Tag Archives: Syria

Syria – Brief – It Gets Worse

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

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Syria has one thing going for it today: the world cares.  If it continues on its course, if civil and internecine war continue “building down” Syrian infrastructure and social structure along lines more familiar to Mogadishu than Damascus, the world — the communities of the caring and of the politicos — may shift attention to containing the meltdown while letting the fighting move around in its own wasteland.

The UN had this to say today:

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children.

UN News Centre.  “Syria at risk of sliding further into chaos, senior UN officials tell Security Council.”  July 16, 2013.

I’ve little to add to that except, perhaps, to call the Syrian Devolution a war between criminals, brigands, liars, and thieves, from the top offices of the state right down to its blood-spattered fields and streets.

Aid groups and United Nations officials are pleading with the Syrian government and armed opposition groups to allow access to unarmed civilians, saying crimes against humanity “are the rule” as fighting rages on in the Syrian civil war.

VOA News.  “UN Officials: War Crimes Now ‘The Rule’ in Syria.”  July 16, 2013.

Salim Idris may be the one decent presence on the ground in Syria, but he is bucking atop a wild horse badgered or infiltrated by Al Qaeda / Taliban-type (“Islamist”) fighters.

There are times I wonder why “unarmed civilians” remain unarmed and “moderate rebel units” seem unable to prove themselves as vicious and ruthless as the immoderate forces that have appeared to undermine them.

I’ve updated reference at the top of a recent post, “Syria Taliban–Brief Aggregation,” (July 15, 2013) as the more stable governments involved seem to be missing intelligence, or trying to catch up, within the Syrian theater.

Reference

Dettmer, Jamie.  “WFP Seeks More Money to Cope with Syrian Crisis.”  VOA, July 16, 2013.

Euronews.  “UN: Syrian conflict is the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 20 years.”  July 16, 2013.

Sherlock, Ruth and Colin Freeman.  “David Cameron accused of betraying Syrian rebels.”  The Telegraph, July 15, 2013.

Tutu, Demond.  “We are all shamed by Syria’s suffering.”  The Elders, March 25, 2013.

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Syria Taliban — Brief Aggregation

15 Monday Jul 2013

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Update 7/16/2013

Officials will catch up with the war just as soon as it moves farther away from them and far into the Twilight Zone of Language in which lying may tell more about states of affairs — and the character of motives involved — than truth telling.

* * *

AFP.  “Syria: child among nine executed at checkpoint, watchdog groups says.”  The Telegraph, July 16, 2013.

Al Jazeera.  “Pakistan Taliban says its fighters in Syria.”  July 16, 2013.

PTI.  “Pakistan verifying reports of Taliban fighting in Syria.”  DNA, July 16, 2013.

Roggio, Bill.  “Hundreds of Pakistani jihadists reported in Syria.”  Threat Matrix, The Long War Journal, July 14, 2013.

VOA.  “Pakistan Denies Local Taliban Has Sent Hundreds of Fighters to Syria.”

* * *

So awful has the Syrian melee become, but this precisely in the manner of the Islamic Small Wars’ “hot zones”, that even eagle-eyed satellites probably can’t tell much about who (from where) is fighting whom (from where).

Send in the spies and wish them luck because if any get out information — much less survive — on behalf of any of the interests involved, that data has to come from either direct witness or a additional primary sources that may well be lying themselves.

Main Ramble

Most travellers (STET) must have a visa to enter Syria; the only exceptions are citizens of Arab countries. Obtain a visa before arriving at the border, preferably in your home country, well before your trip. Avoid applying in a country that’s not your own or that you don’t hold residency for as the Syrian authorities don’t like this.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/syria/practical-information/visas#ixzz2Z94ewuqn

Ahmed Ressam, the focus of this FRONTLINE report, was somewhat of an expert in fake passports. He used a counterfeit French passport to enter Canada and apply for political asylum. While living there, he supplied fake Canadian passports to other Algerians. And he used a fake Canadian passport under the alias of Benni Noris in his failed attempt to enter the United States and bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

Zill, Oriana.  “Crossing Borders: How Terrorists Use Fake Passports, Visas, and Other Identity Documents.”  Frontline, PBS, n.d.

