The absence of conscience on the part of the Assad regime in its military actions, an aspect that reaches its nadir with the use of chemical weapons, and the historically astigmatic vision of the Al Qaeda-types serve to keep “awareness, self-awareness, and conscience” — God’s gift to humanity in my interpretation of the Jewish ethos expressed in Genesis 2 and 3 — restricted to their own minds, concerned only with themselves, and consequently locked in true “mortal combat” on a small stage surrounded by mirrors of their own image.

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The primers are out.

Fisher, Max.  “9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask.”  The Washington Post, August 29, 2013.

I like Max Fisher’s term in the lead, ” . . . possibly imminent series of limited military strikes . . .” and the later too true observation, “The government responded, there is no getting around this, like monsters.”

Rankin, Seija.  “What you Need to Know About the Crisis in Syria.”  Refinery29, August 28, 2013:

However, over time the FSA became dominated by Islamist extremists (including some affiliated with Al Qaeda), bolstered by Sunni rulers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The rebels, as the overarching group is now referred to, slowly split into fractured groups, with the more radical fighters taking over areas to the north and east of Damascus, and the more secular fighters holding court in the southern suburbs.

In Seija’s backgrounder, the Assad will-to-dynasty gets referenced but not its dependence on the politics of the Cold War and the prism provided by Putin’s now delicate diplomacy of the day, which has seen the retrieval of Russian civilian and military personnel and assets from Syria while fulfilling old military contracts at the Iran-Syria nexus.

Russia may be yet interested in defeating the “Yankee Imperialists” in the cause of the “New Russian Oligarchs” — just a thought — but it has to work at keeping itself apart from the European part of NATO identity as a Christian state fending off Islamist intentions in Chechnya and as a modern proto-democratic (all the parts are in place) still autocratic state enjoying a somewhat pagan muscularity.

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Is that above an Ayatollah’s best buddy?

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Back on center stage, Amos Harel writing for Haaretz asks, “In all the global talk over the last week about the chemical weapons attack in Syria and the expected U.S. response, one interesting question has been shunted aside: Why on earth did Syrian President Bashar Assad do it?”

(Harel, Amos.  “Despite words of warning, Israel wants to stay out of Syria conflict.”  Haaretz, August 30, 2013).

Harel’s piece also covers the strategic basics.

Syria, specifically, and Putin in Syria, specifically, and a fair number of interlopers, not so specifically, would seem to be running around in there without much of a moral compass.

Again, “Syria Dark Star” consumes energy without transforming itself into a positive region although some of what has been taking place may be moving toward that, e.g., the Kurdish separation from Syria forced by the presence of Al Qaeda in the Kurdish sphere amid the absence of Syrian state forces; the fact that the seemingly moderate General Idris remains afield with a capable force fighting both Assad’s military and such as Al Nusra.

Still: where can the Syrian Civil War resolve?

The inability of Syrians and the world at large to address that question both ideally and politically serves to keep the conflict, in the way of fire, consuming and deadening.

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An Aside on Generalized Syrian Anti-Semitism

The presence and effects of general Syrian anti-Semitic acculturation also spells a dismal future, for that facet also stands signal to a lost humanity.

The absence of conscience on the part of the Assad regime in its military actions, an aspect that reaches its nadir with the use of chemical weapons, and the historically astigmatic vision of the Al Qaeda-types serve to keep “awareness, self-awareness, and conscience” — God’s gift to humanity in my interpretation of the Jewish ethos expressed in Genesis 2 and 3 — restricted to their own minds, concerned only with themselves, and consequently locked in true “mortal combat” on a small stage surrounded by mirrors of their own image.

In a sense, these actors cannot see themselves.

Those not a part of it and out searching on the World Wide Web may nonetheless see the same as they are and caught in a predicament of their own making, starting with the “malignant narcissism” so well displayed by the Assad’s in their “Arab Spring” response to their constituents.

“The government responded, there is no getting around this, like monsters,” wrote Max Fisher a few hours ago, and that is the truth.

How is it that they could not see themselves when they needed to see themselves most accurately, most completely, and most of all?

The coin “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy” may apply, but it serves as an aid to observation of leadership type and may not provide quite the key to insight and guidance needed in Syria.

Unfortunately, the conventions of diplomacy and war fighting won’t quell the dark energy in Syria either because in some the accumulated language-based “content of mind” has pushed them beyond the reach of their own and better humanity.  In reach-out, one may point to those who have exceeded limits, but, here’s the problem, they are also those fulfilling their programming.

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