Tag Archives: Putin

Syria – A Bloody Long Goodbye to Yesterday

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

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

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Russian President Vladimir Putin may yet turn out the bad boy who knows more about good than so many goody two shoes arching up on their hind legs over the seemingly endless tragedy in Syria.

What Putin knows, I am sure, is from where has come from, the ingredients of his own frame, from poverty to KGB, from Soviet Russia to the post-Soviet FSB of his own making, from Russian heroic sports culture to the more measured testing of waters to, perhaps, restore Russian pride in empire.

Take the Tale of the Pocketed Superbowl Ring and a fast denial plus offer of complete restitution as signal of a different kind of explorer, albeit a shrewd autocrat on the make for a good deal, cash to swell out a country, a new energy industry with clout, and a little respect even from his critics.

This month’s imbroglio over anti-Gay legislation hasn’t helped Putin with either western or progressive audiences — I am certain of that — but it too may symbolize the difficulty of parting with yesterday’s story.

And Syria is all about the entire host of interests parting with yesterday’s story.

Putin first.

* * *

Throughout the Cold War, third world actors could and did manipulate Eastern and Western patrons to further their own parochial objectives or regional ambitions, and Baathist Iraq was no different in this respect.

Hughes, Geraint.  “Who used whom?  Baathist Iraq and the Cold War, 1968-1990.” The Cold War, History in Focus.  Spring, 2006.

Currently, the Syrian Communist Party officially supports the Baathist regime, although it follows the Soviet line on certain key political issues.  The party, for example, recently urged Arab terrorists to be “more responsible” in their political activities, and its delegation to the recent  international Communist conference went along in supporting the Security Council resolution of 1967 for a political solution to the Arab-Israeli crisis.  The party’s 3,000 members make it the third largest Communist Party in the Arab world, and a Communist now holds a cabinet post as minister of communications and foreign trade.

CIA Directorate of Intelligence.  “Soviet Relations with the Baathists in Iraq and Syria.”  Special Report, Weekly Review, June 27, 1969.  Approved for Release: May 2002.

1969!

What a yesteryear.

Call it a reunion: “You haven’t changed a bit” one always says, but with these –Russia and Syria, Great Britain and Saudi Arabia, Israel and God (maybe) — time has changed them some or altered their surrounds, and the bulwarks in power and sustained relationships have been eroded, and no more so than in long neglected Syria where forty-four years of competition, cultural evolution, and diplomacy on its flanks have turned a family’s military dictatorship into a merely and deeply selfish anachronism.

While RT screams bloody murder over Islamists murdering Kurds (recently) and CNN continues hammering on Syrian jets crushing targets of uncertain military validity, few, it seems, wish to take this step away from the traps laid so many decades ago (or fourteen centuries ago for Shiite and Sunni fighters motivated by what they believe about their respective labels).

* * *

I’ve no friends for whom the end of a marriage or other long-lived relationship has been not only traumatic but life changing.

Such events are not about the one thing.

Everything comes under review, and while most don’t beat themselves up with “should have done this” and “should have done that” — and they shouldn’t — they may change some principles in what I’ve come to call “social grammar”, i.e., inevitably frozen in language, the most deeply ingrained ideas and rules by which they have maintained their own program.

Even so civil a split — cloaked in mystery and, beneath the Al Jazeera clip on YouTube, accompanied by a relatively gentle public humor — would seem to support this view.

Something has changed and done so in some unalterable way.

One floats free of the past after a while, but perhaps it takes a while to do that.

* * *

Syria’s civil war, already irreversible in its effects — more than 106,000 Syrians dead because of it; more than 1.7 million refugee in surrounding states; add some more millions for displaced and homeless; cities like Aleppo and Homs ravaged or razed — should close a chapter that in retrospect may be seen as having been about several forms of intellectual poison, an aspect of conflict I suspect Putin recognizes, being himself so public, so accustomed to the development of information and the projection of image.

This too comes from the 1969 CIA report released in 2002:

“Moscow has never had much political influence in Syria, a xenophobic country that has known little other than periodic power struggles over the past 20 years.  Moscow’s virtual inability to moderate Damascus’ hard-line posture has been, in fact, the only constant factor in the shifting Soviet-Syrian relationship” (page 7).

Fourty-four years of that same old same old.

Time for a change?

* * *

No longer completely opposite the Russian course and sensibility, Cameron and Obama may have to tell Qatar that it may not always get what it wants.  That too would depart from yesterday, but as much Qatar may already know, having rushed an heir to the throne.

