The first refused; they decapitated him. The second refused; he suffered the same fate. The third accepted; they killed him on the girl, whom they then raped.

 Or, there is the story that another Syrian woman has recounted, of being brought to a house in the suburbs of Homs in the summer of 2012, along with around 20 other women. They were tortured and gang raped in front of a camera. The videotape was then sent to her uncle, a prominent sheik, television preacher and member of the opposition.

 “This practice is very frequent during raids on villages and systematic in secret service detention centers,” the head of the Syrian League for Human Rights Abdel Karim Rihaoui told . Currently living in Cairo, he estimates that over 50,000 women have been raped in Bashar al-Assad’s prisons since the beginning of the revolution.'

A Weary Rebel Retreats to Fight Another Day

 'At dawn on Aug. 21, 2013, the chemical attack struck Moadhamiyeh. Struggling to breathe, Mr. Eid staggered outside, saw a young boy foaming at the mouth, and then passed out. A friend found Mr. Eid among dead bodies; after a shot of atropine, he awoke to an earthshaking bombardment.

 Washing his face as he prepared to rush to the front line, he glimpsed his reflection. He saw eyes filled with an unfamiliar rage, he recalled, “like when Bruce Banner looks in the mirror and sees the Hulk.”

 By the time he reached Beirut, though, rage had transmuted into disillusion. He swiftly set about breaking his promise to the Fourth Division, telling journalists that the government’s truces were far from peace-building compromises, that starving towns had no choice but compliance. But he also recounted the opposition’s mistakes: betting on decisive military help from the West that never came, and underestimating Mr. Assad’s appetite for violence, and the number and tenacity of his supporters.

 Now, in the cafe, he called on fellow activists to be pragmatic, conserve lives, and root out sectarianism and extremism, or risk “destroying what’s left” and “creating another dictatorship.” '

'Syria Speaks'

 The London Review of Books, which published Seymour Hersh's genocide denial over Assad's chemical attacks when reputable news outlets wouldn't touch it, have now reviewed a pro-Syrian revolution collection. It demeans and derides their aspirations. This is denying their voices even as as they are hollowly lauded.

 Ursula Lindsey:

 'Most of the more than fifty contributors are outside Syria now; their hope and defiance seem out of date. Yet the book is a valuable reminder that the early protests against Assad were both peaceful and democratic. It also sheds light on the way the protesters’ aspirations were ground into irrelevance.'

Beginner’s Guide to the Islamic State, the Insurgency, and the Assad Regime

 Scott Lucas:

 'More people are being introduced to the Syrian conflict by the advances of the Islamic State. Here’s a 7-minute introduction to the jihadists and their relationships with the insurgency and with the Assad regime.

 1. The Islamic State is not part of the Syrian insurgency.

 2. So who are the insurgency?

 3. Where is the Assad regime positioned between the Islamic State and the insurgency?

 4. “We have a 3-way fight.”

 5. “If you are going to deal with the Syrian crisis, you are going to have to deal with both the Assad regime and the Islamic State.” '

Obama's new war in Iraq

 The first line quoted is an insult the the Free Syrian Army. Cockburn is now promoting an alliance with Assad, and abandoning the real fight with the promise that the masses will rise again isn't much help to Syrians. There are other things wrong both in the sections quoted and in the rest of the article.

 'Obama has secured $500 million in funding for what the U.S. calls the moderate opposition to the regime. Assad has responded that any such surveillance and bombing would be looked upon as a declaration of war--in the hopes of pressuring Obama into an alliance against ISIS.

 As Independent journalist Patrick Cockburn reports:

 "The U.S. has already covertly assisted the Assad government by passing on intelligence about the exact location of jihadi leaders through the BND, the German intelligence service...This may explain why Syrian aircraft and artillery have been able to on occasion been able to target accurately rebel commanders and headquarters."

 By opposing intervention, we can provide space for the genuine forces for liberation that we saw emerge in the Arab Spring to regroup and build so they can provide an alternative to sectarian religious forces. Undoubtedly, the masses will rise again, because the counter-revolution offers nothing to their demands for democracy, equality and liberation.'