ISW – Syria – United in Hate in the North – Crimes Against Humanity As Syria Dies

14 Monday Oct 2013

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

Tags

Al Qaeda, AQ, civil war, Human Rights Watch, northern Syria, Syria, Turkey

What troubles Western observers is not the groups’ fighting prowess, however, but their shared vision of a jihad that extends beyond Assad’s ouster. While other rebels are fighting to remove the Syrian dictator, former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say, the al-Qaeda groups are transforming the conflict into a symbolic struggle against the West and Israel, using words and images that resonate with like-minded Muslims from the Arab Peninsula to Western Europe.

Rival al-Qaeda-linked groups fortifying in Syria with mix of pragmatism and militancy – The Washington Post – 10/13/2013.

The United States has had limited success cutting off funding to the al Qaeda-linked fighters and foreign jihadists flowing into Syria — in part because of a lack of cooperation on the part of Middle Eastern allies, Intelligence and national security community sources say.

U.S. allies let funds flow to al Qaeda in Syria – Washington Times – 10/13/2013.

Less well known is the sectarian strategy pursued by Sunni extremists, particularly the ultraconservative Salafis living in the Persian Gulf, who are sending “hundreds of millions” of dollars to ensure the worst factions of the revolt are ascendant — mostly under the guise of humanitarian relief.

Gulf charities and Syrian sectarianism — By William McCants | The Middle East Channel – 9/30/2013.

Over the course of the operation, Human Rights Watch says the fighters killed 190 civilians. Residents and hospital staff in Latakia, the nearest city, spoke of burned bodies, beheaded corpses and graves being dug in backyards. Two hundred people from the area remain hostage.

The war in Syria: Rebel atrocities | The Economist – 10/13/2013.

Two opposition groups that took part in the offensive, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham and Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, are still holding the hostages, the vast majority women and children. The findings strongly suggest that the killings, hostage taking, and other abuses rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said.

“You Can Still See Their Blood” | Human Rights Watch – 10/11/2013.

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▶ Syria: Executions, Hostage Taking by Rebels – YouTube – 10/11/2013.

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“We are collecting money to buy all these weapons, so that our brothers will be victorious,” hard-core Sunni Islamist Sheikh Shafi’ Al-Ajami announced on Kuwaiti television last month, listing the black-market prices of weapons, including heat-seeking missiles, anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Money, guns flowing from Kuwait to Syria’s most radical rebel factions | Fox News – 7/11/2013.

U.S. and Middle Eastern officials describe the money as a small portion of a vast pool of private wealth being funneled to Syria’s warring factions, mostly without strings or oversight and outside the control of governments.

Private money pours into Syrian conflict as rich donors pick sides – Washington Post – 6/15/2013.

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Excessive license and loss of boundaries and containment have long characterized the Islamic Small Wars. One may trace that back at least as far as the slaughter of the men of the Banu Quarayza who had surrendered to Muhammad expecting to keep their lives and their community intact. Instead, so goes the legend, males with even a single pubic hair for signal were beheaded and the wives, daughters, and sons taken as war booty. That Human Rights Watch should today be screaming about Al Qaeda-class war crimes comes as no surprise.

For the field, the image of the organics of the Islamist front becomes ever more clear as well as daunting as we learn that some middle east governments, as powerful and wealthy as they may be, cannot rein in their own rogues — or, perhaps, they are shielding the same from western powers. Either way, private bank accounts seem unhindered as regards collecting the kind of “charity” that becomes cash for the arms leveled at hapless and unarmed residents in the path of the coldly deranged and enraged.

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“We often see buses around with all their curtains drawn. I have no doubt that their passengers are Islamists on the road to Paradise,” says Mehmet with a sad smile. He criticizes the “silence of the Turkish media on Ankara’s dark moves,” as he puts it.

“Here it’s not about rebels fighting [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad, it’s Jabhat al-Nusra – an armed group close to al Qaeda – and Syrian Kurdish fighters engaging in brutal clashes.”

Al Qaeda’s Turkish base? | World | DW.DE | 18.09.2013

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday said “Turkey has never supported any units which have connections with Al Qaeda and never let them use our borders with Syria”, Anadolu Agency reported.

FM: Turkey never supports any units linked with Al Qaeda – Trend.Az – 10/8/2013

Remember: lies are told to hide something or to get something.

It was the first face-to-face between Mr. Erdogan and President Barack Obama in almost a year. Mr. Obama delivered what U.S. officials describe as an unusually blunt message: The U.S. believed Turkey was letting arms and fighters flow into Syria indiscriminately and sometimes to the wrong rebels, including anti-Western jihadists.

Seated at Mr. Erdogan’s side was the man at the center of what caused the U.S.’s unease, Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s powerful spymaster and a driving force behind its efforts to supply the rebels and topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey’s Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria – WSJ.com – 10/10/2013

Later, however, Muslim accused Turkey of facilitating the jihadists’ cross-border movements by clearing passages through minefields and removing barbed wire. During our September interview, he had strong words for Turkey. He said he wanted to continue the dialogue with Ankara, but could not understand Ankara’s support of extreme religious elements.