That too may depart from yesterday’s story, one of several that have been run to ground and drowned in blood and suffering for years to come.

The World Wide Web has changed how the world experiences its one separable experiences: now we can see what we are doing in light of what we have done, and we cannot but help see all of that laid out in the sun together.

Reference – Odds and Ends

Curry, Ann.  “Putin’s marriage to end after nearly 30 years.” NBC Nightly News, June 6, 2013.

Malpas, Anna.  “First Gagarin film turns Soviet idol into new Russian hero.”  The Daily Star, June 19, 2013.

RT.  “Russia won’t supply outstanding S-300s to Syria until mid-2014 – report.”  August 9, 2013.

RT.  “Syrian split a real danger due to wars within war.”  Interview with Phyllis Bennis.  August 9, 2013.

RT Russiapedia.  “Prominent Russians: Vasily Zaitsev”.

Sargsyan, Irena L.  “How to End the War in Syria.”  The Daily Beast, August 13, 2013.

Wikipedia.  “Heroic realism”.

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Syria – Putin’s Blind Spot – Obama’s Misstep

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

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

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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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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”.

Each Name Opens To A Universe

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eurasia, Free Speech, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, North America, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Russia, Syria

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Hours before his arrest, Abdelke had signed a petition that averred (here’s where Chrome’s translate option comes in handy) “support to the forces of the revolution who advocate the establishment of a pluralistic democracy” and “desire for a peaceful solution to stop the bloodshed and to preserve national unity and territorial integrity, which involves the departure of Bashar al-Assad and pillars of his regime.

http://artfcity.com/2013/08/01/the-web-petitions-to-free-syrian-artist-youssef-abdelke/

Youssef Abdelke — never hard of him before two minutes ago — but as one who has learned the ways of the World Wide Web, the third minute opens on eternity.

(Reuters) – Syrian government forces have detained a dissident left-wing painter in a new wave of arrests of non-violent critics of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition groups said on Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/19/us-syria-crisis-arrests-idUSBRE96I0LP20130719

“A place to share art, uninhibited without a bunch of stupid ass rules. A place to help your fellow page owners grow and succeed. A group to have fun with no dictator shoving shit down your throat and bowing down. A group to be FREE to help as you see fit. A group to rock the fuck on!”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/639798962716250/

It’s a closed Facebook group, one to which I would apply if I were shooting the local downtrodden as opposed, say, to the leisured, business, and community development classes.

Nonetheless, “Art and FREEDOM”, my soul is with you and your author, Youssef Abdelke.

* * *

I really don’t know why Putin darkens his role in history by keeping in his hand with  the Ayatollah’s Iran and the Assad’s Syria.

* * *

Novelist Daniel Silva has a great deal of fun with the “Russian President” — in fiction, merely a character, never named, nothing more than coincidental with anything or anyone in reality, in his latest best seller The English Girl.

As a fiction writer, Silva’s actually, probably, one of the very best political analysts on the international stage, and while playing that role through his characters and plots, the Russian President looms large and rightly so for the behind-the-curtain strategy pursued by the post-Soviet oligarchs  of the Latest and Greatest in Russian States.

As we know about narcissists and narcissistic hunger and supply, they are ultimately about themselves, and whatever their charms, political and social, may be.  Not that Bashir Assad has enjoyed abundance in dimension, but it’s the Russian President who has been most quiet on the obscenity of a state that deploys jets to suppress, at first, a small challenge to its authority.

While the Syria of 2010 has been destroyed, culturally, socially, structurally, one might note that Russia, in her defense, has ferried both the larger part of its civilian and military presence out of the country — not exactly a show of confidence, that, but not exactly either a show of humanist resolve.

The world wonders at the conundrum that has pit a brutal dictatorship against partially but deeply virulent Islamist forces.  There is in that aspect of Syria’s agony the “no good dog in the fight” and the “black hole” of the Islamic Small Wars constructed of a contempt, hatred, and self-contempt in the inhumanity that draws in military energy and burns without end.

Nearly one hundred thousand dead and four million displaced in Syria’s furnace and neither of two of the most powerful statesmen of our era either cares to or knows how to shut it down.

Instead of the kumbaya “reset” between the states and the federation (how young is Obama?), Putin appears to be draining the former plus NATO by keeping the oven hot while avoiding, rightly, the imposition of another Chechnya in its sphere of influence.  And yet . . . the Assad regime was the Soviet’s monster, and one would think that after 1991 the state would have been concerned with other than filling its pockets in collusion with it for another 22 years.

