Category Archives: Lebanon

FTAC – Syria’s Agony and Related Misperception

19 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Psychology, Syria

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No. It’s a mess. Back in 2007, by prior agreement with the Arab League, Lebanese Defense Forces were denied entry into the Nahr al-Bared camp to suppress the presence of an independent but al-Qaeda-minded force that had infiltrated the camp. Instead, it bombarded the camp with tank fire, corralled the entire residential population through the main gates, and the bused them to other camps. The LDF then razed Nahr al-Bared. Toward the very end, a handful of family members surrendered, and escaped, and the remnant fighters holed up in tunnels were, finally, bombed from the air.

My impression is the wealthy enjoy extraordinary wealth in the middle east and the equivalent of fellaheen live primarily at the mercy of the powerful. The common thread of “malignant narcissism” that binds both despot and mad revolutionaries into one recognizable category applies well to the tragedy unfolding in the Yarmouk camp. If anyone has ever been sickened by the historic photographs of starving Nazi concentration camp residents, the same outrage should apply in light of starvation in the Palestinian camp, even thought in their confined minds they may blame the Jews for what’s being done to them by Assad’s army and the infiltration and partial control of the opposed al-Qaeda affiliates. To the warring parties, the humanity trapped in the camp is but a useful poker chip. These kids may one day understand that it hasn’t been the Jews of the west that has been killing them but rather the divided powers most identified with them but equally callous toward them and careless of them.

The prompt for the comment had to do with the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp and its being made to starve between armies.

There has been some relief: Besieged Yarmouk camp in Syria finally gets some food – Middle East Israel News | Haaretz – 1/18/2014: “The delivery was made possible after an agreement was reached on Friday between representatives of Palestinian factions and Syrian rebels in the camp.”

One may imagine the leverage involved in those negotiations.

In the surface rhetoric, the rebels may claim having been merciful, but the public would do well to keep in mind that get to this point, they had had to have been unmerciful, and that neither better nor worse than Assad’s forces attempting to subdue the infiltration within the camp by starvation in the first place.

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To another correspondent asking about the fate of Hamas in Gaza given the mixed ambitions and messages carried forward by its membership, some, I hear, who have joined the rebels against Assad, I suggested the perception of the axis needs to shift in the middle east, maintaining that the fighting-minded on several sides are more similar to one another in their ambitions and expectations — in their essential psychology — than those who have had the misfortune of being caught between armies or of having been trapped in time by regional powers who, indeed, manipulate and treat them primarily as servants unto themselves.

Related Reference

Iran cuts Hamas’ funding for backing Syrian opposition – Washington Times – 6/2/2013.

Egypt to Hamas: We’re Coming for You – Israel Today | Israel News – 1/19/2014.

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Bulletin – Iraq – Syria – Lebanon – Libya – Weapons in Play

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Syria

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Heavy fighting raged between the Iraqi military and Sunni fighters in Anbar province, after gunmen seized control of several police stations there.

Heavy fighting rages in Iraq’s Anbar province – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/2/2014.

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The US government is concerned about al Qaeda gaining strength in Iraq. Now, Washington is sending missiles and drones to help Baghdad in the fight against the terror organization.

US weapons to help Iraq fight al Qaeda | World | DW.DE | 28.12.2013

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Two smugglers were transporting C4 explosives, TNT, armor-piercing explosives, mobile phones and circuit boards, among other supplies, into Bahrain. The boat was als0 carrying “50 Iranian-made hand bombs” and almost 300 commercial detonators stamped “Made in Syria,” Al Hassan said.

Bahrain finds Iranian and Syrian weapons in security raids | GlobalPost – 12/30/2013.

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Security sources say that the porous border region around Ersal is used to smuggle Syrian weapons and fighters involved in the country’s bloody civil war. It was unclear if the Syrians injured in Wednesday’s attack were fighters or civilians.

Ten injured in Syrian air raid over Lebanon | Al Akhbar English – 1/1/2014.

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Turkish security forces have seized a truck laden with weapons bound for Syria and arrested three people including a Syrian, local media reported on Thursday.

Report: Turkey seizes arms in truck bound for Syria – Al Arabiya News – 1/2/2014.

