Tag: Rebels

One Of Those “Oh Crap” Moments

We all have one of those days or moments where you do something and you realize that it was the wrong thing to do…..and what is the for instinct?  “OH Crap!”  Right?

Well one of the biggest oh crap moments occurred in Syria among the rebels fighting Assad….

(Newser) – Everybody makes mistakes at work. Here at Newser, that means making a typo. For fighters in al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel groups, it means beheading the wrong guy. Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria posted a video online recently in which they showed off a severed, bearded head, saying it belonged to an Iraqi volunteer for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. That would have been par for the course for Syria, had another Islamist rebel group not recognized the head as belonging to one of its commanders, the BBC reports.

After being wounded in battle, Harakat Ahrar al-Sham commander Fares Maroush apparently believed he’d been captured by a pro-government militia, so he said a prayer that would mark him as a Shiite—and likely governent ally. But he was actually being taken to the hospital by the ISIS, and when they heard the prayer they took it at face value and killed him. ISIS has apologized, asking for “understanding and forgiveness,” the Telegraph reports. A spokesman pointed out a Koran passage saying Allah would forgive someone who killed in error.

If this was not so tragic….my devious mind could find a couple levels of humor in this……but in the mindset of good taste I will let it go…..

I see that Muslims are NO different than so-called Christians…..they will use their Holy book to justify anything and everything….

Next level of analysis…….this is a prime example of what will be happening in Syria for decades if not longer, after Assad is no longer calling the shots, so to speak….Syria is going to be a carbon copy of Iraq….NO one knows who is who only that they are fighting Assad….a terrible way to run a a war……..no amount of mindless banter by politician and so called do-gooders will change the fact that violence is there to stay in Syria….. dream on for a peaceful solution….just like Iraq!

Syria–Some Things Never Change

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

When ever I gave a lecture on the Middle East I would take this map and ask the students to label the countries on the map……you might be surprised at how little people know about the Middle East…..

Meanwhile back in a troubled universe—-I will break with my fellow bloggers and move on from Ted Cruz and go back to what I know….the Middle East which is far more interesting than anything coming out of the circus known as DC.

A little history lesson for my reader….Back at the start of Iraq 2 the US threw its weight behind an Iraqi con man as the leadership after Saddam….Chalabi a man convicted of bank fraud in Jordan.  The problem was that the average Iraqi had NO knowledge of this guy and trusted him not….

Then there was the outbreak of revolution in Egypt….the US threw its considerable weight behind of group of ex-pats….again the people knew of them not and for that reason never trusted anyone that the US would support…..after all they supported Mubarak for 30 years…..why trust us now……and who took control of Egypt?  The Muslim Brotherhood, that’s who.

Now there is Syria….the hawks in the US keep throwing names around, the Syrian moderates, that we should be in direct support of in the civil war……McCain and his bud, Graham just keep ham,mering the idea of the moderates as our allies in this conflict.

What about those moderates?

But if the so-called “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) is being funded, armed, trained, and otherwise supported with the combined resources of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, NATO-member Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and others, just how exactly is the “Islamic State,” and other extremist factions such as Al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, Al Nusra, getting even more cash and weapons?

The answer, as will be explained further in documented detail below, is that there were never, nor are there any “moderates” operating in Syria. The West has intentionally armed and funded Al Qaeda and other sectarian extremists since as early as 2007 in preparation for an engineered sectarian bloodbath serving US-Saudi-Israeli interests. This latest bid to portray the terrorists operating along and within Syria’s borders as “divided” along extremists/moderate lines is a ploy to justify the continued flow of Western cash and arms into Syria to perpetuate the conflict, as well as create conditions along Syria’s borders with which Western partners, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey, can justify direct military intervention.

There aren’t, nor were there ever “moderates” fighting in Syria.

In an astounding admission, the New York Times confirmed in an April 2013 report that the so-called “Syrian opposition” is entirely run by Al Qaeda and literally states:

 Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

From the beginning, it was clear to geopolitical analysts that the conflict in Syria was not “pro-democracy” protesters rising up, but rather the fruition of a well-documented conspiracy between the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to arm and direct sectarian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda against the Syrian government.

