Category Archives: Middle East

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.

ISW – Comment on Saudi Arabia’s Heightened Profile in the Syrian Theater

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eurasia, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Qatar, Regions, Religion, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey

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(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia, a staunch opponent of President Bashar al-Assad since early in Syria’s conflict, began supplying anti-aircraft missiles to rebels “on a small scale” about two months ago, a Gulf source said on Monday.

Bakr, Amena.  “Saudi supplying missiles to Syria rebels: Gulf source.”  Reuters, June 17, 2013.

For those who value stability in the middle east, the least honest and most ruthless appear to be winning.

As the above quote suggests, Big Sunni Money plus the cultivation across many years of strategic and trade relationships in Great Britain, Europe, and the United States have put King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia not only into the fight in Syria but remarkably behind the NATO wheel.

Of course, this recent news (surfacing in the news) isn’t news at all to the businesses and states involved in Syria’s civil war, and it should be apparent to all onlookers that this double-track, double-story business of telling the public one story while facilitating another in private has brought us to the brink of a NATO vs. Russia confrontation in which Russia may now present a devilish gambit: better Assad and the continuing misery to be imposed by the dictatorship than the expansion of either Al Qaeda or Wahhabi Islam and the certain diminishing of nascent democracy, human dignity, and secular values in Syria accompanied by the heightening of tensions in Lebanon and,somewhere in the future, with Israel and the Jewish People.

To offset that impression, King Abdullah may have to back up the money with some combination of reassuring mouth and evidence of cultural and social evolution toward the contemporary in the Kingdom, certain injunctions of the Quran either notwithstanding or interpreted or aligned with a more free and liberal and greater western world.

Outlook

For the moment, if Iran’s nuclear program and global ambitions are the true target of the conflict in Syria, then the conflict and the human suffering plus political confusion driven by it, have yet some months to years to go.

In fact, the focusing of issues in the Syrian theater of a great portion of the drivers of the Islamic Small Wars  — i.e., rivalries of various sort: Al Qaeda and Wahhabi Islam; Sunni and Shiite Islam; democracy, secular dictatorship and theocracy; Iranian and Saudi Arabian competition for greater spheres of influence; even Putin’s possible issues with aggrandizement, control, and wealth on one hand and his own humanity, moderation, and strength in restraint on the other– bodes ill for constituents — worldwide — whose concerns may be more with family, security, and employment scaled down to a common denominator in the common humanity than with the triumph of a king or an ayatollah.  

It has been said that with the onset of war, nobody wins, and nowhere else across the killing fields of the Islamic Small Wars does that cynical sentiment seem more likely to be proven true than in Syria this day.

Reference

Al Arabiya.  “Saudi King Abdullah cuts holiday short due to ‘events in the region’.”  June 15, 2013.

Chulov, Martin.  “Threat of sectarian war grows in Syria as jihadists get anti-aircraft missiles.”  The Guardian, June 15, 2013.

Deasy, Kristin.  “Al Qaeda in Iraq defies global leader over relationship with Syria’s Al Nusra: Reports.” Global Post, June 15, 2013.

Henderson, Simon.  “Bahrain Rounds Up Organizers of Antigovernment Violence.”  Policy Alert, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 14, 2013:

Initially emulating uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world, the protests quickly divided along sectarian lines, pitting members of the majority Shiite population against the Sunni ruling family’s security forces. Since then, February 14 members have apparently engaged in near-nightly clashes with police, resulting in more than 100 dead and 2,000 injured among civilians and security personnel.

Osborn, Andrew and Amena Bakr.  “Putin, Obama face off over Syria; rebels get Saudi missiles.”  Reuters, June 17, 2013.

Reuters.  “Russia says it will not allow Syria no-fly zones.”  June 17, 2013.

Starr, Barbara, Holly Yan, Chelsea J. Carter.  “Analyst: Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria now best-equipped of the group.”  CNN, June 17, 2013.

Wintour, Patrick.  “Syria: Putin backs Assad and berates west over proposal to arm rebels.”  The Guardian, June 16, 2013.

FNS – Putin on Human Organ Eaters (Syria)

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Regions, Syria

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“I don’t think one should support people who not only kill their enemies, but also take apart their bodies and eat their organs in front of people and cameras,” Putin said. ”Why does the West want to arm Syrian dissidents who eat human organs?”

Bassin, Michael.  “Putin, Cameron thrown off by Damascus bombing.”  The Times of Israel, June 17, 2013.

Okay, Obama: your turn — the world awaits your riposte.

Must I / we catch up with Syria today?

Qatar/Sunni –> U.S. –> Syrian Dictatorship vs. IranShiite –> Syrian Cash Cow –> Russia

Roughly speaking.

Syria is ugly, a black hole for everyone sucked into it and a black knot for NATO and Russian relations, even though Russian cultural and economic interests share more with NATO’s value or compete similarly with NATO in ways far from the concerns of the Iranian leadership.

Who can blame Putin for refusing the possibility of a second Islamist incubator on Russia’s flank?