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The missiles being moved include long-range Scud D missiles that can strike deep into Israel, short-range Scud C’s, medium-range Iranian Fateh rockets, Iranian Fajr rockets and anti-aircraft weapons that are fired from the shoulder.

Security analyst: Hezbollah continues transferring arms from Syria to Lebanon | JPost | Israel News – 1/3/2014.

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Ships waiting to remove Syria’s chemical weapons have returned to port in Cyprus because the country has missed a December 31 deadline.

Syria was supposed to have removed part of its chemical weapons arsenal for destruction on Tuesday, but Wael Nader Al Halqi, Syria’s prime minister, said security concerns and bureaucracy had caused delays in transporting the weapons to the Syrian port of Latakia.

Syria misses deadline to remove chemical arms – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/1/2014

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Perhaps the conflict in Syria and whatever’s brewing in Iraq will expand in proportion to the volume of contested and loose weapons “in play” across the multi-state theater.

The powers that be would seem to be contesting their grip on conventional weapons and the reality of their control over WMDs.

While the agenda-poisoned special interest press points its fingers for respective advantage, i.e., PressTV screamed back in September, “US: Al-Qaeda running chemical weapons program“; the day before, The Washington Free Beacon noted, “Report: Hezbollah Armed with Syria’s Chemical Weapons” (9/20/2013), what is known is that multiple actors, from al-Qaeda to Hezbollah, from the Assad regime in cahoots with Iran to unknown quantities with money in Qatar (frequently the target of finger pointers), are challenging the state-based monopoly on violence.  Possibly nothing signals the out-of-control good health of a young war quite like the delayed arrivals and disappearance of weapons shipments, armories, and caches.

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From the Benghazi debacle:

“The loss of this military equipment is what pulled the plug on the U.S. operation,” one source with direct knowledge of the events told Fox News. “No one at the State Department wanted to deal with the situation if any more went wrong, so State pulled its support for the training program and then began to try and get the team moved out of the country.”

REPORT: U.S. Special Forces Equipment, Weapons Stolen In Libya – 9/26/2013.

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“I know where those weapons are coming from. They are the weapons left over from the Bosnian war. They are being shipped out in large measure through Croatian ports and airports and I can tell you they are making vast sums for corrupt forces in the Balkans.”

Syria: 3,500 tons of weapons already sent to rebels, says Lord Ashdown – Telegraph – 7/1/2013.

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Saudi Arabia has pledged $3bn for the Lebanese army, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announced, calling it the largest grant ever given to the country’s armed forces.

The pledge comes just as Lebanon held a funeral for Mohamad Chatah, the former finance minister, amid rising tensions over who might have killed him.

Saudi Arabia pledges $3bn to Lebanese army – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 12/29/2013.

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The increasingly familiar scene of shattered glass and twisted metal left little doubt that Lebanon’s slide toward conflict is accelerating as the country becomes embroiled in the broader sectarian rivalries threatening to engulf the region.

Bomb explodes in Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut, killing at least 4 – The Washington Post – 1/2/2014.

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One starts to wonder if its the weapons that have the soul and humans in their vicinity have become the machinery that enables them to express themselves before growing old, unstable, and feeble with corrosion.

It’s an odd grim poetic thought, but the reality oddly supports it: whether involving the Saudi treasury or an al-Nusra ruse, the middle east, with Syria as a hub burning and smoldering with war through the winter, is today crawling with weapons, and some that were watched have disappeared and, probably, are moving to fulfill their purpose.

Addendum

The upheaval also affirmed the soaring capabilities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the rebranded version of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization that formed a decade ago to confront U.S. troops and expanded into Syria last year while also escalating its activities in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq – The Washington Post – 1/3/2014.

From whence came their firepower?

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Lebanon – Cruelty Arrives With Two Bombs

23 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Regions

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One of the bombs exploded near the Taqwa mosque as worshippers spilled out of the religious center following Friday prayers. Minutes later a second explosion struck the Salam mosque in the Mina area near the waterfront.

Al Akhbar.  “Twin bombing hits Lebanon’s Tripoli.”  August 23, 2013.

Address it, air it, channel it, deal with it, work with it: the “passions” — the underlying programming in social grammar — that surfaces in the sadism implied in the above-quoted description arrives without conscience or humanity.  Throughout the range of the Islamic Small Wars, the same would seem to serve as its most familiar motif.

