The conflict in Syria is not complicated.

It is twisted.

It draws on an anti-human egotism and irrationality to divide its national community and set each at the other’s throat, and not only those quick to fight but families too.

As it is, Syria remains unsolvable as one would wish to promote neither a brutal dictatorship, which if Assad’s wasn’t, it has certainly become, nor the fascist vision of a humanity subjugated to men who would portray themselves as the appointees of God and would become themselves absolute powers.

Although I’ve collected below a few leads and quotes from recent news, each seeming to balance out the other, one might fault Putin a little more than Obama over Syria for having taken a deeply anomic stance that set aside the conflict’s developing human toll in death, suffering, and, not to be overlooked, social disorganization and anarchy in favor of reducing overt policy to revenues tied to military contracts.

Is that a stance worthy of an empire?

An emperor?

* * *

I suppose if I were somehow working under contract with, say, RAND, I’d feel better about not knowing the answers with regard to Syria.

In that way, of course, it’s okay if idling over a blog one fails to outfox two of the world’s most powerful politicians, their advisers, and their nation’s think-tanks.

One might also consider such a “cop out” at any level of intellectual endeavor.

Clearly, Syria is a collapsing house on fire, and sooner or later, the neighborhood will have to account for the homeless and the maimed, the destruction of economic assets, including trade relationships, the diminishment of the efficacy of state, regional, and local powers, and the dangers posed by continuing and related political anarchy and its spillovers.

Obama’s bid to approach Iran’s looming nuclear threat by way of Qatar and through Syria would seem of equal positive interest to post-Soviet Russia, and it may be and may be working out that way (remember: Russia has largely ferried away its civilian and military presence in Syria), but it has no interest in the promotion of Sunni Islam over Shiite (nor should the world at large, Sunnis and Shiites included, have that interest — perhaps that’s to be saved for another post), and it knows — and Obama should know — that attempting to develop and validate an Islamic democracy today affords a look at the span from the chartering of Pakistan to the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

It does not work.

Or it does not work sensibly or well without direct challenge.

And it does not do so because the language of Islam in its totality has not been updated (not with “invention” on lock-out) or reformed, so that good sentiment borrowed from a Jew, say, Hillel’s “whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world” (source: Wikipedia) cannot offset the grandiose, pandering, and placating slips that disservice mankind in the name of human aggrandizement: “Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low” (Quraan 9:29 — I chose to lift from a skeptic’s web page).

Eventually, resettling Syria, not alone in this predicament, will mean introducing and strengthening other thought in the environment and that extensively and potently enough to bring Syria’s displaced back to their homes or known lands or landscapes with their heads held high but in them a different outlook on their humanity and their evaluation of political leadership.

I don’t see that happening today.

In fact, what one sees may be opposite: further exposure and subjection to criminality and humiliation for those in camps or lost on the new landscape and otherwise squeezed between these other and most evil forces come to fight within the state to sustain war without end and with an intellectual basis that proves altogether and repeatedly incoherent as regards decency in purpose.

What follows is what I’ve snagged off the web while constructing these thoughts.

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BEIRUT — Human Rights Watch says the Syrian military is firing ballistic missiles into populated areas where it is battling rebels, killing hundreds of civilians.

The U.S.-based group said in a report released Monday that it has investigated nine apparent missile attacks that killed at least 215 people, half of them children, between February and July.

AP.  “Syria Conflict: Military Firing Ballistic Missiles Into Populated Areas, Killing Hundreds of Civilians: Watchdog.”  Huffington Post, August 5, 2013.

Comment on Qusayr:

“The devastation is evident everywhere. According to the government telecoms chiefMtanios al-Shaer, “The terrorists destroyed everything 24 hours before the town was liberated, and caused damage of a billion Syrian pounds ($57 million).”

Hafiz, Yasmine.  “Syria Conflict Destroys Churches & Mosques, Desecrates Icons (PHOTOS).”  Religion, Huffington Post, August 6, 2013.

