War in Syria

Well Bill Keller has his BS R2P views, but the reality on the ground is a little different. Looks like Obama's policies are going to help Assad:

Quote:

"I am worried about Islamic extremism, but I think we need to be smart in how we handle it. Otherwise we'll make matters worse, not better," he said. "In the end this should be a matter for Syrians to resolve, it's not for the West to tell us who are terrorists and who are not."

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/americas-hidden-agenda-in-syrias-war#ixzz2SrTJz3hj 

North Star wrote:

Well Bill Keller has his BS R2P views, but the reality on the ground is a little different. Looks like Obama's policies are going to help Assad:

Quote:

"I am worried about Islamic extremism, but I think we need to be smart in how we handle it. Otherwise we'll make matters worse, not better," he said. "In the end this should be a matter for Syrians to resolve, it's not for the West to tell us who are terrorists and who are not."

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/americas-hidden-agenda-in-syrias-war#ixzz2SrTJz3hj 

If you read the whole article, the author of your UAE government-owned newspaper is at pains to downplay the Al Nusra/Al Qaeda fear-factor (in this and other articles) since the funding for such jihadis comes from Sunni-Salifist supporting (US military allies) countries such as Turkey Qatar and Saudi Arabia or the UAE,

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/22/wikileaks-saudi-arabia-uae-funded-...

And when your author speaks of "moderate religion" you might want to look up the role of Sharia law in UAE when it comes to the the freedom of women and homosexuals.

In turn, the arming of the better equipped and motivated Al Nusra/Al Qaeda and foreign jihadists by these countries is largely, at the very least, tacitly sanctioned  by the CIA.

However, despite the claims of some conspiracy theorists, elements in US government would indeed prefer to keep the radical jihadist factor to a confined function ( present enough to justify to the home populace the obscene massive military spending and generate sufficient fear to accept ever greater homeland repression) but the cat cannot be put back in the bag.
The US use of jihadists is largely a blinkered, fragmented  one--focused on the job at hand: destroying the Soviet Union, destroying Libya, causing chaos in Iran, Syria etc, with little concern for the very real long term consequences.

Additionally, continued direct assaults on Muslim populations by the US/allies generates ever more radicalized anti-western fighters which, in the larger picture, becomes a threat to future imperial control of target countries.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (HA) - Full Speech - May 9, 2013: 25th Anniversary al-Nour Radio- Full English Voice-Over of the speech of the security general of Hizbullah (and vid)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34882.htm

"We are people of honesty and credibility"

42 Killed, Over 100 Injured as Explosions Rock Turkish Town on Syrian Border (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/turkey-explosions-syria-border-146/

"...No one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb attack; an investigation has been launched. Five people, three of whom are Syrians have been arrested in connection to the blasts, local Channel NTV reported. In a comment on the attacks, Turkish Foreign Minister Davoglu called the attacks a 'provocation'..."

Turkey Sends More Troops to Syria Border After Deadly Blasts

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/11/302985/turkey-sends-troops-to-s...

"Turkey has sent more troops to Syria border after car bomb explosions hit the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the border with Syria."

Anti-Assad Rhetoric Intensifies  -  by Stephen Lendman

http://warisacrime.org/content/anti-assad-rhetoric-intensifies

"...Washington's clear aim hasn't changed. Assad must go. All means will be used against him. Full-scale intervention appears a likely option..."

Turkish Protesters Blame Government For Blasts

http://www.presstv.com/detail/303177.html

"On Sunday the protesters held banners calling on the US to stop its intervention and meddling in Syria. The protesters are blaming the Turkish government for the incident and because of its support for armed groups inside Syria.

Damascus Slams Ankara (and vid)

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/12/303185/damascus-slams-ankara-fo...

"According to Syria's minister of information, Erdogan's accusation aims only to undermine chances of a political solution to the unrest in Syria and justify foreign intervention there. All this just days prior to his meeting with the US president.

FSA: Eat Your Hearts Out Syria!  (and vid)

http://youtu.be/Z9IRn5b0aik

Don't worry, he's on our side...

Eastern Syria Oil Smugglers Benefit From Chaos

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-315096-in-eastern-syria-oil-smugglers-be...?

"The hijacking of the oil industry by tribes complicates Western efforts to help the Syrian opposition fund itself and will make any future reconstruction ever more difficult. 'Each tribe is now in control of at least part of an oil field, it depends how big it is and how many fighters it can deploy,' said the state oil firm employee who gave his name as Abu Ramzi.