What could be more cruel, more of the devil, more evil, and more inhuman than to deploy a weapon among innocents away from the field of battle and close by the sanctuary afforded by a space built and sustained on faith in God and the human relationship with the All?  Casualties of a war alive inside the hearts of killers — truly, the “warfare” of interest leaks from poisoned minds obsessed alternatively with power and hiding — today’s dead and injured in Tripoli had gone into their mosques for prayers and been made to come out at the Gates of Hell.

Additional Reference

AFP/Reuters.  “Tripoli bomb blasts ‘kill at least 27 and injure hundreds more’.”  ABC News, August 23, 2013.

AP and Times of Israel Staff.  “Twin blasts kill 27 in Lebanese city of Tripoli.”  The Times of Israel, August 23, 2013.

Charara, Nasser.  “From Tripoli to Saida, a Map of Lebanon’s Battlegrounds.”  Al Akhbar, June 24, 2013.

From earlier this year:

Jawad, Rana.  “Tripoli: French embassy in Libya hit by car bomb.”  BBC News, April 23, 2013.

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FNS – Lebanon – Tanks Move in the Streets

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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From AFP:

From Al Jazeera:

http://youtu.be/Zduf59dbNUc

NOW.  “Live Coverage: Sidon fighting sparks tension.”  June 24, 2013.

Is comment necessary?

As mentioned yesterday, the natural drift of Syria’s bitching sectarian and factional conflict into the Lebanese sphere has both clarified and amplified the same tensions in Lebanon and those may not be quelled in a day or two.  In fact, the resentments and rivalries and perceived stakes have been building for years, and the passions surfacing into a hail of bullets do so distinctly absent of reason.

It’s the programming that fights.

Additional Reference

AFP Videos – English (YouTube)

Al Jazeera.  “Deadly fighting rages in Lebanon.”  June 24, 2013.

El Deeb, Sarah.  “Lebanon Clashes Leave At Least 16 Soldiers Dead at Sidon Mosque.”  Huffington Post, June 24, 2013:

The maverick cleric was little known until few years ago and his growing following was a symptom of the deep frustration among Sunnis who resent the Hezbollah-led Shiite ascendancy to power in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its allies dominate Lebanon’s government.

Siryoti, Daniel and David Baron.  “”Lebanon on the brink of war as sectarian violence enters second day.”  Israel Hayom, June 24, 2013.

FNS – Conflict in Lebanon Intensifies Irreversibly

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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“The army has tried for months to keep Lebanon away from the problems of Syria, and it ignored repeated requests for it to clamp down on Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir’s group,” the military command said in a statement.

“But what has happened today has gone beyond all expectations. The army was attacked in cold blood in an attempt to light the fuse in Sidon, just as was done in 1975,” it said, referring to the year that Lebanon’s own 15-year civil war began.

Reuters.  “Syria-linked clashes kill at least eight in Lebanon.”  June 23, 2013.

Reported yesterday by Jeffrey Fleishman in the Los Angeles Times:

“Every Muslim population must protect their brothers in Syria,” said Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular Egyptian-born cleric who lives in Qatar and appears frequently on TV. “The nation is ready for sacrifice and jihad and we must call for jihad to defend religion and God’s law.”

Fleishman, Jeffrey.  “Hezbollah’s role in Syria fighting threatens to spread holy war.”  Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2013.

If the superpowers engaged in Sumo wrestling over the fate of Syria think they’re in control of the region, they may have some surprises coming.  Syria is a crucible with many holes in it, and, as mentioned, it draws the engines of war into itself, but this week, especially, it has promoted sectarian violence beyond its borders and done so in local ways not likely to recede in the next day or two.

But to the traditional prayers and chants — praising the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and America — the mourners added a new barb, for the gunmen battling the Syrian government who, they said, had killed him: “Death to the Free Army.”

The funeral on Wednesday at once encapsulated Hezbollah’s cohesion and the new uncertainties and anxieties its followers face as it fights a new kind of war, more intimate and ambiguous than the group’s founding conflict with Israel.

Barnard, Anne (Hwaida Saad contributing).  “As Hezbollah Fight in Syria, Life Changes in a Lebanese Border Town.”  The New York Times, June 21, 2013.