Syrian Kurdish Leader Urges Turkey To End Support for Salafists – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 10/9/2013.

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Whatever Syria was three years ago, it’s either gone today or is missing parts of its once constituted sovereignty. Death has taken more than 100,000 of its constituents; fighting has displaced more than three million once settled residents; the same has “forced” autonomy on the Kurdish community — ten percent of Syria’s population overall; entire cities lay in ruin; borders, checkpoints, and roads have been overrun but by God only knows what.

The worst thing may be the latent Somali-like sub-state anarchy evident in the transfers of arms, cash, and Al Qaeda-type fighters from one location to another across numerous borders and boundaries. Rather than running their separate parts of the show in Syria, it appears that governments and their intelligence agencies have been reduced to searching for ways to benefit from or leverage the activities of a largely unremarked class of private persons with the connections and wherewithal to exert their own will through young proxies.

Moscow’s and Washington’s posturing around chemical weapons and peace talks would seem to gloss over the anarchy and the prospect, which one may as well interpret as the reality, that all civil and responsible government has fled northern Syria and what remains are armed bands in various stages of collusion and contest left to mayhem, murder, and making themselves comfortable.

Additional Reference

Al-Qaeda-linked Groups Taking Root in Syria – 10/13/2013.

7 Red Cross Workers Kidnapped By Gunmen In Syria – 10/13/2013; 4 of 7 kidnapped aid workers freed in Syria – Yahoo News – 10/14/2013.

Syrian Arab Village Welcomes Kurdish Fighters – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 10/13/2013.

Danish Salafist leader said to have been killed in Syria – The Long War Journal – 10/4/2013.

Syria: Political Detainees Tortured, Killed | Human Rights Watch – 10/3/2013.

Insight: Saudi Arabia boosts Salafist rivals to al Qaeda in Syria | Reuters – 10/1/2013.

Al Qaeda, Kurdish militia clash on Syrian border with Turkey | Reuters – 9/25/2013.

Rebel-on-Rebel Violence Seizes Syria – WSJ.com – 9/18/2013: “ISIS fighters recently raided a council arms depot filled with lights weapons and ammunition, funded by the Gulf states and funneled to the council with the guidance of the Central Intelligence Agency, council members said.”

Syria: nearly half rebel fighters are jihadists or hardline Islamists, says IHS Jane’s report – Telegraph – 9/15/2013: “Opposition forces battling Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, but after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands.”

Syrian rebels claim receipt of major weapons shipment | World news | The Guardian – 8/25/2013.

Attacks of Al-Qaeda affiliated groups against Kurds in Northern Syria or Rojava – an appeal – The Kurdistan Tribune – 8/15/2013.

Kuwait pulls cleric from TV for sectarian comments | The National – 8/14/2013.

Jordan captures arms smugglers from Syria – 8/3/2013.

Kuwait, ‘the back office of logistical support’ for Syria’s rebels | The National – 2/5/2013.

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Violence Incoherent, Insensate, and In the Name Of

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East

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Tags

2013, accelerating violence, civil war, Iraq, sectarian warfare

“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?”

Iraq: Children Killed In Playground Bombing – 10/6/2013.

Baghdad, 1 October 2013 – According to casualty figures released today by UNAMI, a total of 979 Iraqis were killed and another 2,133 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in September.

UN Releases Casualty Figures for September | ReliefWeb – 10/6/2013.

Related: Sectarian violence kills dozens in Iraq – CNN.com – 10/6/2013.

But a little over a year after it was suspended, the death penalty was reinstated by the new Shiite-led central government. A year later, in 2005, the executions, usually by hanging, resumed.

Since then, around 500 people have been executed, according to records kept by human rights observers including Amnesty International. During the first four months of this year alone at least 50 people were hanged.

In Iraq, executions rise as deadly attacks escalate | Al Jazeera America – 10/5/2013.

Iraq is one of the world’s most prolific executioners, as the government continues to battle against a high level of violence by armed groups. Hundreds of prisoners are currently held on death row. In 2012 a sharp rise in executions was recorded in Iraq making it the country with the third highest number of executions in the world, after China and Iran. At least 129 people were executed in 2012, almost twice the known total of 201 since the beginning of 2013 at least 83 people, including two women, have been executed.

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/017/2013/en/2c1cf331-1948-4e4e-bc58-7ec4548f9a11/mde140172013en.pdf

The civil war in neighboring Syria — itself a volatile, sectarian conflict — has spilled across the border, and Sunni jihadi factions are operating in both countries. Now, four months before the next parliamentary elections, Iraq increasingly appears to be spiraling toward a civil war.

Iraq’s Months of Sectarian Violence May Lead to a Civil War | TIME.com 10/1/2013.

The Iraqi government plans to form a division comprised of Iraqi Shi’a militia members. This planned division will be deployed in Baghdad. This development is recognition by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that current security measures are ineffective. While the formation of this division may appeal to the Iraqi Shi’a, it may lead to further discontent by the Iraqi Sunnis. Al-Qaeda in Iraq will capitalize on the formation of this division and seek new opportunities to escalate sectarian violence in Iraq. The formation of the division will damage Maliki’s credentials and likely lead to further instability.