As well production facilities, tribal fighters had seized control of pipelines, often drilling into them to extract oil. Western-backed rebel commanders who the European Union hoped would benefit from last month's EU decision to allow the purchase of oil from the Syrian opposition, concedes they have little immediate prospect of winning a share of the trade."

Cannibalizing Syria: The West to Blame  -  by Finian Cunningham

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/15/303681/west-guilty-of-cannibali...

"...The fact cannot be concealed by the Western media propaganda machine that Abu Sakkar, the videoed butcher is commander of the Farouq Brigade, which is one of the FSA's mainstay fighting units based in Homs City. Just like the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front, the West similarly also tries to pretend that this outfit is somehow fringe to the state-sponsored sabotage of Syria.

The grotesque video depicting the cannibalism by one man is really a vignette of the bigger picture of cannibalism that the Western regimes have unleashed on the entire Syrian people - a monstrosity of state terrorism that Western media are guilty of covering up."

Canada, one of the 'Friends of Syria', is with the cannibals

Terrorists Kill Syrian Troops Summary Style, Video Shows (and vid)

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/16/303810/rebels-kill-syria-troops...

"A new video clip shows the al-Qaeda Nusra Front terrorists in Syria executing a group of eleven Syrian soldiers. The terrorst executing the soldiers is speaking with a Saudi accent..."

North Star wrote:

contrarianna wrote:

If you read the whole article, the author of your UAE government-owned newspaper is at pains to downplay the Al Nusra/Al Qaeda fear-factor (in this and other articles) since the funding for such jihadis comes from Sunni-Salifist supporting (US military allies) countries such as Turkey Qatar and Saudi Arabia or the UAE,

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/22/wikileaks-saudi-arabia-uae-funded-jihad-pakistan-children/

And when your author speaks of "moderate religion" you might want to look up the role of Sharia law in UAE when it comes to the the freedom of women and homosexuals.

In turn, the arming of the better equipped and motivated Al Nusra/Al Qaeda and foreign jihadists by these countries is largely, at the very least, tacitly sanctioned  by the CIA.

However, despite the claims of some conspiracy theorists, elements in US government would indeed prefer to keep the radical jihadist factor to a confined function ( present enough to justify to the home populace the obscene massive military spending and generate sufficient fear to accept ever greater homeland repression) but the cat cannot be put back in the bag.
The US use of jihadists is largely a blinkered, fragmented  one--focused on the job at hand: destroying the Soviet Union, destroying Libya, causing chaos in Iran, Syria etc, with little concern for the very real long term consequences.

Additionally, continued direct assaults on Muslim populations by the US/allies generates ever more radicalized anti-western fighters which, in the larger picture, becomes a threat to future imperial control of target countries.

Kinda hard to complain about how odious the UAE is when Assad is receiving aid from an Islamic Theocracy whose President is on record as saying homosexuals don't exist. That such undemocratic countries can be found supporting both sides in this conflict is hardling surprising. If you stress about what country is supporting what side in a revolution than you're bascially saying revolutions are wrong and illegitimate. All revolutions have had some sort of foreign intervention/support/intrigue or whatever. In such a scenario, outside countries are going to try to approach the conflict in a way that will maximize their interests. This is nothing new. Nor does it make the the struggle of the Syrian people to overthrow the Baath Party any less legitimate.

I'm not a fan of the theocracy in Iran, but unlike you I don't support the measures of foreign interventionists to bring about regime change. Nor, like the UAE and other states and do I support the funding and arming of foreign and domestic fighters.

North Star wrote:

If you stress about what country is supporting what side in a revolution than you're bascially saying revolutions are wrong and illegitimate. All revolutions have had some sort of foreign intervention/support/intrigue or whatever.

Untrue.
Your reductionism of being for or against revolution is similar to your reductionist reference to "the Syrian people" as if they all wanted this slaughter (with deaths currently at 90,000, half of which are civilians,  with more than a million displaced). Torture and atrocites are commonplace with both sides.

You may quibble over whether this is a proxy war rather than a revolution, but several factors point to it as substantially a proxy war:
Without  collective support by "the people of Syria" for the overthrow of the Assad thugocracy, this conflict is, as the UN called it, "overtly sectarian in nature" --which does not support your simplistic notion of a glorious revolution where an idealized unity of a democratic  "the people" rise up against this obviously oppressive regime.

Without foreign intervention, arms, and foreign directed fighters, the conflict would have ended long ago-- that is not a good omen for a successful "Peoples Revolution" which will result in a consensus government, nor or a cessation of oppression.