Apparently, the lawful go to the bother of obtaining authentic passports and entry visas while the unlawful do much the same in pursuit of inauthentic passports and visas.

🙂

As with proposed firearms laws in the U.S., the lawful are to have the registered and traceable weapons, leaving the unlawful with unregistered and less traceable weapons.

No news here, huh?

😦

The appearance of the Taliban in the Syrian theater underscores the notion (mentioned here several times) that Syria is “dark energy”, an imploding star, the black hole of the Islamic Small Wars: it sucks in energy and plainly burns without end in sight.

* * *

However, one may ask, who has gotten out?

Russia has evacuated the last of its personnel from Syria, including from its Mediterranean naval base in Tartus, in a move that appears to underline Moscow’s mounting concerns about the escalating crisis.

Elder, Miriam and Ian Black.  “Russia withdraws its remaining personnel from Syria.”  The Guardian, June 26, 2013.

Of course, the figures of who has been trying to get away from combat in Syria hovers around four million in combined internally displaced and refugee persons.

If the dead may be considered those who also left, then add about 100,000 to whatever the total figure may be of persons unavailable for fighting.

At the moment, there seem to be about 200 civilians trapped in a Damascus mosque (e.g., Sky News, “Syria: 200 Civilians ‘Trapped in Mosque’,” July 15, 2013).

Gulf News / Retuers reports, “In Qaboun, Republican Guards troops detained hundreds of people in public places to prevent rebel fighters from hitting government troops as they breached rebel defences and entered the district, activists said” (“Syria: Bashar Al Assad’s forces advance on rebel-held Qaboun,” July 15, 2013).

If the above sentence said to you other than “Assad’s forces use human shields,” please remark on the alternative reading.

* * *

Ye know the co-producers by their music!

What happens in Syria should stay in Syria.

Update 1/22/2014: the music was Russian, grand, so I recall.  Evidently, the suggestion has been removed.  I’ll leave the pulled-abandoned tiles up for a while. / I believe Mr. Putin holds the keys to Syria, an old Soviet client, now a potential New Russia Secular state because Russians, foremost, and most everyone else have no want of who’s been laying down the law lately in some Syrian enclaves:

Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists impose Islamic rules, ban music, shisha in Syrian province — RT News – 1/21/2014.

* * *

But it doesn’t.

The wounded refugees were kicked out of the hospital by force, thrown on the side of the adjacent roads, despite the presence of seriously wounded and paralyzed individuals.

Nmsyria.  “Wounded Syrians Kicked Out of Lebanese Hospital.”  July 15, 2013.

Related video:

* * *

While many clearly oppose the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his security forces, others appear indifferent. Abu Hamza, a driver, now lives with his family in a dusty canvas tent. “I didn’t go to protests. I’m not political,” he says. “We left because of the shelling and the sniping”.

Sammonds, Neil.  “A visit to the Za’atri camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan: ‘I wish I could invite you into the beautiful house we had back home.”  Live Wire (Amnesty’s global human rights blog), July 15, 2013.

* * *

Syria has become a death camp.

It has become the place between a decayed Soviet-Era dictatorship and a boisterous but malignant and deeply narcissistic global totalitarian religious assault.

Syria has become the place where fighters go to fight — nationalist, Islamists, Sunni rebels, Shiite militants — and the place of catastrophe for four million lives disrupted and uprooted “because of the shelling and the sniping.”

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Additional Reference

AP.  “Pakistan’s religious extremists leave for ‘greener pastures’.”  Dawn, July 15, 2013.

Golovnina, Maria and Jibran Ahmad  “Pakistan Taliban set up camps in Syria, join anti-Assad war.”  Reuters, July 14, 2013.

Leigh, Karen.  “War Comes to a Damascus Private School.”  Syria Deeply, July 1, 2013.

Mobarak, Haider.  Taliban: The Tip of a Holy Iceberg.  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010.