The Baghdad Division: Iraqi Shi‘a Militia Elements to Form State-Backed Force | Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates – 9/27/2013.

For those who may take a special interest in Iraq. Stephen Wicken‘s blog on which the above quoted piece by Ahmed Ali appears, updates weekly.

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“Two mad wasps in a bell jar” — my analogy for Shia vs Sunni fighting in Syria would seem to hold up as well for Iraq, which looks to me to be dissolving into a purely retributive bloodbath of a civil war.

The UN’s count approaching 1,000 dead in Iraq in September appears in brief overview a reliable monthly rate with sources reporting 5,000 dead by way of political violence in the land since April of this year.

Saturday 5 October: 100 killed
Baghdad: 55 in bomb attacks.
Mosul: 5 by gunfire.
Balad: 15 by car bomb.
Baquba: 11 in separate bombings.
Yusufiya: 3 Sahwa members by IED.
Hawija: 3 Sahwa members by gunfire.
Muqdadiya: 1 by IED.
Tikrit: 3 (women and child) killed during clashes.
Falluja: 4 by gunfire, IED.

October casualties so far: 183 civilians killed.

Recent Events :: Iraq Body Count

The month is yet young.

Presuming that those remote to the fighting are nonetheless getting an accurate impression of Iraq’s fully functioning if entirely off-kilter slaughterhouse, one begs to ask about motivation on the part of killers, and never mind their affiliation.

“At the root of these attacks – said Msgr. Sako – is a strong tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni faction and this violence is clearly sectarian and confessional in nature.” In Kirkuk alone, the archbishop continued, there were four targeted killings of innocent people. “The aim – says the prelate – is to destabilize the country” because “the central government lacks unity and political force even within the same Shiite majority. There is great tension, there is no dialogue between groups and greater barriers are emerging “.

IRAQ Archbishop of Kirkuk: sectarian violence in Iraq “politically motivated” – Asia News – 9/10/2012.

Note the date!

Such explanations prove so good and useful that one may live with them for years . . . .

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It appears in Iraq that even such things as wanton destruction and murder may become habits, first of mind in excessively perceived oppressive, anxiety-ridden, paranoid, and infernal atmospheres, i.e., the bizarre, surreal, and untrustworthy atmosphere of a war zone, and then habits in activity and action: some population has long been accustomed to the presence of firearms, ammo, explosives and, this perhaps spelling the difference between a predominantly peaceful “gun ownership” and a restless one prone to violence, a mise en scene of explosions and shootings overlaying thousands of smaller but vicious acts of intimidation and suggestion.

There’s the madness of the wasps in the bell jar in that.

The state’s monopoly on violence, as in Hussain’s day, may suppress and reduce violence in the streets, but imposed along sectarian lines, or perceived as such, it will fail.

The battle that looks like Shiite vs Sunni may turn out an unformed middle — about to be called into being out necessity — against an habituated cast of aimless, mindless, morally bankrupt and vengeful war zombies today reduced to blowing themselves up among pilgrims and school children.

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Attacks Across Iraq Leave 66 Dead – YouTube – Rudaw English – 10/6/2013.

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No one who has retained either an ounce of their own courage or humanity can fail to see the inchoate and lost qualities in these deluded monsters who walk around with death their only real meaning.

While Robert Spencer noted recently, “. . . the idea that the Sunni-Shi’ite divide, which is 1,400 years old and goes all the way back to the murky origins of Islam, is something that can without undue difficulty be “overcome” is a sterling manifestation of the general superficiality of Washington’s analysis of the Middle East, during both the Bush and the Obama Administrations,” I would ask who is not fighting that fight today for the good reason they had on one day or another in this lifetime found the world changed when they opened their eyes.

Their numbers needs must dwarf these others.

Where are they?

Do they not understand what is killing them?

Habits of mind are like any other: one foregoes the behavior for a while, whether some form of gluttony or excessive passivity, and then, so one may hope, moves on to better thoughts and brighter days.

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Syria – The Second Struggle

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Tags

civil war, Syria

http://youtu.be/pmoQNSMHqBk

▶ Syrian rebels and al Qaeda group end battle near Turki. – YouTube 9/20/2013

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Whoever posted the above pulled it off the web fast!

That it can’t be viewed hardly matters: these videos that cannot be authenticated, that probably have developed intelligence value everywhere — that’s a good reason for deleting a clip right there — nonetheless do a fine job of showing what happens where and when language fails.

What are the combatants thinking about themselves?

About others?

About language, programming, social grammar?

Whatever the internal monologues and dialogues may be, there’s not one of them that can be recorded live on video.

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Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group on Friday slammed al-Qaida-linked gunmen and their expanding influence in the country, saying the jihadis’ push to establish an Islamic state undermines the rebels’ struggle for a free Syria.

Islamist ethic will bring back dictatorial repression in Syria: SNC – Indian Express 9/20/2013

What are those guys doing Out There — makin’ up? Breakin’ up? Shakin’ it up?