Anne Barnard’s intimate coverage of the Syrian conflict developing a Lebanese cast takes the reader through the onset of war.  Businesses close; once trusted relationships become suspicious; political arrangements that sufficed for peace and security start to come apart.

Related Reference

Abdulrahim, Raja.  “Syrian soldiers warned daily of sectarian dangers, defectors say.”  Los Angeles times, May 17, 2013.

Naharnet Newsdesk.  “Tripoli fighting Death Toll Rises to 5 as Sniper Fire Targets ISF, Army Troops.”  June 3, 2013.

Ben Solomon, Ariel.  “Sectarian clashes in Lebanon increase in intensity.”  The Jerusalem Post, June 23, 2013.

Syria’s Conflict Broadens, Confuses, Damns

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Psychology, Regions, Syria, Turkey

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The dust resulting from the burning of cement leaves behind an emotion of a dusty fate. It leaves behind a feeling that the person is part of this burnt dust and that this is the color and smell of life.

al-Amin, Hazem.  “War approaches Lebanon.”  Al-Aribya, June 23, 2013.

Hazem al-Amin’s lyrical column in Al Aribya today tells a part of the psychology revolving around the horror in Syria and its creep into Lebanon, starting with the appearance and imposition of blocked roads.

If al-Amin’s captures the queasy zeitgeist of the Lebanese Everyman, AFP’s recent report on Hamas’s latest schizoid split takes it up a notch into the realpolitik attending Syria’s burning: “Syria’s civil war has caused a split within Hamas over whether to cling to Shiite backers Damascus, Tehran and Hezbollah or side with Sunni allies such as Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, analysts say” (AFP, “Syria’s sectarian war causes Hamas split: Analysts”, Ahram Online, June 21, 2013).

The protests ongoing in Turkish circles may have to do with more than the general drift of the state under Erdogan’s autocratic rule: on June 18 (2013), Erdogan met in Ankara with both “Hamas chief in exile” Khalid Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, yet another denting of Turkey’s once shining relationship with Israel (was that all only nine years ago?) and an equally objectionable foray into the worst and most virulent theater of the Islamic Small Wars.

Presumably, the three men whined together over Israel’s consolidation, development, and further establishment of its sovereign lands (Anatolia News Agency, “Turkish PM Erdogan meets Hamas leader Meshal and Gaza PM Haniyeh,” Huriyet Daily News, June 23, 2013).

Earlier this year, the conservative FrontPage Magazine noted the following in regard to Erdogan’s planting his boot in the middle east conflict:

Erdogan was rated as the second most influential Muslim leader of 2012, only behind Saudi King Abdullah. Despite his reputation as a “moderate,” Erdogan has said that Hamas is a “resistance” group, not a terrorist group. He has won the admiration of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who said, “Turkey’s support for the people of Syria and Palestine is unforgettable. My brother Erdogan, thank goodness God gave you so much. And you deserve it. You are also a leader in the Muslim world.”

Mauro, Ryan.  “Crowning Erdogan as the New King of Islamists.”  FrontPage, March 28, 2013.

The thing (the “Our Thing”) with Erdogan the Turk and Mashaal the Hamasnik in Exile is to walk on the Sunni side of the street down which the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its sphere, and perhaps half of Hamas seem to have  aligned over Syria in opposition to the dictator Assad, Shiite Hezbollah involvement, and, alas, that Beleaguered But Ever So Crafty Bear Putin.

Bad wars make bad bedfellows, to play on an old saw, and what’s happening in Syria by way of its sectarian facet (“two wasps in a bell jar,” says I) seems to me incomprehensible in its absurdity.

Israel’s policy as articulated by Defense Minister Yaalon in Washington last week seems to remain “Do not intervene; do not interfere.”

Of course the Israelis cannot help themselves when it comes to making anything — Anything! — a little bit better, so now there is an advanced position Israeli field hospital Out There in the Golan, and it has taken in and repaired some injured by way of the combat in which it will not intervene.

From Jordan, Jamal Halaby reports, “900 U.S. Troops in Jordan to Boost Security in Wake of Syria Conflict” (Huffington Post, June 22, 2013).

Jordan’s King Abdullah has been dealing with his own unrest (e.g., al-Samadi, Tamer, “Precarious Calm Prevails Following Jordan Unrest,”  Al Monitor, June 6, 2013).

