Category Archives: Syria

Syria – The Cost of Incoherence

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

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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.

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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.

Syria – Qatar – Absurdity

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Syria

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“At the moment, several conflicts are being fought simultaneously in Syria. The civil war began more than two years ago as a power struggle between the government and opposition forces. But it didn’t take long for other states to get into the mix, turning the internal fight into a regional and international struggle for influence.”

http://www.dw.de/middle-east-countries-fighting-proxy-war-in-syria/a-16848708

I’ve compared violent Sunni vs. Shiite rivalry to watching two wasps fight inside a bell jar, an absurd condition driven by “content of mind” (self-concept, social grammar, etc.) and vanity, or an aspect of it I refer to as “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy”.

Russia may be the bad boy backing a brutal dictatorship, but what is NATO doing trying to sanitize the opposition?

“In response, the FSA has been acting more like a force opposed to the citizens of Syria than a force intended to secure their freedom. For example, it has in the recent past stolen wheat reserves intended for the residents of Aleppo and sold it to private Turkish grain traders, expropriated stocks of pharmaceuticals and forcibly resold them back to its owners, and ransacked schools. These are hardly the actions of a ‘liberation force.'”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/dark-side-free-syrian_b_2380399.html

Daniel Wagner reported that “news” back in December.

“The following video, circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, shows jihadists lining up and executing supporters of President Bashar al-Assad. A man in a mask reads a statement behind the line of blindfolded men, reading off the reason for their punishment, before walking down the line and shooting each one in the back of the head.”

http://www.policymic.com/articles/42503/syrian-execution-youtube-video-graphic-footage-shows-rebel-atrocities

Qatar itself, rolling in money, stands clean and progressive in the background, and yet, should you click on the above link and witness the Al-Nusra execution of Assad’s forces, kneeling and bound, you know the money for that has got to be coming from somewhere.

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Syria – Hezbollah at Qusayr

29 Wednesday May 2013

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

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Additions

Item: Britain’s The Guardian appears to maintain a daily and continuously updated brief rolled out as a blog: “Rebel leader accuses Hezbollah of invading Syria — as it happened.”  Syria, Middle East Live, The Guardian, May 29, 2013 to midnight BST.

Item:

The talks have been marred by disagreement within the coalition over expanding its membership and appointing a new leadership. Lack of unity has threatened to rob the Islamist-dominated alliance of international support.

Oweis, Khaled Yacoub.  “Syrian opposition says peace talks must mean Assad exit.”  Reuters, May 29, 2013 at 1931H EDT.

Main

Gen Selim Idriss said that more than 7,000 fighters of the Lebanese Shia movement were taking part in attacks on the rebel-held town of Qusair.

The French foreign minister has estimated the number at 3,000-4,000.

BBC.  “Hezbollah fighters ‘invading’ Syria – rebel chief.”  May 29, 2013.

Have you ever felt like you were watching choreographed news after other news has swept the page?

WASHINGTON – The US State Department called on Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia on Wednesday to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately, saying their involvement on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad signaled a dangerous broadening of the war.

Like, Dude, man, where’s the news?

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“Qusayr, Syria” will join the list of head-nodding names coming out of Syria’s civil war: “In addition to being capital of the al-Qusayr District, it is also the administrative center of the al-Qusayr nahiyah (“subdistrict”) which consisted of 60 localities with a collective population of 107,470 in 2004,” says Wikipedia.

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This split between war reporting and journaling and the clumsy efforts of governments to management perception has gotten a bit nutty.

Dude — I am so having  a Jeff Bridges kind of day . . . let’s call it The Big Lebowski meets Arlington Road  . . . plus maybe a little bit of Gonzo and ol’ Hunter — but we KNOW Hezbollah has joined the fray in Syria, that Israel, probably, has intercepted arms shipments (rockets, actually), and put out a hospital in the Golan:

The denunciation of health conditions on the Golan is particularly surreal: Syrians in Syria, where medical care of any kind is often simply unavailable, would be thrilled to get the same state-of-the-art care as their brethren on the Golan–where, as in East Jerusalem, Israeli law applies, entitling residents to the same services as all other Israelis.

But thanks to Israel, some of those Syrians actually are getting such care–which is doubtless Syrian President Bashar Assad’s real gripe. Israel has quietly set up a field hospital on the Golan where dozens of Syrians wounded in the civil war have been treated; others, who need more intensive care, have been transferred to regular Israeli hospitals.