The AFP article published in the Indian Express goes on to note Syrian National Coalition denouncements of the Al Qaeda ISIL, but with such able to stop freight trucks on an open highway, ask drivers to step out, quiz them on the finer points of Islamic prayer, and then shoot them dead (reference: LiveLeak.com – ISIL Death Cult Kills Three Syrian Truck Drivers in Iraq after Failing the “Are You Sunni?” Test – late August 2013), it’s evident the same listen only to the tick in their own heads and act otherwise with impunity wherever they go.

The FSA and ISIL aligned fighting elements having reached a ceasefire in Azaz yesterday, one gets in the reading the shadows cast by Somalia’s experience in still recent years:

He said the delegation from the Islamic Courts, the militia that controls the capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia, agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the interim government, which is based in Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Warring Somali Factions Sign Ceasefire Deal | Fox News 6/26/2006

On July 21, 2006, Hassan Aweys, in a radio broadcast, urged holy war on Ethiopian troops stationed in Baidoa to support the UN-backed government of Somalia.[17]

Hassan Dahir Aweys – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The reader may connect the dots adding up to “such accommodations are fragile”. Evidently such buy peace for a day, if that, and then comes back the ambition, the falling out, the bad words, the gun play, and all that follows from that.

As it turned out between 2006 and 2007, Ethiopia invaded Somalia, turned back the Islamic Courts Union all the way to the southernmost fringe of the state, sat a spell looking for weapons and weathering insurgent tactics, extracted its own troops, and, lo and behold, witnessed a complete return of Islamist forces, also general fighting, and so it goes on at lesser or greater levels and with more or less political confusion to this day.

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http://youtu.be/4pWHLMK1ALY

▶ ISIL Terrorists Outlaw Christianity in the New Syria – Bibles More Dangerous than Chemical Weapons – YouTube Posted to YouTube 9/8/2013

The Syrian Free Press Network posted the above last Friday: ISIL Terrorists Outlaw Christianity in the New Syria – “Bibles More Dangerous than Chemical Weapons” |

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Veteran opposition figure Kamal Labwani said the international community’s disregard for Syrian lives has strengthened extremists in Syria, adding that the ISIL has become a force that the FSA is unable to deal with.

AP News : vcstar.com : Ventura County Star 9/20/2013

Additional Reference

Jihadis capture northern Syrian town near Turkey – post-journal.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information – Jamestown | Post-Journal 9/19/2013

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Syria – States of Siege

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Syria

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Tags

civil war, conflict, siege, Syria

Hindsight may not turn out 20/20 when it comes to Syria, as the true extent of the damage may not become apparent for years given the dimensions involved, from the destruction of cities to the less evident effects of the traumatizing of children and young adults — or their indoctrination or orientation to combat and the black hurricanes of war.

For this post: the briefest survey of how dismal and evil Syria’s civil war has been.

Today, there are Syrian children certain to grow up as the immigrants and refugees of war.

For tens upon tens of thousands of Syrians, were peace to arrive tomorrow (let’s not even go there today), there would be not only no homes to return to but no businesses or communities either. War has erased their past lives and the artifacts and furnishings attending them.

For Syria or portions of it, I think we’re short today on the environmental and natural history stories, but perhaps it’s not for the conservationists, as a rule, to throw themselves into still burning conflicts to sample air and water quality and note the health of overlooked habitats.

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Aleppo Tourism and Vacations: 18 Thi ngs to Do in Aleppo, Syria | TripAdvisor as viewed 9/18/2013.

While the search engine listed the page date of the above as 2007, the “Travel Alert: Security Concerns” notice proved right up to date. One could walk at leisure around ancient ruins in Aleppo just six years ago; some day, one hopes soon, one may do the same around the latest in modern ones.

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Combat

A senior U.N. diplomat in New York says details on scale of the attack, the rockets used and trajectory data cited in the report make it “abundantly clear” that the Syrian regime was behind the attack. The diplomat said: “There isn’t a shred of evidence in the other direction.”

AP top news headlines | Tampa Bay Times “UN report suggests regime behind sarin attack,” 9/18/2013

The UN Chemical Weapons Report: One Third of the Story that Needs to Be Told | Center for Strategic and International Studies 9/17/2013

Perhaps the most besieged parties in Syria will turn out the forces that launched sarin-loaded warheads from sites on Mount Qasioun.

On the war crimes front, both UN reports and “western” diplomacy seems to be closing in on Damascus today and its specific higher elevation defenses.

The New York Times’ C.J. Chivers and Human Rights Watch’s Josh Lyons, a satellite imagery specialist, examined details buried in the U.N. report released Tuesday that concluded definitively chemical weapons were used in Syria without implicating either side. Both came to the same conclusion through separate, independent investigations: the rockets carrying sarin gas were fired from Syria’s Mount Qasioun . . . .

The U.N.’s Case Against Syria Is Hidden in the Details – Connor Simpson – The Atlantic Wire 9/18/2013

Rocket trajectory links Syrian military to attack 9/18/2013 AP

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BEIRUT — The prisoners are crammed together in small, dark rooms with no water or electricity and barely enough food to survive. Diseases such as scabies and tuberculosis are rampant among them. Every so often, the crash of artillery shells rocks their sprawling prison complex, a stark reminder of the civil war raging outside.