Roggio, Bill.  “Pakistani Taliban establish ‘base’ inside Syria.”  The Long War Journal, July 12, 2013.

RT.  “Syrian rebels’ Damascus chemical cache found by Assad army – State TV.”  July 14, 2013.

Yusufzai, Mushtaq.  “Pakistani Taliban: ‘We sent hundreds of fighters’ to Syria.”  NBC News, July 15, 2013.

Syria Impression – The Look of It Online

12 Friday Jul 2013

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* * *

The look of Syria online is a mess, of course, with the stickiest part becoming the internecine war between rebel forces, one part Islamic moderates, so intimated in coverage, intent on deposing President Bashir al-Assad with help from Saudi Arabia in complex alignment with the west, the other part Jihadists of, roughly, the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” determined to make Syria but a stepping stone in the establishment of a global caliphate.

Throughout the Islamic Small Wars, the collapse of physical fronts, literally physical boundaries, margins, and fixed front lines keep the encounters and road blocks moving around the landscape, which today, so damaged, in places so depopulated, in others so ad hoc and weirdly organized, I would call painted with the fragments of a new frontier.

Still, Assad’s state remains where it has so far managed to remain.

From Al-Akhbar English:

Visitors to Damascus will find that they are not the only ones rediscovering the city. The capital’s own residents are reacquainting themselves with its neighborhoods and geography, trying to keep up morale in the face of a deepening crisis.

Zaraket, Maha.  “Damascus: The Military Geography of Normalcy.”  Al-Akhbar English, July 12, 2013.

* * *

Who knows what to think as regards Syria’s fate somewhere between its brutal and disingenuous dictatorship, its seemingly well intended base of rebels willing to support a secular civil democracy, and its AQ-type rovers far gone on their own trip but also powerful in their agility, arms, and ruthlessness in the field?

As I type, I do wonder about “news aggregation” — so here is the snapshot of what I drifted through in information this morning — and I also wonder how long before those of us scanning war reportage from our computers start hooking into live feeds.

Twitter’s coming close, but what I read, of course, is what you read coming off AP, BBC, CNN, Reuters, and other feeds.

The Jihad videos from the field that show up with “0” views are a little different: those could be flying on to the web by phone or laptop at close to real time, but how to vet them without getting further into those labyrinths?

* * *

* * *

Live Leak.  “Deranged dictator assad orders more of Syria’s capital destroyed: (July 12th, ’13).  Videos.

* * *

The Free Syrian Army commander, stocky, bearded, dressed in camouflage, oozed menace and seethed with righteous anger.

We were speaking about the biggest jihadi group in Syria, the Nusra Front, who had kidnapped his brother.

BBC.  “Syrian rebel fighters’ civil war within a civil war.”  July 12, 2013.

* * *

“We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us,” a senior FSA commander said on condition of anonymity after members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant killed Kamal Hamami on Thursday.

“We are going to wipe the floor with them,” he said.

Reuters.  “New Front Opens in Syria as Rebels Say Al-Qaida Attack Means War.”  VOA, July 12, 2013.

* * *

“One has to concentrate on their strongholds and on their dwellings and their infrastructure. If (Alawites) continue living as they’re doing in peace and safety while wedded to the regime they will not be affected. They will not think of abandoning Assad,” said Islamist Sheikh Anas Ayrout.

Oweis, Khaled Yacoub.  “Syrian rebel sheikh calls for war on Assad’s Alawite heartland.”  Al Arabiya, July 10, 2013.

* * *

Published June 7, 2013:

* * *

Since then I’ve spent – I don’t know, many, many times, always undercover, clandestinely, always alone [in Syria]. I don’t keep count, but I was basically spending a week of every month in my home base, Beirut, and the rest of the time I was on the road, in Syria and Turkey.

I don’t use fixers, I don’t use translators. I don’t have anybody giving me tips. It’s just me.

Leigh, Karen.  “One on One: Rania Abouzeid, Journalist.”  Syria Deeply, July 12, 2013.

* * *

In north-eastern Syria, al-Nusra finds itself in command of massive silos of wheat, factories, oil and gas fields, fleets of looted government cars and a huge weapons arsenal.