Quote:

 May 13, 2013
Ominous Similarities Between Syria and Iraq
History Lessons the West Refuses to Learn
by PATRICK COCKBURN
....
If President Bashar al-Assad did fall in Syria, who would replace him? Does anybody really think that peace would automatically follow? Is it not far more likely that there would be continued and even intensified war, as happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003? The Syrian rebels and their supporters downplay the similarities between the crises in Iraq and Syria, but they have ominous similarities. Saddam may have been unpopular in Iraq, but those who supported him or worked for him could not be excluded from power and turned into second-class citizens without a fight.

US, British and French recipes for Syria’s future seem as fraught with potential for disaster as their plans in 1916 or 2003. In saying that Assad can play no role in a future Syrian government, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, speaks of the leader of a government that has still only lost one provincial capital to the rebels. Such terms can only be imposed on the defeated or those near defeat. This will only happen in Syria if Western powers intervene militarily on behalf of the insurgents, as they did in Libya, but the long-term results might be equally dismal.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/13/history-lessons-the-west-refuses-to-learn/

Quote:

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT | Fri May 17, 2013 12:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/17/us-syria-crisis-nusra-idUSBRE94G0FY20130517

Militants From 29 Countries Fighting in Syria: Assad

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/19/304375/militants-from-29-states...

"We do not believe that many Western countries really want a solution in Syria. And we don't think that the forces that support the terrorists want a solution to the crisis,' he noted..."

UN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion   -  by Franklin Lamb

http://www.4thmedia.org/2013/05/19/un-general-assembly-vote-reflects-shi...

'Moderate' FSA's Osama Bin Laden Brigade - Syria (and vid)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vd-AN3YtQuI

Covert Israeli Forces Inside Syria With Rebel Forces?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/covert-israeli-forces-inside-syria-within-r...

"Media sources confirm the seizure of an Israeli military vehicle in Al Qseir, inside Syrian territory..."

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

NDPP wrote:

 

"The record of Israeli attacks on Syria, particularly the use of a nuclear bunker buster gave the Russians a gift from heaven, opening the door to make a defensive deployment to protect their longtime ally in Syria.

Is PressTV saying Israel used nuclear weapons on Syria?

I believe it is referring to the bunker-buster's usual usage against nuclear bunkers...

@K;

As many as necessary. Especially in the absence of any effective concerted efforts by anti-war activists at home

Assad Talks, Russia Walks  -  by Pepe Escobar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-200513.html

"...Regime change, yes. But by peaceful means. Will NATO-GCC-Israel let it happen? No."

contrarianna wrote:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/10/302772/was-syria-nuked/

That's just plain nuts; the article claims they were afraid to use a conventional bunker-buster bomb so they used a nuke one instead.

Israeli Army Says His Troops Fired at Targets Inside Syria

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/21/304588/israel-army-forces-fired...

"THe Israeli army has said its troops in Golan Heights have fired at targets inside Syria."

US Angling to Conduct Air War on Syria (and vid)

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/21/304609/us-angling-to-conduct-ai...

"Press TV has conducted an interview with Don DeBar, an activist and political commentator from New York.."

kropotkin1951 wrote:

What is plain nuts is Israel bombing Syria from the air.  I don't give a fuck which bomb they used the act itself is the problem.

Not nuts--just more of Israel's unending criminal aggression unopposed or endorsed by its supporters in the west.

The weapons used obviously makes a difference to Press TV in their clumsy propaganda attempt, which serves only to undermine their own credibility and distract from the basic criminality of Israel's attack.

If true, which is unlikely, the use of nuclear weapons in war for the first time since Nagasaki would be news.

The First Syrian Casualty  -  by Paul Larudee

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/21/the-first-casualty/

"...The narrative that we heard, however, is one that is largely absent in the West. To read the Western press, there are no regime supporters, but only subjects cowering in fear of Assad goons. This is nonsense. A very substantial proportion of the population clearly supports the regime, which would not likely have survived for two years otherwise.

In fact one of the chief complaints was that the regime had abandoned many of its supporters and failed to restore order in their communities, thus forcing them to become refugees when armed rebels and 'foreigners' drove them out.

Whatever the faults of the Assad regime, therefore, it is the only thing preventing the utter destruction of Syria."