In Syria’s Aleppo prison, thousands of inmates caught in war’s deadly stalemate – The Washington Post 9/18/2013

In the conventional war fighting realm, Syria’s prisoners have been made prisoners of the war as much as of the state. Theirs is truly a state of siege with state forces defending the prison and keeping them and rebel forces attacking the prison and claiming intentions to free them. While fate, God, nature, machinery, and politics squat like The Thinker on their stony lives, the war gets to them anyway, and according to the AP story, by way of shelling, lack of medicine, and possibly execution by guards (“opposition groups say”).

Also: Syria: Aleppo prisoners caught in deadly stalemate – Washington Times 9/18/2013

Pentagon proposes plan to equip and train ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels — RT USA 9/19/2013 (only on the web may I relay tomorrow’s early news). 🙂

Pentagon proposes training moderate Syrian rebels – CNN.com 9/19/2013

Economics

The closure of factories, disrupted communications, rising unemployment, a growing shadow economy, prices increases, and a serious shortage of many vital goods and services have accompanied the upheaval in Syria. Since government resources are being depleted, the economic implications of the Syrian crisis work against Assad’s regime in the long run.

Asia Times Online :: Syria’s looming economic disaster 9/16/2013

What we think of as “civilization” may not be all that fragile, as most places most of the time tolerate some low-level incidence of violence in crime, of urban decay, social pathology, the burdens of natural health-related issues across their populations, and outbreaks of flu and such, but political violence develops its own and often amplifying energies. While the military technician’s “low-intensity conflict” may be also continuous and survivable — as much seems to be true in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and other hosts within the Islamic Small Wars as well as distinctly different conflict-laden cultures, e.g.,Mexico with the cartels, Colombia with the FARC — the same smoldering heat with its incidental fires may break out into more virulent and much amplified form.

The Assad regime did itself, much less its subject people, no favors when it launched jets against suspect redoubts where a more temperate leadership may have dispatched detectives and spies. In essence, it put itself on the path to burning down its own house.

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Environment

This drought — combined with the mismanagement of natural resources by [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, who subsidized water-intensive crops like wheat and cotton farming and promoted bad irrigation techniques — led to significant devastation. According to updated numbers, the drought displaced 1.5 million people within Syria.

Drought helped cause Syria’s war. Will climate change bring more like it? 9/10/2013

Pictures: Syrian Cultural Sites Damaged by Conflict 8/2012

List of heritage sites damaged during Syrian civil war – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aleppo: Scenes from a City of Ruins | TIME.com 4/26/2013

One should not overlook the pervasive influence that environment and landscape exerts on human mentality (see, for example, Vine Deloria Jr.’s God is Red), and while in our modern age we really should tackle this earth-human “earth process” challenge (visit, for example, Thomas Berry’s legacy foundation page), we may wonder at the fragility of our works in the path of war.

No less than with the culture, infrastructure, and habitations of the American south of 1860 by the end of 1865, the Syria of 2007 would seem about as “gone with the wind”.

The sovereignty of the regime has disappeared from the Kurdish quarter of the state; the state’s ability to monopolize violence and secure the lives of its citizens seems contested everywhere outside of Damascus; with the chemical weapons imbroglio, it’s ability to operate with near impunity within its own boundaries has been deeply compromised as it has dragged both Putin and Obama more deeply into its political workings.

One may leave the sovereign to be a sovereign even while asking “sovereign of what?”

With Syria at the moment, the answer to that may be “whatever’s left”.

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Health

Syria’s once sophisticated health system is “at breaking point” and parts of the country are completely cut off from any kind of medical service because of “deliberate and systematic attacks” on medical facilities and staff, senior doctors said on Monday.

Health care in Syria is ‘hell on earth,’ doctors say | Fox News 9/17/2013

Fox seems to have put up a conservative lead. That article goes on to note, among other similarly depressing factoids, that, “Of the 5,000 physicians in the city of Aleppo before the conflict started, only 36 remain . . . .”

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Refugees

More than 2 million Syrians are hosted in the region, placing unprecedented strain on communities, infrastructure and services in host countries.

There has been a massive escalation of arrivals in 2013. Over one million Syrian refugees have registered as refugees since the beginning of 2013.

Women and children make up three-quarters of the refugee population.

The vast majority of refugees are dependent on aid, arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Stories from Syrian Refugees, UNHCR, as viewed 9/18/2013.

The combined burdens plus energies attending Syria’s displaced and refugee populations will change the world.

Or not.

Either way, the most vulnerable, hapless, youngest, peaceful, and innocent of humans involved in the war present the greater humanity, all of it, with the challenge of their survival, including their integration with what I’ll call the common humanity.

To date, with Somalia’s 1.7 million refugees, the trumped Palestinian numbers — in camps or somewhere between, all of those have been settled for years even if most unsatisfactorily across four states and two nominal territories — and yet some messes in Iraq and Pakistan, the greater humanity seems to have gotten used to keeping uprooted humans in circumscribed camps. However, the numbers involved in Syria’s political meltdown defy so pat, simple, or foreseen an approach to management and order.