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith.  “Syria’s al-Nusra Front – ruthless, organised, and taking control.”  The Guardian, July 10, 2013.

I referenced the above a day or two ago.  Basically, the greater the chaos introduced to the field, the greater the potential for the armed and ruthless to impose their will in patches, a condition not much different than that familiar to Somalis since Said Barre’s step-down and the ensuing anarchy and conflict latent in the motivations of powers left on the land.

Additional Reference

Free Syria Media Hub

Syria – Note – Manipulating Hearts and Minds

11 Thursday Jul 2013

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“Go and ask the people in the streets whether there a liberated town or city anywhere in Syria that is ruled as efficiently as this one,” he boasted. “There is electricity, water and bread and security. Inshallah, this will be the nucleus of a new Syrian Islamic caliphate!”

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith.  “Syria’s al-Nusra Front — ruthless, organised, and taking control.” The Guardian, July 10, 2013.

“Out, out, out, the (Islamic) State (of Iraq and Syria) must get out,” protesters shouted at a rally in the northern town of Manbij this week, referring to an Al-Qaeda front group.
The video of the demonstration is one of many showing how civilians and mainstream rebel fighters alike are turning against the more hardline Islamist factions.

Assif, Serene. “Syria jihadists lose support as abuses mount.” Fox News, July 22, 2013.

* * *

Every story that has appeal, whether fact or fiction, has a moral center, and the writer who can tease it out fast has got a hooked reader.

This is about where we started with the Syrian revolt — a little more than two years ago, a sorry fact reflected in the statement, “1300 people have been killed since the protests began”):

Then almost two years and 90,000 corpses later, we get to the guy intent on frightening his foes in the medieval way (well, take it back to ancient Greece or earlier) by carving out a man’s chest cavity, grabbing an organ, and taking a bite or appearing so (see Paul Wood’s “Face-to-face with Abu Sakkar, Syria’s ‘heart-eating cannibal’,” BBC, July 3, 2013).

At the moment, thereabouts, Arab and Russian media seem to be playing “hot potato” over who has got the chemical weapons, whose side is more brutal, and whose side is more deserving in regard to winning one for modernity.

* * *

To fill out that last statement a bit, I may note an RT blog said today, “M16 warning: ‘Catastrophe’ if chemical weapons fall into Al-Qaeda hands” (RT, July 11, 2013).

Back in April, however, the story seemed to have been running in the other direction.  Al Jazeera’s header (April 26, 2013): “Suspicion grows over Syria chemical weapons: UK prime minister backs US spy agencies’ assessment that Damascus likely to have used sarin gas against civilians.”

Again, come forward on the latest toss of the hot potato:

Moscow now appears to have conclusive evidence that it is the rebels who are guilty of the March chemical attack in Aleppo which killed dozens of Syrians. This comes as the United States continues to put the blame on the Assad government. However, Corbyn says that any such proof may not bring the Syrian conflict any closer to a resolution.

RT.  “Hard evidence of chemical weapons use ‘does not solve Syrian issue’.”  Op-ed and interview with Jeremy Corbyn, MP, British Labour Party, July 11, 2013.

* * *

The “moral center” in Syria’s unfolding tragedy revolves around barbarism and cruelty, fascism and totalitarianism, and then among those holding up the cash and sending in the weapons, some effort to prove more likely to be kind when the tide turns their way.  While Qatari and NATO interests have pointed their fingers at the Assad regime and its chemical weapons stores, Russia, presumably sided with Assad — but it’s hard to tell with the quiet exit that has left Tartus abandoned —  and tolerant about Iran, points back at rebel chemists (see, for example, “Syria rebels made own sarin gas, says Russia,” Al Jazeera, July 10, 2013).

In earlier days, the same would have had a perfect villain in Maher al-Assad — I think there’s still on the web a video of him allegedly shooting across a street into a crowd of passersby (found it)  — but his presence has been dimmed in the theater, and in his place one may find grand Syrian defense recruiting videos composed in the old muscular Soviet way (the video that ends this post may say more about that than I will here).