Two months earlier, a politico challenging King Abdullah of Jordan’s legitimacy noted this in The Jerusalem Post:

Recently, Abdullah met with Assad’s mentor, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Commenting on the king’s meeting with Putin, the Londonbased Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported the visit could be the sign of a “major shift in Jordan’s stance on Syria,” noting that the visit took place at the same time Jordan began supplying diesel and drinking water to Assad’s army and reporting that “the King’s intelligence department has been cooperating with Syrian intelligence for the last two months.”

Zahran, Mudar.  “Jodan’s king, Assad and Iran.”  The Jerusalem Post, April 3, 2013.

I have heard some say that Obama and Putin have set out to rearrange the middle east.  I don’t know if that’s so, but whatever their plans, the two between them have got the place churning.

Lest I leave anyone out, say Egyptian youth, for example:

He was young and bright, with an education from Egypt’s premier school of Islamic studies and lucrative job offers in the Gulf.

But Bilal Farag chose a different path, friends say, one that led him to die on a distant Syrian battlefield while fighting Shiite Muslims he regarded as infidels.

Ya Libnan.  “Radical Sunnis rush to join fight against Hezbollah, Iran in Syria.”  June 22, 2013.  (Possibly reprinted from The Washington Post).  Best quote, imho, the one that will wrap this up: ““The Middle East is shifting from a region that was dreaming of democracy to a battlefield between Shiite and Sunni,” Salah said. “It’s very dangerous.”  (The article identifies “Salah” as “Khaled Salah, editor in chief of the secular-minded Youm7 newspaper”).

Welcome the long, hot summer: indeed, the “Arab Spring” has become an Arab Muslim fire zone, and it seems from Ankara to Beirut to Cairo to Gaza (and beyond), sides have been chosen, and all are going to the bonfire in Syria — if it doesn’t come to them first.

Additional Reference

Gilbert, Ben.  “How the Syria conflict is spreading violence to Lebanon.”  NBC News, June 23, 2013.

Ray, John.  “Syria spillover violence threatens ceasefire with Israel.”  NBC News, June 21, 2013.

FTAC – An Off-Hand Note on Al Qaeda in Syria and Arab and Western Participation

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Syria

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Regarding what we think we know and what we know we know: the world has a huge black market going in military arms. You should know the name Viktor Bout and then imagine that personality recapitulated for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the FARC (Colombia), the Sineola people (Mexico) and so on. The small stuff, like the Kalashnikov the Russians overproduced to keep factory employment high, and the RPGs and other small, transportable arms seem to have zero issues getting to these small conflicts. Even when Al Shabaab were kids running amok in Somalia, they were able to fire an RPG into a living room (they didn’t like the man watching a soccer match on his television). To say the U.S. Government supports Al Qaeda in Syria is an “iffy” supposition.

However, let’s look at the kind of curtain suspended everywhere in Islamic and related tribal states — also in states dealing with other insurrection or organized crime: it’s curtain sewn of privacy in communication. A wink, a nod, a slip of paper, a promise, a signal can do untold damage anywhere in the world at any time predicated on the will of those colluding to do evil.

It is natural for the United States to oppose dictatorship of any kind anywhere in the world, but the realpolitik also involves enormous sums in cash, hard assets (like landing strips and naval ports), and investments, and the states of the Arab Peninsula have made fortunes on energy sales, essentially, and reinvestment: there is no one surprised that they would use that financial power to expand their combined political-spiritual enterprise. Whatever officialdom may say, OBL showed the power of the individual to act in accord with the sword verses and sally forth into the infidel world.

If General Idris could get his grip on the loose collection of rebel forces reporting to him and exercise true western-backed control, the Al Qaeda presence in Syria would be marginalized, but because of religious fealty and motivation, which may be misguided (you heard that from a Jew) but is powerful, that Al Qaeda presence may be holding its own in the Syrian — soon to be Syrian-Lebanon — theater

The story is complicated and more so than Facebook “bilge talk” (or international cocktail-type chatter) allows.

To bring freedom to parties who fear it and constituents whose information environments have been managed specifically to engender the fear and hatred of others on one hand and an immense “civilizational narcissism” (check in with Mobarak Haider’s on that) on the other proves difficult — one may stop to look over the Iraq story on that.

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