Syrian Opposition Talks in Stalemate as Geneva Peace Conference Looms

http://rt.com/news/syria-opposition-talks-stalemate-792/

"Syrian opposition talks in Istanbul have so far failed to unite liberal leaders and Islamists of the Syrian National Council. The opposition risks being unable to present a coherent front at the Geneva conference, rendering it irrelevant..."

At Least 28 Dead, 250 Wounded in Sunni-Alawaite Clashes in Tripoli (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/lebanon-sunnis-alawites-clashes-793/

"The violence is another sign of the Syrian conflict spilling over to Lebanon.."

Lebanonizing Syria

http://www.roitov.com/articles/lubnan.htm

"...The Cantonization of Syria is on; the coming international encounter in Geneva may push this forward..."

Breaking: Syrian 'Rebels' have fired rockets into a Hezbollah neighbourhood in South Beirut.

 Nobel Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire: Report on Syria

http://www.globalresearch.ca/report-on-syria-nobel-peace-laureate-mairea...

"The Syrian state is under a proxy war led by foreign countries..."

US Backs EU Step to Arm Syria Rebels, Russia Cites International Law Against

http://rt.com/news/usa-welcomes-syria-embargo-909/

"...Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lambasted the EU's latest move as 'an unlawful' decision. 'This is an unlawful decision, in principle, to discuss seriously on an official level the issue of supplying or not supplying arms to non-state actors is contrary to all norms of international law, Lavrov said.

The Syrian government has slammed the easing of the EU's embargo as an 'obstruction of efforts to resolve conflict in the country peacefully. The country's Foreign Ministry has accused the Union of giving 'support and encouraagement to terrorists by providing them with weapons in clear violation of international law and the UN Charter.."

West Dishonest Over Syria Unrest, Supplying Terrorists - Chossudovsky (and vid)

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/29/306026/west-insincere-in-its-sy...

"...So, in effect, we have to ask ourselves who are the main military actors in the Syrian war theater. The al-Nusra rebels, which allegedly represent the opposition, are supported by the Western military alliance and Israel. These are the foot soldiers of the Western military alliance and they are waging a war against the Syrian people..."

John Baird Cautions Against Sending Weapons to Syria But Won't Press Issue with European Allies

http://www.canada.com/John+Baird+cautions+against+sending+weapons+Syria+...

"Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird warned Tuesday that flooding Syria with weapons will lead to 'more violence, more death and more destruction.' But he said he has no plans to press the issue with European allies after they took the first steps towards arming the Syrian opposition.

Instead, Baird indicated Canada will stand ready to provide whatever aid it can to those caught in the crossfire."

Regime-Change Case for Poirot: Syria Conflict as 'Whodunnit?'  by Neil Clark

http://rt.com/op-edge/regime-change-syria-plot-018/

"The ABC Murders' comes to my minmd every time I think of Libya and Syria and the 'Arab Spring'. When do you notice an individual 'regime change' least? Answer: When it is in a series of 'regime changes'..."

Syria: Outside Patronage and a New Offensive For the Regime

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/syria-outside-patronage-and-new-offensi...

"The regime's renewed offensive against Al Qusayr was made possible by support from Iran, Russia and Hezbollah. However, geography will determine which side holds the advantage. In northern and eastern Syria, the regime remains on the defensive; in the core, the advantage clearly belongs to the loyalists..."

No-Fly Zone Over Syria An Act of War That Would Carry Risks: US General

http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/306611.html

"NATO's top military chief, General Philip Breedlove has warned that imposing a no-fly zone over Syria would be an 'act of war' and carry grave risks..."

So-Called Syrian National Council Concludes Meeting in Istanbul

http://presstv.com/detail/2013/06/02/306746/socalled-syrian-national-cou...

"Syria's main Western-backed opposition group was supposed to appoint new representatives and pick out a new leader but was not able to reach a consensus as many believe there is a power struggle between Qatar and Saudi Arabia which has put the group in a deadlock. Reports are also emerging that the US defense department is contemplating a no fly zone."

Al Manar: President Bashar Al Assad: Full Interview (and vid)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35138.htm

May 31, Video and Transcript

Meet The 'Friends of Jihad'  -  by Pepe Escobar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-050613.html

"Western politicos love to shed swamps of crocodile tears about 'the Syrian people', and congratulate themselves within the 'Friends of Syria' framework for defending them for 'tyranny'. Well the 'Syrian people' have spoken.

Roughly 70% support the government of Bashar al Assad. Another 20% are neutral. And only 10% are aligned with the Western-supported 'rebels', including those of the kidnapping, lung-eating, beheading jihadi kind..."