In and around Syria, those who may pretend their hands are clean must know that brutality loses, the tyrannical will not be tolerated, and the cruel will not go unpunished.

Anti-Assad footage published today:

The next opens with a title slate claiming, “Syrian women had no choice but to carry weapons and train on using them to defend themselves and families from the Wahhabi Sex Jihadists, they joined the National Defense Forces.”

Enjoy the music!

Additional Reference

Wheeler, William.  “Why the World’s ‘Responsibility to Protect” Extends to Libya But Not Syria.”  Pulitzer Center, April 12, 2012.

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Syria – Of Refugees and Bloody Optimists

09 Tuesday Jul 2013

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Described by some foreign relief officials as a ‘”five-star camp”, the Emirati-funded operation is a study in contrasts with Zaatari, the chaotic, sprawling UN-run camp that is home to 120,000 and is described as Jordan’s fifth-largest city.

Reed, John.  “‘Five-star’ refugee camp illustrates Gulf’s growing role in Syria.”  Financial Times, July 1, 2013.

**

Jordanian soldiers in riot gear try to keep order in a crowd desperate to get back to Syria. More than 9,000 headed home in June, according to the official Jordanian count.

Amos, Deborah.  “Reversing Direction, Some Syrian Refugees Now Head Home.”  Parallels, NPR, July 8, 2013.

Deborah Amos reports Jordan as hosting today 500,000 Syrian refugees.

**

The UN says nearly 90,000 Syrians have registered with the High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt.

But the actual number of Syrians who have sought refuge in Egypt is believed to be much higher, in part because the country did not require Syrians to have visas until this week.

AFP.    “Syrian refugees to Egypt facing restrictions following unrest.”  thejournal.ie., July 9, 2013.

**

For Lebanon, UNHCR reports 503,724 registered refugees and an additional 84,071 awaiting registration (“Syria Regional Refugee Response: Lebanon”, viewed today).

**

According to figures obtained by Kirisci from government sources, Turkey is currently hosting close to half a million Syrian refugees. As of mid-June, over 200,000 reside in one refugee camp, while nearly 290,000 live outside these camps. Around 100,000 internally placed Syrians are reported to be awaiting entry into Turkey.

Idiz, Semih.  “Turkey’s Syria Refugee Crisis.”  Turkey Pulse, Al Monitor, July 2, 2013.

**

Also Monday, the newly elected head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Ahmad Jarba, told Reuters news agency he expects advanced weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia to reach rebel fighters soon, strengthening their military position.

VOA News.  “Syrian Fighting Intensifies, Rebels Expect Weapons.”  July 8, 2013.

The fall last week of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prompted a defiant Assad to proclaim the defeat of political Islam. The Brotherhood’s Syrian branch, already under pressure from more radical opposition groups, was dealt a psychological blow that comes on top of delays to promised supplies of weapons from Washington.

Reuters.  “Analysis: Confident Assad sees Syria tide turning.”  The Jerusalem Post, July 9, 2013.

* * * * *

Now there’s a picture.

Qatar and Company, heavily backing the Syrian Revolt (so far — Assad’s still in Damascus and his army is still fighting), have also plunged some money into producing a somewhat comfy, modern, and well administered model refugee camp for families (single men have to drift with the riffraff elsewhere) while remaining confident that some adjustment in the arms mix will hasten the end of the Reign of Assad.

Assad himself seems to remain a believer.

I have much, much less confidence in those confident that they will win . . . something.

Within Islam as al-Nusra and others may have it, “winning” will not lead to freedom but rather the imposition of their own sanguine tyranny.

For most involved in developing and sustaining the abysmal crisis in Syria, their history will not be written by “the winners” but rather by dowdy old historians poring over casualty figures, displacements, communique, rhetoric, bank transfers, arms shipments, manufacturer’s labels, newspaper clippings — or online ones like this one — and weighing within their independent souls the various causes and effects.