Or for facilitating arms trade to forces under the sway of such a sweetheart as Maher al-Assad?

And what are Obama and his buddies doing trying to get something “moderate” going on the Sunni side of the street when the same proves repeatedly undemocratic, against human rights, and, as a governing force, absurdly repressive and unstable?

And on the field, as a matter of mere mechanical and practical concern, how does NATO intend to forestall the delivery of weapons to Al Qaeda and its affiliates?

In the above cited article, Iran’s “election” of Hassan Rouhani comes up:

A major question both Putin and Cameron are apparently asking themselves is how Iranian president-elect Hasan Rowhani will approach Syria. It is unclear if Rowhani, who is favored by Iran’s reformist groups, will guide his country differently from his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Rouhani may be Iran’s leading nuclear power and nuclear war expert (see, for example, ETN’s “New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wants to repair relations with the west”, June 15, 2013).

The Iranian President-elect Sheikh Hasan Rouhani said on Monday that Tehran will present more transparency in its nuclear program than before, but the Islamic Republic won’t abandon its uranium enrichment process.

Al-Manar News.  “Rouhani: Nuclear Program Will Keep on, Syria Gov’t Will Stay till 2014.”  June 17, 2013.

Rouhani’s demeanor is friendly, and friends have only nice things to say about him.

Posted by The Union of Islamic World Students, here is a part of Hassan Nasrallah’s  congratulations:

“Hezbollah along with all the mujahideen in this country of resistance congratulate you … for aptly earning the big trust of the great people,” Nasrallah said in the cable, Naharnet reported .

“Sayed Nasrallah Congratulates Rouhani for Earning Iranian People’s Trust.”  The Union of Islamic World Students, June 16, 2013.

Additional Reference

Arouzi, Ali.  “Iran’s president-elect urges U.S. to ‘look to the future’.”  NBC World News, June 17, 2013:

When Rowhani was chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, he negotiated a suspension of Tehran’s uranium enrichment. He has said Iran would not halt those activities again.

Odds-N-Ends: Iran’s Upcoming Election

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Iran, Regions

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“Any one of these men picked by Khamenei will execute his orders,” the 80-year-old said in an interview in his house near Paris, where he has been exiled since 1981.

“The Republic is erasing itself in the face of the Leader.”

Reuters.  “Iran’s former president: Khamenei erasing elections.”  The Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;
He rages against all wise judgment . . .

Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,
And before honor is humility.

Proverbs 18:1 and 12, Bible Gateway.

Who in Iran will vote against their own will, against their own interests, against themselves?

Perhaps a few Iranians are mulling that question as I type.

Al Arabiya asks in its related header (June 11, 2013), “Does the president even matter?”

The article will go on to answer the question it has posed.

It seems there are nuts and bolts issues to be tackled by an Iranian president — inflation and unemployment, at least — but power ultimately resides with Ayatollah Khamenei by divine right.

From Washington, Iran Election Watch notably covers the candidates on their positions having to do with Iran’s nuclear programs (June 12, 2013): “Nuclear Issue Provokes Strong Reactions in Presidential Debate.”  The article quotes candidate Ali Akbar Velayati as saying, “We need to insist on our right to enrich uranium and at the same time act cleverly and avoid being perceived as whimpering by other countries.”

Perhaps its that “act cleverly” part that will spur some Iranians more concerned with inflation and unemployment to vote for other than Velayati.

Reporters Without Borders condemns an increase in the Iranian government’s harassment of Iranian journalists in the final days before the 14 June presidential election and the restrictions imposed on the few foreign journalists allowed into the country to cover it.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB).  “Harassment, Restrictions and Censorship Limit Election Coverage.”  June 12, 2013.

Manipulating elections neither fair nor free nor open, the Grand Peacock has perhaps exerted sufficient control over elections — by approving only a narrowed field of candidates and by managing the “Iran Curtain” to slow Internet traffic and reduce domestic and foreign media criticism and impact, which management seems to have included already the arrests of two domestic journalists (Omid Abdolvahabi and Hesamaldin Eslamlo, according to the RWB page cited) — to keep himself feeling good about himself.

Reporters Without Borders goes on to note, “Today is the second anniversary of Iran-e-Farda journalist Hoda Saber’s death in detention, 11 days after journalist and women’s rights activist Haleh Sahabi died as a result of the beating she received at her father’s funeral. No one has been arrested or tried for either of these deaths.”

In the atmosphere of such governance and unsolved political crime, one might ask Persians who intend to vote whether they mean to express preference at the polling stations or general approval of their country’s state of affairs.

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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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FNS – Iran’s Virtual Elections

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Regions

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But on June 7 a group of Internet activists hopes to give Iranian voters a taste of what an open election feels like by launching an alternative election featuring 20 candidates. The candidates not only include the officially approved eight, but 12 more, ranging from people who failed the official vetting process to reformist leaders and political prisoners.

Recknagel, Charles.  “Virtual Election Gives Iranians Chance to Vote for Unofficial Candidates.”  Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, June 7, 2013.