Well, what about the other coalitions in Syria?

Some of Syria’s most powerful rebel groups have disavowed the Western-backed National Syrian Coalition’s government in exile, in a move that may further complicate efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to the country’s civil war. Thirteen groups, spearheaded by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, released a statement last night declaring that the newly-formed interim government “does not represent or recognize us” and urging their fellow rebels to make Sharia law “the sole source of legislation.” Three of the signatories control large amounts of territory, CNN reports. The jihadis aren’t the only ones dismissing the opposition government, either. Syria’s deputy foreign minister yesterday dismissed the coalition as having little influence, the New York Times reports. He further dimmed the prospect of peace talks by saying the regime wouldn’t negotiate with anyone who’d taken up arms against it, though it might talk to religious leaders “who have influence on the ground.” Russia, meanwhile, said a peace deal could only be reached if the US stopped calling for Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, Reuters reports.

Once again thge US is looking for people in Syria that will furthewr the interests of Exxon and the like….it is not about democracy or liberty or any other concept that we, as Americans, supposedly stand for through thick or thin……once again we look to ex-pats for leadership…..that will be the undoing of Syria……and the country will start looking like Iraq as soon as Assad is killed or deposed….violence will be the rule of the day for many years….hatred the fuel and weapons the fire.

Our Friends The Rebels

Much has haopened in the last week….so much in fact that the whole Syrian thing has slid down the importance scale in the media…..they had their shot at mocking Obama……then they had their time to give the prick Putin his props for an op-ed…….and then the UN report that confirmed that it was the government that used gas on its citizens……and now we wait…..we wait for the powers that be to decide what the verdict will be on any action in Syrian…….and the entire time we talk about Syria we hear the rebels this and the rebels that……and that we have waited too long to aid them and any action we may have now will only make things worse…….but how much worse?

What is the real story on the Syrian rebels?

(Newser) – An Italian war reporter held hostage for five months by rebel forces in Syria has written a damning denunciation of the anti-Assad movement. “It is not the revolution that I encountered two years ago in Aleppo—secular, tolerant. It has become something else,” Domenico Quirico wrote in his newspaper La Stampa, per the New York Times. “Our captors were from a group that professed itself to be Islamist but that in reality is made up of mixed-up young men who have joined the revolution because the revolution now belongs to these groups that are midway between banditry and fanaticism,” he wrote, per the BBC. “They follow whoever promises them a future, gives them weapons, gives them money to buy cell phones, computers, clothes.”

More controversially, Quirico’s fellow captive, Belgian academic Pierre Piccinin, has accused the rebels—of whom he says he was previously a “fierce supporter”—of framing Bashar al-Assad with last month’s chemical weapons attacks, after overhearing their captors say as much on a Skype conversation with other rebels. But Quirico is less certain. “We heard some people we didn’t know talking through a half-closed door,” he says, per the Times. “It’s impossible to know whether what was said was based on real fact or just hearsay.” Nevertheless, he says, he does not support a US military strike against Syria, which he says would only strengthen extremist forces, reports ANSA. “Our captors were happy at the idea of an American bombardment,” he says.

We have been told that there are moderates that will work with the US….but the main force that people do not know about is the extremists that want our support and in return will turn on us and bite the US in the butt……..

Source: Zero Hedge

Why Are We Supporting Guys Who Want to Blow Us Up?

We knew that the Syrian rebels are mainly Al Qaeda, and that the U.S. has been supporting these terrorists for years.

And we knew that rank-and-file Syrian rebels have:

But even we were shocked to learn that the head of the Syrian rebels is also the global boss of Al Qaeda … and that he is calling for fresh terrorist attacks on America.

Then there is our ally in the region, Saudi Arabia….they are concerned about ridding the region of Assad and this thugs….how serious are they on doing what is best for the Syrian people……why do ask?

Saudi Arabia has sent death-row inmates from several nations to fight against the Syrian government in exchange for commuting their sentences, the Assyrian International News Agency reports.

Citing what it calls a “top secret memo” in April from the Ministry of Interior, AINA says the Saudi offered 1,239 inmates a pardon and a monthly stipend for their families, which were were allowed to stay in the Sunni Arab kingdom. Syrian President Bashar Assad is an Alawite, a minority Shiite sect.