With Syria’s refugees, not exactly friends of the Jews, Israel, “the west” — in part, it’s their own familiar claptrap that has both enabled and sustained the Assad dictatorship and invited to the archaic and decadent system the whirlwind now consuming it and themselves — the world will either harden its heart or open its doors (credit Sweden recently with responding to its part of the challenge with humanity).

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Related Reference

Russia blasts U.N. report on Syria chemical weapons attack as “politicized, preconceived and one-sided” – CBS News 9/18/2013

WFP aims get better food to Syrian refugees and more cash into host nations’ economies with voucher program – CBS News 9/18/2013

Detecting Looming Border Conflicts Using Satellites | United States Institute of Peace 9/10/2013

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Syria – Ain’t No Iraq

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Psychology, Syria, United States of America

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Tags

chemical weapons, civil war, conflict, CW, debate, political, politics, Syria, war

Kerry also said he had no doubt that Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in east Damascus on 21 August, saying that only three people are responsible for the chemical weapons inside Syria – Assad, one of his brothers and a senior general. He said the entire US intelligence community was united in believing Assad was responsible.

John Kerry gives Syria week to hand over chemical weapons or face attack | World news | theguardian.com 9/9/2013

John Kerry calls Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad “a man without credibility”

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Syria: Syrian President Bashar al Assad Charlie Rose Interview September 9, 2013

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In state-level affairs, the sovereign or government-in-power may be held accountable for what takes place within its purview. So right off the bat this week, the nit of The Guardian headline, “Assad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press” has a disingenuous cant to it.

If not Bashar, what about Maher?

If not Maher, what about an officer in charge under his command?

Note Simon Tisdall and Josie Le Blond in Berlin in writing for The Guardian:

The German intelligence findings concerning Assad’s personal role may complicate US-led efforts to persuade the international community that punitive military action is justified. They could also strengthen suspicions that Assad no longer fully controls the country’s security apparatus.

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I’m not making the call, but the single case for pointing to a rebel false flags seems to stand on an accident involving the mishandling of chemical weapons stocks.

Or a recording — edited, underscored, produced, disseminated — showing a successful launch of a “blue bonnet” style rocket (using what looks like a launch vehicle matched to the purpose).

One case: two stories . . . .

That leaves the public with a spy story in a world waiting for the journalists to get into what I’m going to call “Political Spychology” — the massive, multinational industry devoted to capturing, listening, sniffing, stealing, interpreting signal for military as well as industrial purposes.

By vicinity x chatter x who x impact:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/israeli-intelligence-intercepted-syria-chemical-talk

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I am of the mind that the Syrian Civil War has degraded the central power of the Assad regime but neither installed nor shifted the same toward any coherent and responsible party: instead, it has drawn the state toward gross political anarchy and with a look in many places not dissimilar to Mogadishu’s: hard destruction around and through which shifting tides of suffering humanity amid armed gangs, loosely aligned at best, state or rebel, make their way.

Their situation will worsen as the lack of honesty and integrity across the field and the presence of grandiose ambitions in some ensures greater anarchy, brutality, and political dissolution.

To get the chemical weapons off the field is not to solve the war: it’s to make it a little more discerning (at least between combatant and noncombatant targets), humane, and secure because while other weapons projectiles explode or hit something with finite effect, poisonous gasses drift and are indiscriminate even on the gentlest of their lethal breezes.

To solve the war is to address the poetry of the mind of the warrior romantics involved in imagining themselves “God’s darlings” — Haider Mobarak’s phrase related to the narcissism involved — and striving to prove as much so through the intimidation, murder, and subjugation of all presumably less admirable and beloved-by-God others.

Fast Reference

Assad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press | World news | The Guardian 9/9/2013

Obama, his team sharpen Syria pitch as Congress prepares to vote | Fox News 9/9/2013

Obama’s Syrian chemical attack “proof” relies solely on Israeli intelligence | Intrepid Report.com 9/3/2013

Syria chemical attack analysis — CNN 9/7/2013

Syria | The White House (viewed: 9/9/2013)

Live today at 12:30 PM ET, White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice. Ambassador Rice will discuss the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians, the longstanding international norm against the use of chemical weapons, and the need for action to deter the Assad regime from future use of chemical weapons.

Time isn’t on the White House’s side on Syria resolution 9/9/2013

What if Syria’s Assad didn’t personally order the chemical weapons attack? – The Week 9/9/2013

White House Intensifies Efforts to Make the Case for Syria Military Strikes – ABC News 9/8/2013

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Syria – Maaloula! “Syria’s Oldest Christian Community” — Overrun – Plus Brutality in Uniform

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Regions, Syria

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civil war, conflict, Islamist, Jihad, Maaloula, Syria

Russia? We are living in an alternative universe. This is what America should be doing. Instead, our President is going to Congress to intervene militarily on behalf of the jihadists attacking the Christians. Shameful.

Russia Calls for Protection of Christian Holy Places in Maaloula, Syria – Atlas Shrugs 9/8/2013.

Perhaps in “enemy of my enemy” fashion, American anti-Jihad conservatives may seem to be aligning with anti-Jihad Assads.

The Janus-faced brutality would more seem everyone’s enemy.

With Syria, the only good side is either outside of it or, perhaps, hunkered down quietly within the storm and praying to God for it to end with neither a dictator nor a Jihadi left standing.