Some may stumble upon the role language has played in the nightmare, for Syria, perhaps more than in any corresponding contemporary conflict, points out a failing in language and mind by way of the beliefs and rhetoric driving toward so much suffering: that “content of mind” has had little to do with anyone’s day to day experience in living and the many challenges encountered, from making some money to attending to the happiness and security of children.

Instead, black and white thinking, extraordinary greed, unbridled egotism, and magical thinking all look away from the horror created by their possession or diminish the same — more than 90,000 dead, upwards of four million internally displaced or refugee — by way of language attending deflection of responsibility and the denial of the depth of the misery and depravity involved.

Is the good cause Alewite, Shiite, or Sunni?

Is it about cash in the till for a family and everyone else depending on that family be damned?

Is it about nobility?

What matter the purity of the white robes where the soles of the sandals remain  always wet with blood?

The civil war, noble cause, revolt, and revolution — all deeply anachronistic, anarchic, confused, disorganized, and disorganizing — will go on.

“Geneva in these circumstances is not possible. If we are going to go to Geneva we have to be strong on the ground, unlike the situation now, which is weak,” al-Jarba said July 7 after returning from the northern Syrian province of Idlib, where he met commanders of rebel brigades.

Huriyet Daily News.  “Saudi arms will arrive soon: Syria rebel chief.”  July 9, 2013.

Additional Reference

Reuters.  “Syrian opposition head expects advanced weapons to reach rebels.”  Al Arabiya, July 8, 2013.

O’Connor, Sean.  “Strategic SAM Deployment in Syria.”  Air Power Australia, January 2010; updated April 2012.

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Qatar – Syria – Keep Watch

30 Sunday Jun 2013

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The missiles, American officials warned, could one day be used by terrorist groups, some of them affiliated with Al Qaeda, to shoot down civilian aircraft.

But one country ignored this admonition: Qatar, the tiny, oil- and gas-rich emirate that has made itself the indispensable nation to rebel forces battling calcified Arab governments and that has been shipping arms to the Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Mazzetti, Mark, C. J. Chivers, and Eric Schmitt.  “Taking Outside Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels.”  The New York Times, June 29, 2013.

It’s mighty social of President Obama to allow others to strut their hour upon the global stage, which it appears Qatar may be doing as promotes a Sunni front in Syria by proxy.

As modern and shiny as Qatari money has made Qatar, onlookers may not be so certain about its mercenaries and their ability to restrain themselves.  The alleged murder of Roula Adnan last week adds its bit of opprobrious behavior to the eating-the-heart video that went viral earlier in the month.  I’ve hedged with “alleged” as the news reached me by way of Pakistan and involved as source a Syrian nationalist outlet given to headers like, “US Citizens Kill Deputy Head of Ministry of Education in Aleppo.”

We’re not going to have two essential empirical truths in a world integrating within the communal mind of the World Wide Web: whatever Qatar has enabled, even if spun over-the-top with canards out of the political playbooks of bomb throwers of the 1970s, what happened to Roula Adnan (and her neighbors) will come out.

And just before coming after Roula, the same “rebels”, the ones that the MSM is romanticizing broke into another home. They carried a man from Khalil family to the street and shot his hands and feet. Then they beaten up his wife and daughter, right in front of the neighbors. The terrorists wanted Syrians to witness the crime; they wanna scare us into submission.

As it does always, the fog of war will lift — but these days, it’s likely the curtains masking behind-the-scenes deals, wherever they have taken place, will be drawn back too.

# # #

Syria At the Moment

27 Thursday Jun 2013

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Hezbollah sources told the paper that Nasrallah requested full financial and military backing for the fighting in Syria in a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Solomon, Ariel Ben.  “Report: Nasrallah secretly visited Iran to discuss Syria war.”  Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2013.

The above may be news recently released, but given the pace of the combat in Syria and the spillover into Lebanon, it’s old news predating the battle for al-Qusayr.

However, one may take as signal Russia’s decision implemented today to retrieve its military from the naval base at Tartus.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has withdrawn all military personnel from its naval base in Syria and replaced them with civilian workers, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The ministry did not say when the switch at the base at Tartus took place or how many personnel were deployed there. The minor facility is Russia’s only naval outpost outside the former Soviet Union. It consists of several barracks and depots used to service Russian navy ships in the Mediterranean.

