Amok in Syria – Unearthly Crimes

Tags

barbarism, commentary, conflict, crime, political, Syria

Those hunting for war porn may find it on Live Leak.

The variety of insults to humanity evident in the Syrian theater have horrified and numbed this observer, albeit not in the action immediately — although throwing civilians into baking ovens would seem as bad as it gets: from there, the numbers subject to similarly depraved behavior may climb, God rest their souls, but the character of the crime could not be worse, well, perhaps with the exception of being boiled in exploding nuclear plasma — but in the consideration that this dive down into the criminal depths has been going on, and one may say this today with a straight face, for years.

While Putin and Obama may try to keep at their own arms length the depravity exhibited by the Assad regime (from the outset) and the Al Qaeda affiliates that have carried into the fray their own intellectual poisons as well as a demonstrated lack of self-restraint, the two remain visible at the outer boundary of the melee, would that either could untie themselves from what keeps them in an opposition fast losing its equilibrium.

The Syrian Civil War as a furnace, in the larger sense, continues drawing fuel from Islamist ranks worldwide. In fact, as we head into the New Year, Syria would seem the go-to place for fighting to establish the global caliphate, to chat freely about offing the Jews, once and for all, and for throwing innocents into baking ovens.

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Syria today is a country of blurred facts and wild rumors, but the abduction and in some cases murder of Christian clerics is real enough.

Forced Exodus: Christians in the Middle East | World Affairs Journal – 12/17/2013.

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It is believed that more than 30 journalists are currently being detained in Syria.

Many kidnappings have been downplayed in the hope of aiding negotiations.

On Tuesday the Spanish newspaper El Mundo decided to publicise the abduction of two journalists in Syria in September after indirect communications with their captors led to “no result”.

BBC News – Media urge Syrian rebels to stop journalist kidnappings – 12/12/2013.

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Rise of Islamic Front a disaster for Syria – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 12/15/2013.

Growing strength of Syria’s Islamist groups undermines hopes of ousting Assad | World news | The Observer – 12/14/2013.

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BBC News – Briton Ifthekar Jaman ‘killed fighting in Syria’, family says – 12/17/2013.

BBC News – The Chechen Jihadists fighting in Syria – 12/16/2013.

Syria: Islamists Find a New Way to Behead – Middle East – News – Israel National News – 12/8/2013.

Assad’s crimes pale in comparison to atrocities by Syrian radical groups – Today’s Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news – 11/3/2013.

Testing a US ’empathy deficit’ in Syria – CSMonitor.com – 12/16/2013.

Syria: ‘Unparalleled human suffering’ – Inside Syria – Al Jazeera English – 12/1/2013.

BBC News – Syria conflict: Women ‘targets of abuse and torture’ – 11/26/2013.