______

The Other Side, Possibly, of Anti-Obama, Pro-Assad Endorsement

http://youtu.be/lAO9lRbBSAM

Who would be wearing the boots and uniforms, holding helmets and assault weapons?

The YouTube counter says “7 views” as I watch it.

Published today by “Ryan Hughes” there are questions about it I can’t answer: who is being beaten? Where? On what day? Why?

Still, it looks authentic.

I bet it is.

Fast Reference

Activists: Syrian Rebels Take Christian Village | TIME.com

Al Qaeda-linked rebels gain control of Christian village, Syrian activists say | Fox 9/8/2013.

Al-Qaeda Vows to Slaughter Christians After U.S. ‘Liberates’ Syria | FrontPage Magazine 9/5/2013:

Thus al-Qaeda terrorists eagerly await U.S. assistance against the Syrian government, so they can subjugate if not slaughter Syria’s Christians, secularists, and non-Muslims — even as the Obama administration tries to justify war on Syria by absurdly evoking the “human rights” of Syrians on the one hand, and lying about al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria on the other.

Maaloula, Christian Village Outside Damascus, Captured By Syrian Rebels, Activists Say

News Syria Islamist rebels take control of Christian town of Maaloula – CNN.com 9/8/2013.

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Kurdistan – Rojava

29 Thursday Aug 2013

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

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civil war, Kurdish defense, Kurdistan, Kurds, Syria, Syrian Kurdistan

We are fighting America’s war on terror right here on the ground,” says Kurdish fighter Dijwar Osman. “Our enemies are those al Qaeda fighters who want to destroy our 4,000-year-old Kurdish culture. These jihadists come from Belgium, Holland, Morocco, Libya, and other countries. Unfortunately, the U.S. and Turkey are on the side of al Qaeda, just like the U.S. was on al Qaeda’s side in Afghanistan during the ’80’s

Doornbos, Harrald D. and Jenan Moussa. “The Civil War Within Syria’s Civil War.” Foreign Policy, August 28, 2013.

This is the hard punch from the same article: “They have their own army and police here, names of towns have been changed from Arabic to Kurdish, and the Kurdish language is being taught in schools — something that was forbidden under the Assad regime.”

Call this lead still hot:

People’s Defense Units (YPG) and Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) guerrillas in Rojava are engaged in fighting al-Qaeda-linked armed groups since 15 July 2013. A remarkable part of the region has been cleared of the gang groups as a result of the resistance by Kurdish guerrillas as well as by local people supporting them in the villages, towns, districts and provinces of western Kurdistan.

Firatnews. “The Kurdish resistance in the villages of Rojava.” August 29, 2013.

An Islam tolerant of others may be tolerated, and for all outside its Ummah, as much seems a theme heavily argued.

However, the better nature of human nature may fit with nature: a still wild species would seem Homo sapiens sapiens in a still wild world where abundance and variety fill out to their edges every physical, political, and social niche. There are no tribes that would regard themselves as other than a “First People” but even the Jews — perhaps simply the Jews — recognize the chosen qualities in others and unless assaulted leave each to go their way.

* * *

“Rojava Genocide”, posted to YouTube August 9, 2013.

* * *

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga secretary-general Jabbar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kurdish military delegation “informed the Iraqi side of the Peshmerga ministry’s complete readiness to send its forces to any spot in Iraq to confront terrorism, in the event of the federal Ministry of Defense requesting this.”

Asharq Al-Awsat. “Kurdish Peshmerga ready to confront terrorism across Iraq.” August 4, 2013.

After so many years of state-related parlay, the pressure placed on the Kurds by the forces of Islamic Jihad seems to have wrested Kurdish space from state control in Syria and encouraged Kurdish martial consolidation and political solidarity in line with self-government.

While Putin plays Syria for all it’s worth — I should think the Greek Orthodox Church and the Ayatollah’s enterprise have the deepest of natural disaffinities — and Cameron plus Obama work with Qatar plus the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, history (plus a little chaos theory by way of the Al Qaeda types) may have just brought the Kurdish community an opportunity to settle down to defending itself in its own space.

We shall see.

* * *

Kurdish-inhabited area by CIA (1992). Secondary source: Wikimedia Commons.

Lest any get carried away with the above map, reference back to Wikipedia’s “Syrian Kurdistan” page may be helpful. From that page:

During the Syrian civil war, the Popular Protection Units (YPG) were created under the administration of the Kurdish Supreme Committee to control the Kurdish inhabited areas in Syria. On 19 July 2012, the YPG captured the city of Kobanê (Ayn al-Arab), and the next day captured Amûdê and Efrîn.^[6] The two main Kurdish groups, theKurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), afterwards formed a joint leadership council to run the captured cities.^[6] By 24 July, the Syrian Kurdish cities of Dêrika Hemko (Al-Malikiyah), Serê Kaniyê (Ra’s al-‘Ayn), Dirbêsî (Al-Darbasiyah) and Girkê Legê (Al-Ma’bada) had also come under the control of the Popular Protection Units. The only major Kurdish inhabited cities that remained under government control were Hasaka and Qamishli.^[7]^[8]

* * *

http://youtu.be/v7YcCaYYzjw

Sky News Kurdish Women Fighters Battle In Aleppo

Although the above clip appears to have been posted to YouTube today, I believe it actually comes from Stuart Ramsay’s report for Sky News, “Syria: Kurdish Women Fighters Battle in Aleppo,” May 20, 2013. From that source:

It is a mess, and the government with support from Hezbollah and Iran is reinvigorated, making or taking back new and old ground daily.