AP.  “Russia replaces military with civilians at Syrian base.”  USA Today, June 27, 2013.

Ah hah!

“We have neither servicemen nor civilians in Syria anymore. Or Russian military instructors assigned to units of the Syrian regular Army, for that matter,” a Russian defense ministry spokesperson is quoted as telling the Moscow business daily Vedomosti yesterday.”

Weir, Fred.  “Why Russia evacuated its naval base in Syria.”  The Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2013.

Fred Weir points to Cyprus as an alternative achieving similar ends for Russian naval power and regional influence.

Put that together with this Euronews video from January this year (tipped by a CSM article):

While according to RT, “Russia’s Defense Ministry . . . blasted media reports about total evacuation as “extremely incorrect,” it’s difficult accepting the statement while looking at today’s breaking news and January apparent exodus of civilians by jet (RT, “Russian Defense Ministry refutes reports of Syria evacuation,” June 27, 2013).  In fact, RT goes on to actually emphasize aspects of the surface or top story.

Putin’s interests, whether defined financially for the long term or in terms of impact on his reputation in history, which I think more important to him than casually acknowledged, are not with “Islamists” — not in Chechnya with the rebels of the Kavkaz Center variety, not with Iran with Ayatollah Khamenei and his nuclear ambitions that would be used to threaten Russia every bit as much — more — as NATO.

For Putin, the restoration of Russian grandeur and strength, plus strength in national  and heroic self-concept, may involve navigating the balance between “bad boy” bravado and action with, actually (gasp!) even greater laudable strategy.

Whatever Putin does, he will be regarded as the bridge between the conniving, defunct, invasive police state that by the merit of the Russian People themselves had come to define the Soviet Union and this New Russian Federation that’s not about to take orders from Washington but might succeed in doing great right things on its own authority.

Most certainly, modern Russians will not want to be remembered for — or long associated with either — with the ravages of Maher al-Assad’s military, and while “the west” can take no pride in backing the kind of warrior that would cut out the liver out of his enemy and eat it, the Russian position, which appears to be decoupling from Syria, sails clear of the taint of that barbarism, albeit later than sooner with regard to the casualties and refugees of the war to date.

The problem with Syria, at the moment, and one of many problems within the Islamic Ummah, is that along the sectarian axis, neither side knows how to stop and both continue to walk toward a fire built on and sustained by their own unrestrained and unreasoning energies.

Additional Reference

Connolly, Kevin.  “Syria war exerts strain on Lebanon tinderbox.”  BBC, June 27, 2013.

Deutsch, Anthony and Parisa Hafezi.  “U.N. chemical weapons team in Turkey to investigate Syria claims.”  Reuters, June 27, 2013.

Fisk, Robert.  “Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria.”  The Independent, June 16, 2013.

Nebehay, Stephanie.  “Syria war likely to drag on, Red Cross president says.”  Reuters, June 27, 2013.

ROAvideos.  “Defining the Threat: Iranian Strategy in Syria.”  Video (1:38:23).  June 27, 2013.

Syria – The Dismal Killing Machine

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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LONDON — An opposition monitoring group that has tracked Syria’s widening civil war said on Wednesday that more than 100,000 people had died in the 27-month-old conflict, with pro-government forces taking far more casualties than rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, while civilians accounted for more than one-third of the overall fatalities, the biggest single category.

Cowell, Alan.  “Syrian Group Says War Deaths Top 100,000.”  The New York Times, June 26, 2013.

Perhaps the old days were better after all: assemble the armies on an open plain, send the warriors into it, and leave the noncombatants of both sides for the spoils of the winner.

Just kidding.

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“As always, numbers like these gloss over the many people who have been so grievously wounded, physically or psychologically, that they will never again live productive lives. What the latter figure amounts to in Syria is anyone’s guess. What’s certain is that it’s even larger than the death toll.”

Menon, Rajan.  “Hope for Peace in Syria, But Don’t Expect It.”  Blog.  Huffington Post, June 26, 2013.