According to an English translation of the memo, besides Saudis, the prisoners included Afghans, Egyptians, Iraqis, Jordanians, Kuwaitis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Somalis, Sudanese, Syrians and Yemenis. All faced “execution by sword” for murder, rape or drug smuggling.

Russia, which has backed Assad, objected to the bargain and allegedly threatened to bring the issue to the United Nations, said an unidentified former Iraqi member of Parliament who confirmed the memo’s authenticity, says AINA, an independent outlet.

“Initially Saudi Arabia denied the existence of this program. But the testimony of the released prisoners forced the Saudi government to admit, in private circles, its existence,” AINA writes. “The Saudis agreed to stop their clandestine activities and work towards finding a political solution on condition that knowledge of this program would not be made public.”

Read More…

Is anyone else weary of the antics of the pricks in Saudi Arabia?  This ally could do more harm to the US than Assad was ever capable of doing….and yet we stay in their camp and I ask why?  Could it be that they own way too many politicians in the US?

Once Upon A Time In Syria

Everything we see and hear about Syria is made up……McCain crosses the Turkish border into Syria to hold meetings with opposition commanders (a photo op) and the next day Kerry and others hold a peace conference to help determine the future of Syria…..but….

BEIRUT — Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group said Thursday it will not participate in U.S.-Russian sponsored peace talks on Syria while massacres are underway in the country, dealing a blow to international efforts to end the devastating civil war.

A spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, Khalid Saleh, also said the group will not support any international peace efforts in light of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s “invasion” of Syria.

Saleh was referring to the increasingly prominent roles Iran and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have had in backing President Bashar Assad’s forces on the ground.

If you would like a conspiracy then ask…..did McCain’s visit to the opposition have anything to do with the apparently failure of peace talks?

McCain wants to arm the opposition with heavier armaments, but only the “good” guys who have been vetted…….vetted by whom?  Who will decide the good from the bad?  There is a folly behind the arming of the opposition…….

Nikolas Gvosdev lists the possible consequences of providing arms to insurgents in Syria. He points out that there is no way of knowing how these weapons will be used:

Indeed, America’s 1980s experiences with supplying arms to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the contras in Nicaragua highlight some of the problems with weapons transfers. Groups on the ground may want to horde weapons for use in internecine battles with rivals to establish their dominance after the enemy has been defeated. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Afghan commander who received the lion’s share of military aid from the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during the fight against the Soviets, was notorious for his attacks against rival mujahedeen groups, especially those led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. Some of the weapons he received from the West were used, not to drive out the Soviets, but to turn parts of Kabul into smoking rubble during the 1990s when he attempted to take power for himself.

One would think that America’s largely uninspiring record of arming insurgencies in the past would eliminate any desire to try again. Something that continues to impress me about interventionist arguments on Syria is how very short-sighted they are. Most Syria hawks are not concerned with who will govern Syria or how in two or five years’ time, but are preoccupied entirely with finding some way to get the U.S. into the conflict regardless of the effects that this could have in and around Syria. If an even worse government came to power through U.S. and Western military aid, or if these weapons helped fuel another decade of civil war, the U.S. would be partly responsible for condemning Syria to even more suffering, and worst of all our government would be doing this for no good reason.

Here is a ‘what if’ for you people, you war hawks, to consider…….say we arm the opposition to the hilt and after a while the situation becomes more calm and reasonable….but then someone shoots down an airliner from Israel full of people with a LAW we provided to the opposition…..who will get the blame for that?  McCain and his war hawk buddies?  Not a chance!  It will be the NEW scandal the morons have to latch onto to keep from repairing an ailing country.

Does anyone remember Afghanistan in the 80’s?  It was awash in American arms…and they have been used against us…….Or how about Libya?  Same scenario.  And now our boy McCain is trying to repeat history…….Syria is just nothing but a quicksand bog waiting for us to step into it….and if McCain and his buddies have anything to do with it we will be up to our necks in blood ………..something that needs to be considered and stoop using the Syrian people as a political prop……..consider the dire consequences of our actions….there are plenty of examples of our poor judgement.