Gordeon, Evelyn.  “Israel Treats Palestinians and Syrians–Over PA and Syria’s Objections.  Commentary, May 24, 2013.

That is just all so five days ago!

It’s nice, I suppose, for Washington to tell Hezbollah to get lost, but it’s like a bad movie with a British war ship announcing and firing a warning shot: you know it’s just for show and the ships will close, the canon will fire, and somebody’s going to be boarded.

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This hit the news two hours ago:

The Syrian army said it had seized the disused Dabaa military airfield north of Qusayr, giving pro-Assad forces control of all roads out of the town in a major setback for the besieged rebels.

A military source told AFP the battle for the airfield was fierce and lasted several hours. “The operation led to the liberation of the airport and the deaths of several men who were inside.

AFP.  “Hezbollah-led attack cuts off rebels in Syria’s Qusayr.”  Google, May 29, 2013.

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Syria – The Damage Done Uncovers New Themes

28 Tuesday May 2013

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

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The Soviet Union had strategic interests in Syria ever since the mid-1960s. So does modern Russia. It is the largest advance base that Russia still has in the Middle East, and someone like Russian President Vladimir Putin would never give it up, certainly not for “humanitarian reasons,” and even more certainly when the Russians see a certain symmetry there, and believe that Israel is the most important US advance base in the region.

Eldar, Shlomi.  Al-Monitor, May 19, 2013.

Any still wearing rose-colored glasses will have taken them off after reading Shlomi Eldar‘s piece in Al-Monitor, which approaches the conflict in Syria with grim insight and fortitude.

The Christian Science Monitor heads its latest, “Why US must stop Russian missiles for Syria” with the after-the-colon remark, “Putin’s decision to send S-300 missiles to Syria shows an amoral strategic move by Russia.  It also shows up a lack of Western moral concern for the slaughter in Syria” (May 28, 2013).

I don’t agree with that last note — it’s not the lack of “Western moral concern” underscored by Putin’s decision to strengthen Assad’s defensive array, but rather the first conclusion spelled by the Monitor’s editorial board, the authors of the piece: “amoral strategic move by Russia.”

Even with that I’m going to niggle, for with Putin, “amoral” may mean also for Putin “asocial” — neither for nor against others but without feeling.  Further along that axis one bumps into another Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) classification — “Antisocial Personality Disorder“, not that I wish to go there on this.

Call them autocrats, dictators, “kleptocrats”, presidents-for-life, appeals to true or genuine ethical and moral concern fall flat, for the sufferers and their suffering may be for the Mugabe types emotionally invisible: the dead, displaced, and injured may have presence, but that presence registers would seem overlooked in policy, the overt aim of which may be to sustain control — the “upper hand” as it were — in a political or social situation while defending the combined emotional and social region in which the personality lives and the supply it obtains from it.

Among the great templates in literature laying out for adults and children the character of the power weilded by a narcissistic personality, I would perhaps place “The Emperor’s New Clothes” first and foremost.  While impressions easily focus on the power of the emperor to inspire pandering and elicit outright lies (about this “clothes” sewn with invisible threads), one might note also the emperor’s need for that level of adulation, attention, and control.

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Wikiversity.  “Dissocial personality disorder”.

Note: the deeper the swimming, the more complex and sophisticated the science, but perhaps also the less applicable to casual discussion in political science.  I’ll take conjecture on this theme a littler further: psychology focuses on mind in the individual experience and life.  That’s enough for scope — and it’s certainly territory rich enough for tens of thousands of lifetimes spent in research and clinical service.

Psychology proper may leave outside its domain the cultural, political, and ramifications of the expression of individual character, condition, and personality.

Here on the World Wide Web, it may be enough to note that being a broadly empowered witness to the destruction of 92,000 lives and the substantial disruption of 3.5 million lives (those internally displaced or made refugee by way of Syria’s conflict) has elicited a very different global response not only from Russia and NATO, which constituent cultures have a great deal in common today, but also a sharp difference in global expectations about each: while Russia attends to the defense of a brutal dictatorship and NATO drags its heels on intervention on behalf of an Islamic culture laced with Al Qaeda types, the world seems to put the onus for Syria’s tragedy on NATO, and that may be because it knows that the NATO states and leadership in general care deeply for the humanity involved, and it does so with less regard for its own interests — so children whine to the parent who might do them some good.