Activists and local opposition groups in Syria accused regime forces for using poisonous form of gas in the city of Douma and Adra, outskirts of Damascus.

According to the local media offices, Syrian army has launched a series of attacks on these two big cities on Monday. More than 400 people have been hospitalised showing symptoms of convulsion, shortness of breath, profuse sweating and frothy sputum, activists said.

Al Jazeera.  “Activists in Syria claim poisonous form of gas was used by regime forces in an attack on Douma and Adra.”  Video included, not vetted.  August 5, 2013.

“No solution can be reached with terror except by striking it with an iron fist,” Assad said.

. . . .

He accused the Syrian National Coalition of “being on the payroll of more than one Gulf country,” and of “blaming the (Syrian) state for terrorism rather than blaming the armed men,” or rebels.

Al Aribya.  “Assad’s solution to Syrian conflict: striking ‘terror with iron fist’.”  August 5, 2013.

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Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, has said that “There is no doubt that as a distinct single entity, Syria has ceased to exist… Considering the sheer scale of its territorial losses in some areas of the country, Syria no longer functions as a single all-encompassing unitarily-governed state.”

Rieser, Bennett.  “War in Syria: Nation Suffers 3-Way Divide.” WebProNews, August 5, 2013.

President Bashir Assad will be winning until he loses; alternatively, he may hold out and win on that level, but his Syria won’t be that which he inherited.

Additional Reference

Amnesty International.  “Aleppo satellite images show devastation, mass displacement one year on.”  August 7, 2013.

Blake, Matt.  “The wasteland: Horrifying aerial pictures show full scale of destruction of Syrian city of Homs.”  Mail Online, July 31, 2013.

Borri, Francesca.  “I want to talk about Syria, not just my role as a freelance journalist.”  The Guardian, July 26, 2013.  As long as I’m updating reference, I thought I would include this as mere mention (plus a comment) of the journalist has brought me some recent traffic.  One day, perhaps starting with Margaret Bourke-White, I will have to write about peripatetic women journalists in war zones.  They are great people!

Defense World.  “Syria Buying Russian Weapons With American Dollars.”  August 6, 2013.

Dreyfuss, Bob.  “Russia’s Stake in Syria’s War.”  The Nation, August 6, 2013.

Kroth, Olivia.  “Syria’s optimism for 2013.”  Pravda (English), January 25, 2013.

Mackey, Robert.  “Stunning Images of Destroyed Syrian City.” Blog.   The New York Times, July 31, 2013.

Skelton, Charlie.  “The Syrian opposition: who’s doing the talking?”  The Guardian, July 12, 2013:

“The sand is running out of the hour glass,” said Hillary Clinton on Sunday. So, as the fighting in Syria intensifies, and Russian warships set sail for Tartus, it’s high time to take a closer look at those who are speaking out on behalf of the Syrian people.”

Sky News.  “Syria: Dramatic Images of Destruction in Homs.”  July 30, 2013.

Star Tribune.  “Senators press Pentagon to end helicopter contract with Russian arms exporter tied to Syria.”  August 5, 2013:

WASHINGTON — Twelve Republican and Democratic senators are calling on the Pentagon to cancel all contracts to buy helicopters for Afghan security forces from a state-run Russian arms exporter that is a top weapons supplier to the Syrian government.

Ya Libnan.  “Russian ships transferring Hezbollah fighters to Syria: Idris.”  July 25, 2013 (bold italics mine):

General Salim Idris, the head of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) accused Russia of using its ships in the Mediterranean to transfer Hezbollah fighters from Beirut , Lebanon directly to the mostly Alawite province of Tartus in western Syria.

In an interview with the Turkish Anadolu News Agency he also accused Russia and Iran of supplying the Syrian army with 400 tons of ammunition every ten days.

Wikipedia.  “List of heritage sites damaged during Syrian civil war”.