But the revolution is ongoing. Huge swathes of the country are outside government control and the many, many people I meet are happy with that.

Additional Reference

Colling, Andre. “The impact of the Syrian conflict on neighbouring states.” News24, August 27, 2013.

Hezen Parastina Gel

Huffington Post. “Turkey Kurdish Conflict”.

Kurd Press. “Number of Syrian in Kurdistan Region exceeds 200,000.” August 28, 2013.

Neriah, Jacques. “The Kurdish awakening in Syria: Could it lead to regional war?” The Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2013.

Shekhani, Sherzad. “Iran’s Kurdish PJAK organization is prepared to send fighters to Syrian Kurdistan.” Kurd Net, August 5, 2013.

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Syria – Glimpses

19 Friday Jul 2013

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

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civil war, Syria

I don’t know what to watch or what to look for in Syria today: unsettled borders with Lebanon and Turkey? The impact of the war on children? On journalists? The count in refugees and the too familiar hardships with which they are forced to live, courtesy of the Great Cock Fight about nothing?

If you take it cold in numbers — “An average of 6,000 Syrians a day have fled their war-torn country since the beginning of 2013 . . . .” — it only numbs reasoning.

Six is a news story.

Six thousand is a small epic, already remote.

Six million, that most noted among dismal figures, yaws the mind into the unfathomable.

***

Kamal Hamami, the FSA commander, was killed as he went to a meeting of al Qaeda-backed rebels to discuss joint operations against the Syrian army, a U.S. official said, confirming Middle East press reports.

Hamami had opposed the al Qaeda-linked rebels and said there was no place for them within the opposition forces.

He was killed in Latakia province . . . .

Gertz, Bill. “Al Qaeda Rebels Kill Free Syrian Army Commander: Assassination triggers third front in Syrian civil war.” The Washington Free Beacon, July 19, 2013.

***

What do you do with that snippet of news?

Do you recall the Al Qaeda-type infiltration of a small refugee camp in Lebanon and the group’s effort to fund themselves by robbing a bank, thus also revealing themselves?

The razing of Nahr al-Bared took place in 2007.

When the fighting broke out between Lebanese Defense Forces and “Fatah al-Islam”, close to 30,000 Palestinian refugees were bused away, and because under a pan-Arab compact, Lebanon had agreed not to enter the camp — if you don’t already know how this story goes, you will roll your eyes or shoulders or both at what happens next — Lebanon’s military cordoned the camp, positioned tanks where needed, and took it apart, “built it down”, round after round after round. Only at the end, and to reach hold-outs beneath the ground, was the site bombed (Shawish, Hesham, “Helicopters pound militants with 400-kilogram bombs at Nahr al-Bared,” The Daily Star, Lebanon, August 20, 2007).

There’s a side trip down a damned memory lane — I almost forget I was thinking about Syria.

Additional Reference — Actually, An Overview

Aikins, Matthieu. “Commuting to Syria.” Men’s Journal, July 2013: “The killings and kidnappings of journalists covering the conflict in Syria have become so prevalent that most now live across the border in Turkey.”

Arfaqui, Jamel. “Libyan Weapons Fuel Syria Bloodshed.” Megharebia (Washiington DC), All Africa, July 18, 2013.

Atassi, Basma and Mohammed Haddad. “Interactive: Mapping Syria’s rebellion.” Al Jazeera, July 19, 2013.

Al-Samadi, Tamer. “Jordan: Salafist Leader Foresees Post-Assad Conflict With Secularists.” Al-Monitor, July 15, 2013.

Bracken, Amy. “A Wheelchair View of the Syrian Civil War.” The World, July 18, 2013.

Caldwell, Maggie, Niclas Hammarstrom/ Kontinent, zReportage, ZUMA Press. “The Last Days of a Rebel-Held Hospital in Syria.” Mother Jones, December 2012.

Committee to Protect Journalists. Syria page.

Dettmer, Jamie. “Doubt Over Syrian Steps to Control Hyperinflation.” VOA, July 12, 2013.

Gordts, Eline. “Zaatari Refugee Camp Photos Highlight Enormity of Syria’s Refugee Crisis.” Huffington Post, July 18, 2013.

Himelfarb, Joel. “Israeli Doctors Quietly Treating Syria War Victims.” Newsmax, July 8, 2013.

Jones, Dorian. “Turkey Alarmed at Syrian Border Fighting.” VOA, July 18, 2013.

Karim, Sharif. “Hezbollah Regions Targeted As Syria War Spreads to Lebanon.” Al-Monitor, July 18, 2013.

Kullab, Samya. “Desperate Syrian refugees turn to sex work in Lebanon.” Al Bawaba, July 17, 2013.