Rajan Menon’s report on the suffering goes on to note 1.7 million refugees on top of 4 million Internally Displaced Persons, or 5.7 million displaced souls altogether, about 25 percent of Syria’s total population before the onset of serious hostilities (but I’m not sure I’m getting consistent numbers from any source published within the past two years).

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“In one trailer we meet 13-year-old Najwa. She curls back in the corner next to her husband, 19-year-old Khaled, and her mother, hardly saying a word.

Najwa is the youngest of three, her two older sisters in their late teens are also recently married.”

Damon, Arwa.  “No sanctuary for Syria’s female refugees.”  CNN, June 26, 2013.

Evidently, grim statistics don’t tell a whole story, or not much of whatever is to be told at all.

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“The head of the International Terrorism Observatory think tank, Roland Jacquard, told Reuters Television the group appeared to be sending fighters abroad, likely to Syria.”

Pennetier, Marine and Alexandria Sage.  “French police arrest cell with possible Syria links.” Reuters, June 25, 2013.

A cousin of a story.

Reuters.  “Spain arrests suspected al-Qaeda Syria network.”  Video.  June 22, 2013.

“Special informed sources from London revealed to the Palestinian al-Manar newspaper that the British security forces arrested early June a group of 11 terrorists in London who had come back from Syria where they were involved in the fighting there.”

Syrian Arab News Agency.  “British authorities arrest terrorists who fought in Syria.”  June 19, 2013.

Wars draw volunteers.  It’s a shame the one in Syria draws teenage ones.  Belgium dealt with this issue back in April of this year:

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Thanks to Ken Hanley at Digital Journal for playing this thematically related clip last week in his op-ed, “Many Foreign fighters involved in Syria on both sides” (Digital Journal, June 19, 2013).

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While Israel’s cardinal military defense rule seems to remain, “Do not intervene; do not interfere” (DM Yaalon), Israel’s first virtue would seem to remain compassion to the extent that it may provide that.

“The two boys, 9 and 15 years old, were transferred to Ziv Hospital in Safed for treatment. The 9-year-old suffered moderate injuries from shrapnel wounds across his body and lost his right eye, according to a report by Maariv. The 15-year-old was listed in serious condition, according to the report.”

Times of Israel.  “Minors wounded in Syrian fighting brought to Israel.”  June 26, 2013.

Every wounded Syrian is guarded by either an IDF soldier or by a civilian security guard in an attempt to isolate them from speaking with anyone unauthorized to do so who might photograph them or pass on their information to Syria, potentially harming them or their families upon their eventual return to Syria.

As stated, more than a 100 wounded Syrians have crossed the border in recent months. Some 70 of them have been taken to Israeli hospitals, and two have passed away as a result of their injuries.

Zitun, Yoav.  “More than 100 wounded Syrians receive care in Israel.”  YNet News, June 26, 2013.

After 2,000 years or so, Hillel’s negatively stated dictum seems to hold.  “That which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another” — and certainly, the choice between enabling or denying access to hospital services related well to that.

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“The request came in a letter handed to Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Harel Locker at a meeting with Druze leaders on the Golan Heights Thursday. The letter included an unprecedented request for Israel to take in Druze students who had left the Golan and settled in Syria, Maariv reported.”

Gur, Haviv Rettig.  “Druze leaders ask Israel to take in Syrian brethren.”  Times of Israel, June 23, 2013.

What would Hillel do?

Druze along the Golan have served both in the IDF and in Syria’s defense forces according to their decisions about citizenship and location, and with the fighting as I’ve described — “Two mad wasps in a bell jar” — Israeli Druze are seeking sanctuary for their relatives.

God knows God would seem to give Jews the toughest ethical and survival challenges.

Both.

At the same time.

Providing infirmary to wounded to be turned back into the field — and who want to be returned to their land — is one thing.

Affording sanctuary to those endangered by this war that only loosely respects boundaries and seems absent of compassion and conscience both in relation to innocents, noncombatants, neutral parties, and so on makes for a more difficult decision.

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