Hidden behind the conflict in Syria is not a Cold War conflict with remnant Soviet totalitarian ideology or even with Russian culture and its zeitgeist except in this one dimension repeated in history, from czars to commisars: the ascendance of permanent authorities with sweeping powers and a minimum of concern for the despairing and subjugated within their constituencies.

Are either callousness or caring within persons and communities “motivated” by biology and evolution, or are they emphasized in culture and through language behavior within families passed from one generation to the next?

Stay tuned.

We’re going to find out because with the Internet full up and a war on, Russians are here too and may be counted on to weigh in with their ethical outlooks, perceptions, and wishes in regard to the unfolding Syrian Civil War.

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Additional Reference

Carbonnel, Alissa de.  “Disputes over arms for Syria cloud Russian peace drive.”  Reuters, May 28, 2013.

Erlanger, Steven.  “Europeans Say Lifting Syria Arms Embargo Puts Pressure on Russia.”  The New York Times, May 28, 2013.

Hausmann, Joanna.  “Israel to Strike Russian Weapon Shipments to Syria: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know.”  Heavy, May 28, 2013.

The Voice of Russia.  “Moscow says message exchange between Putin, Obama gave impetus to missile shield consultations.”  May 28, 2013.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  “UNHCR Turkey Syrian Refugee Daily Sitrep 20 May 2013.”  Reliefweb, May 20, 2013.

Syria – The Worst Ambitions in the Worst Place in the Worst Ways

28 Tuesday May 2013

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Israel quickly issued a thinly veiled warning that it would bomb the Russian S-300 missiles if they were sent to Syria, as such a move would bring the advanced guided missiles within range of civilian and military planes over Israel.

Borger, Julian.  “Isrel warns Russia against arming Syrian government.”  The Guardian, May 28, 2013.

Apparently, Obama is not able, or willing, to acknowledge that the views of the White House and Russia on Syria are different not because the vestigial enmity of the Cold War has driven a stake through the heart of international concord, but simply because the national interests of the two countries are different. But that’s assuming they really are different.

Smith, Lee.  “Obama: Putin Unhelpful with Syria Because of Cold War.”  Blog.  The Weekly Standard, May 13, 2013.

On such politics, cynics must suckle!

Exterior framing: a brutal dictatorship vs. an Islamic revolution of some kind.

Exterior wall: NATO vs. Russia bonded in place by the habits of the Cold War even though to the two share most essential values involved in Syria.

Interior furnishings: affinity between the souls of autocrats and dictators, perhaps; perhaps, the Saudi’s guy in the White House — horrible clashing right there.

Also playing in the yard:  Hezbollah.

Neighbor up the block: Iran.

Favorite toys: rockets.

What they want to be when they grow up: nuclear.

Tangled Up in Syria – The Weapons-to-Rebels Controversy and Why the Assads May Prevail

27 Monday May 2013

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

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The regime’s proposal is unlikely to lead to talks. The rebels battling the Syrian military have vowed to stop at nothing less than Assad’s downfall and are unlikely to agree to sit down with a leader they accuse of mass atrocities.

Lucas, Ryan.  “Syrian FM: Damascus prepared to talk with rebels.”  The Times of Israel, February 26, 2013.

As the number of suspected attacks grows, US officials said intelligence agencies are seeing signs that Syrian opposition forces may be distancing themselves from the al-Qaeda-linked group there — chipping away at one of the key arguments against giving lethal aid to the rebels.

Klapper, Bradley and Lolita C. Baldor.  “More US officials in favor of arming Syria rebels.”  The Times of Israel, May 2, 2013.

The ministers’ meeting in Brussels exposed deep rifts, with Britain pressing hardest for the union to amend its embargo and allow weapon shipments to forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his troops, who have gained ground recently against the rebellion.

Kanter, James.  “European Union Debates Arming Syrian Rebels.”  The New York Times, May 27, 2013.

It’s not too hard seeing what’s going on within the ranks of the rebels within the Syrian theater: events are telling them, more or less, to shape their ranks in their totality toward the contained and moderate to obtain war materiel by way of the west.