But that perhaps would have been too caring, too ethical.

Too English.

* * *

While the superpowers dick around with trivial issues like Snowden, Syria, in part, draws to it the “worst of the worst” — or just the most spirited — of fighters representing Shiite and Sunni Islam, those two angry wasps someone left in a bell jar separating their concerns from the much, much greater world surrounding.

On a portion of that, I would blame the west.

We’ve done business, haven’t we, for how many years?

And barely a word, most certainly few, if any, of outrage in regard to humanity and human rights in the contained but also dark medieval quarters of the globe.

So why not leave them — today in Syria, tomorrow perhaps in Egypt or somewhere else — in their own mess?

Whether the President of the Free World or that of the Russian Empire, is it incumbent on either to reorganize a middle east state as a pet humanitarian project?

There are, of course, other ambitions in the mix, much including Iran’s and Qatar’s, but one may one wonder between them whether either will wake up from their dream or with history pass away into it.

* * *

Prestige matters.

As a Jew, I may wonder how global memory will treat of today’s powerful in the days beyond their reclamation by the earth.

Additional Reference

Kasparov, Garry.  “Putin Toys with Obama as Syria Burns and Snowden Runs Free.” The Daily Beast.  July 2, 2013.

Official Site of the Bureau International des Expositions.

RT.  “At least 600 Russians and Europeans fighting alongside Syrian opposition – Putin.”  June 21, 2013.

World Bulletin News Desk.  “Erdogan, Putin discuss Syria and Egypt.”  August 5, 2013.

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Bloody Syria May Turn Out Putin’s Problem After All

22 Monday Jul 2013

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

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Displaced: six million.

You know I didn’t want to see that number.

Dead: 93,000 estimated

Not that I’m happy with that one either.

For the time being, Obama and NATO may be taking the heat in relation to the assembly of Syria’s civil war and its mix of ends, including the neutralization of Iran, and interests, including expansion of Sunni influence in the middle east.

However, the old Soviet relationship with the Assad regime and whatever updates or transformations have attended Vladimir Putin’s time at the helm of the Russian Ship of State will most certainly haul Putin back to the hot lights on the world stage.

At this time, he has gotten the Russian Navy out of Tartus and enabled Russian civilian citizens in Syria to leave en masse over time.

If Putin wishes to promote Russian influence with the Syria to come, if he wishes to one day leave a good record of his accomplishments for Russia (that as opposed to having the phantoms of his enemies emerge to steal that light from him), he’s going to have to intercede soon on behalf of the humanity affected, and this especially in light of measures taken to equip the Assad regime to remain at war to this point.

This is not to ascribe to Putin responsibility for Assad excesses or rebel barbarism, which latter he has used well to embarrass Obama; it is to suggest he take some measures in concert with others to damp the Syrian furnace or, alternatively, involve Russia immediately in broad humanitarian amelioration of the effects of the war.

This next I’ve copied from “The Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”:

15.07.2013

On supply of Russian humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees in the territory of Syria

 On July 11, two aircrafts of the Emergencies Ministry of Russia delivered 70 tons of urgent humanitarian aid to Latakia for Palestinian refugees in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, including food and other essentials.

The government of Palestine, as well as the Palestinian refugees with deep gratitude perceived this Russian humanitarian action effected with proper level of security on behalf of Syrian authorities.

The Russian Federation will continue providing required humanitarian aid to the friendly Palestinian people both in the bilateral format and in the line of specialised international organisation.

Has this movie not been shown before?

I thought it had ended about 21 years and seven months ago even though to some it would seem like only last week — or as if it didn’t happen at all.

Be that as it may, while the world, much less “the government of Palestine” (which one?) most certainly appreciates the shipment to Syria of other than shore-to-ship missiles, one might expect a little more effort on general terms from the modern Putin-guided (one way to put it) democracy.

Reference

AP.  “Activists: 75 Syria rebels dead in Damascus.”  USA Today, July 22, 2013.

BBC.  “Syrian conflict: ‘Troops kills [STET] 13 family members’.”  July 21, 2013.

Bright, Arthur.  “Syria death toll climbs as West label civil war a stalemate.”  The Christian Science Monitor, July 22, 2013.

Solomon, Erika.  “Syrian opposition forces fighting each other.”  World News / Reuters, July 21, 2013.

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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.

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.

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.

* * *

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.