Radio Free Europe features other stories on Iran’s upcoming elections, of course, but still it’s good to pass along information that indicates interest in more authentic representative government.

Iran’s official elections take place next Friday (June 14, 2013).

Also in the news as I type:

Hosseinian, Zahra.  “Electrion candidates clash over Iran foreign policy direction.”  Reuters, June 7, 2013.

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Syria – The Cost of Incoherence

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Regions, Syria

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Of course one reason why President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are staying well on the sidelines in this conflict may be precisely due to the intelligence reports warning that Assad is a far harder nut to crack than previously thought.

Syrian Army forces guard a checkpoint in Damascus in May 2013. Better armed, and better logistical support.(Reuters)

That and the fact that the rebels are no closer to forming a winning, united or even trustworthy insurgency

Stewart, Brian.  “Brian Stewart: Is Syria’s Assad turning the tide of battle?”  CBC News, June 5, 2013.

The news breaking for the past several hours is that Syrian troops with a boost from Hezbollah have gained control of al-Qusayr, a border town associated with arms smuggling from Lebanon and prized for the highway connecting Damascus to Homs.

Last month, Real Clear Politics suggested that “Without stronger U.S. measures, the most likely outcome is the fragmentation of Syria into warring fiefdoms, with some turf controlled by Iran and some by al-Qaeda” (“U.S. policy on Syria still lacks coherence,” May 1, 2013).  As much may be a nightmare come true.

While General Selim Idriss of the Free Syrian Army may be counted on to represent a moderate proto-democratic force, the crowd beneath the umbrella may be too diverse, negatively so, for moving in that one direction.

More than a year ago, the Institute for the Study of War published Joseph Holliday’s Middle East Security Report 3: Syria’s Armed Opposition (March 2012), which notes in its executive summary section the following:

“As the militias continue to face overwhelming regime firepower the likelihood of their radicalization may increase. moreover, the indigenous rebels may turn to al-Qaeda for high-end weaponry and spectacular tactics as the regime’s escalation leaves the rebels with no proportionate response, as occurred in iraq in 2005-2006. Developing relations with armed opposition leaders and recognizing specific rebel organizations may help to deter this dangerous trend.”

As much has come to pass.

This comes from a Reuters filing in mid-May:

“Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al Qaeda’s agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad,” said a senior rebel commander in Syria who has close ties to the Nusra Front.

“It is disintegrating from within.”

Today, the black flag of Al Qaeda flies over Raqqa, Syria.

From Al Arabiya:

“Anyone who might have a complaint against any element of the Islamic state, whether the Emir or an ordinary soldier, can come and submit their complaint in any headquarters building of the Islamic state,” the notice stated. “The complaint should be in writing, provide details and give evidence.”

Al-Qaeda then goes on to promise that those who commit transgressions will face justice.

The weird left, from “globalresearch” to “counterpunch” to “infowars” have been having a field day asserting an Obama+Al-Qaeda connection (as much I deduce from the headers alone: “How Obama and Al-Qaeda Became Syrian Bedfellows”; “Obama to Arm Al-Qaeda Terrorists in Syria”.

You can look those up yourself.

I’m only wondering if I need to buy a new olive drab field jacket, say about two sizes up from whatever was in the closet in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In Syria, perhaps signaled by the state’s turnaround in Qusayr, Putin wins this round because, oh honey oh baby Obama, ain’t no one carrying around even a smidgen of the west in less than half a brain wants to hang around with Al Qaeda and its ilk, and it appears those have gotten their hooks into the community of rebel organizations in Syria, General Idriss’s moderate appeal notwithstanding.

*****

Reference

Al Arabiya.  “Al-Qaeda sets up ‘complaints department’ in Syrian city of Raqqa.”  June 3, 2013.

Al Jazeera.  “Syrian army regains strategic city of Qusayr.”  June 5, 2013.

BBC.  “Syrian rebels ‘can fight Hezbollah in Lebanon’ – Idriss.”  June 5, 2013.

Hornik, P. David.  “Showdown in Syria.”  Frontpage Magazine, May 30, 2013.

Karouny, Mariam.  “Insight: Syria’s Nusra Front eclipsed by Iraq-based al Qaeda.”  Reuters, May 17, 2013.

Sly, Liz.  “Islamic law comes to rebel-held Syria.”  The Washington Post, March 19, 2013.  Excerpt:

Building on the reputation they have earned in recent months as the rebellion’s most accomplished fighters, Islamist units are seeking to assert their authority over civilian life, imposing Islamic codes and punishments and administering day-to-day matters such as divorce, marriage and vehicle licensing.

Spencer, Richard.  “Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing takes over the oilfields once belonging to Assad.”  The Telegraph, May 18, 2013.  Excerpt:

Their battlefield supremacy has enabled them to seize the economic as well as the military high-ground.

In Raqqa, they also control flour production, earning money from selling to bakeries, some of which they own as well. “Jabhat now own everything here,” one disillusioned secular activist said.

The Washington Post.  “A grim anniversary: Two years of conflict in Syria.” May 18, 2013.  The video is the same as the YouTube copy posted above this reference section.