Both in Syria and Turkey, McCain and Idris met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units that traveled from around the country to see the U.S. senator. Inside those meetings, rebel leaders called on the United States to step up its support to the Syrian armed opposition and provide them with heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, and airstrikes on the Syrian regime and the forces of Hezbollah, which is increasingly active in Syria.

Rogin, Josh.  “Exclusive: John McCain Slips Across Border Into Syria, Meets With Rebels.”  The Daily Beast, May 27, 2013.

Let’s back up a couple of weeks:

Indeed, while Assad imports long-range missiles from Iran and allows Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Suleimani to build a 150,000-strong sectarian militia to inherit the responsibilities of the Syrian military, Idris is writing open letters to his patron asking for more help. The U.S. response is to ask Idris’s men to kill al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra fighters first, and only then turn their attention back to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Weiss, Michael.  “Oh, You Silly Man: How John Kerry got rolled by Vladimir Putin on a plan to save Syria.”  Foreign Policy, May 9, 2013.

At the end of a round of poker, the cards come up.  Here are Putin’s:

  1. Incumbent strategic relationship with the Assad’s Syria as a defense buffer, client, and trading state;
  2. In Syria’s hands, a recent delivery of surface-to-air and surface-to-ship missiles (take that, Charlie Wilson) discouraging local NATO intervention in Syria;
  3. In Assad’s Syria, a comparatively secular dictatorship pitted against a rebel force laden with “Islamist” elements that have professed and proven hate for Christians, Jews, Israelis, assorted kafir, and so on — a familiar story but in the Syrian context, one offering Obama a sharp choice: continued secular dictatorship, albeit one that is no friend to Israel either even though it has kept a cold de facto peace for decades, or another Brotherhood-styled state?
  4. Finally, Russia remains Russia, a superpower, nuclear armed, and completely disinterested in the development of another Chechnya on its flank, a position congruent with the predominant NATO base and reason for being.

Why Putin will not intercede in the politics of the Assad family, I don’t know; what I may suggest, however, is that as long as Maher Al-Assad has free rein, those Syrian non-aligned and noncombatant families whose members fell victim to his military’s atrocious behavior from the start of hostilities to this day will never ever forgive the Assads the callous spilling of so much innocent blood and the pain they have been given to live with for the misfortune of having been born Syrians beneath their tenure.

Of course, where rebel forces of any kind have done similar things, the stories of their atrocities too will see the light of day, and they too will be shunned in the same way.

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Background Reference on the Persecution of Syria’s Christian Community

27 Monday May 2013

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

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In the previous post, I reblogged a message from an anti-Jihad blog without looking twice, which is dangerous for a cyberjournalist: at the very least, I should have glossed the topic, however compelling and dramatic the news out of Syria may be.

Last year, the Middle East Forum reprinted from Ha’aretz a piece on just this subject: “Syrian disinformation about Christian persecution” (Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Oskar Svadkovsky, and Phillip Smyth, April 6, 2012):

The claim of 90 percent ethnic cleansing can actually be traced to a report put out on March 13 by an online Arabic outlet known as Al-Haqiqa (Arabic for “the truth”).

A quick Google search reveals that the original memo sent to Fides by the church leaders had been copy-pasted almost down to the last word from the SyriaTruth site, which is notorious for its pro-regime propaganda. Officials of the Syrian Church did not confirm the story with anybody in Homs before sending out the memo. They must have presumed that the SyriaTruth writers did.

I’ve seen this same technique — one questionable press release reprinted through dozens of outlets — with stories about olive groves burning on the West Bank.  At the end of such web excursions, the reader-blogger cries for the direct reporting from a trustworthy witness.

Apart from innuendo, first page Google look-up for the string “Syria Christian Persecution” seem to bring to light only unsubstantiated allegations, e.g., “When government forces aren’t present, Muslims have been known to rob churches and kidnap, rape, or even kill Christian women” — from Christian Freedom International: “Persecution in Syria: ‘How Do You Want to Die . . .'”.

Please, specifically: who?  What? When? Where? How? And why?

Add: corroboration?

Put a byline on it — or attribute to a “desk” with contact information.

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The Inquisitr asks, “Do you think the two bishops kidnapped by Syrian rebels indicate widespread Christian persecution or just an isolated incident?”

At least with that story, there are names: Bishop Boulos Yazigi and Archbishop Yahanna Ibrahim.  (“Syrian bishops kidnapped in Aleppo still missing one month on.”  The Guardian, May 21, 2013).

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