With Senators McCain and Lieberman’s courageous visit to Antakya
and their meeting with FSA commanders there, an important though belated symbolic
gesture was made, but the situation calls for moving quickly beyond symbolism. Now
more than ever actions are needed in order to ensure a timely defeat of the
Assads, as only this eventuality can help save Syria from joining the ranks of
failed states.
Tuesday April 10, 2012
Death Toll: 101,
including 56 in Homs City, 22 in Hama Province, 12 in Idlib, 6 in Daraa, 3 in
Aleppo, 1 in Harasta Suburb in Damascus and 1 in Deir Ezzor city.
News
As
Syria cease-fire falters, US senators renew demand to arm rebels Sens.
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday from a Syrian refugee camp in
Turkey that it's time for the international community to arm the Syrian
opposition fighters.
Op-Eds & Special Reports
What
Obama Must Do in Syria after the Failed Annan Plan: A Joint Bulletin of the
Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) and the Foundation for Defense Democracies
(FDD)
The Method in the Madness
Assad has two plans which are unfolding simultaneously.
Plan A calls for pounding, bombing, killing, torturing and maiming the way
into reestablishing full control over the country. Failing that, Plan B calls
for the creation of an Alawite State along the coast, while grabbing and
ethnically cleansing as much land as possible from the surrounding plains in
Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Homs.
No matter how unlikely Plan B seems at first glance, the way the conflict
is unfolding makes it a natural fallback position for a regime gradually losing
control of most areas, but the coast, and gradually losing control of all but the
most sectarian, fanatic and criminal of troops and militias. Unless a major anti-Assad
rebellion takes place in Alawite communities in the coastal region, the region will
act as an anchor for the regime even as it loses control over other parts of
the country. In time, the coast will also serve as a safe haven for Alawites fearing
potential retributions elsewhere in the country. In fact, for months now, many
Alawite families who for long have taken Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs as
their places of residence, have been trickling back to the coast driven by fear
of possible future developments. As such, Plan B may not have been a conscious
choice but it is becoming a natural one. Soon, it might become the only “viable”
option for desperate Assads, no matter how nonviable it may now seem.
Furthermore, and with Kurdish areas in the North and Druze regions in
the South having effectively gained autonomy, and with checkpoints springing up
all over the place, Syria has effectively become a broken state. The real
challenge ahead is how we can save it from the Assads and put it back together
again. The longer the Assads hang on to power, the harder this challenge will
get.
Manage This!
With all
due respect to Robert Malley and Peter Harlin from International
Crisis Group, but their perspective on things Syrian has always been
somewhat skewed. After all, these are people who believed so much in Assad’s
reformability they ended up opening on office in Damascus in 2009 and kept it open
until the early days of the Revolution.
It’s not
surprising for me to see all those pro-engagement people turn into
“de-escalation” supporters. To them, it seems, stability is a cherished value,
while freedom, justice, and decency are nothing more than mere commodities, at
least when non-westerns are concerned.
“Full
and timely implementation of Annan’s plan almost surely was never in the
cards”, says Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program
Director. “But that is not a reason to give up on diplomacy so soon. One should
not repeat the mistake committed at the time of the Arab League-sponsored
initiative: to expect its failure; rush to pull the plug on an unsatisfactory
policy; wait for the emergence of an alternative that has been neither
considered nor agreed. And then watch, as the killing goes on”.
But, of course, don’t expect failure. Ignore everything you know about
the Assads, kill reason in the name of reason, decency in the name of decency and
logic in the name of logic. Wait until Syria is nicely carved up into warning
ethnic enclaves, then begin to seriously consider the possibility of
intervention. That’s how you manage conflicts. You wait for crises to turn into
full-fledged conflicts, and then you manage them to your heart’s content.
Video Highlights
Kafarzeiteh/Hama: new massacre http://youtu.be/FXKEtmz2zkU Mourners
taking part in one of the funeral are fired at http://youtu.be/zwrhanb5C-E
Anadan/Aleppo: injuries from the
shelling http://youtu.be/tnryuQ4LVGA
, http://youtu.be/LAKZmvSOOrI Al-Atareb/Aleppo:
a child martyr http://youtu.be/H5rlfPgPZ3E
Hreitan/Aleppo: the pounding continues http://youtu.be/Az6m1_4SJiQ Marei/Aleppo:
plumes of smoke rise from the city as the pounding continues http://youtu.be/k5V6aeuc3FY
Homs City – the pounding
continues: Qoussour http://youtu.be/XpR3xggUvlw
Bayadah http://youtu.be/lNH6niyOQ0E
, http://youtu.be/UsW5LuAyOQ8 Pulling
bodies from the streets as the pounding continues http://youtu.be/KkUvepY10Po Jouret
Al-Shayah http://youtu.be/EVh67xUdtoE
, http://youtu.be/QN-vFxs6aSA , http://youtu.be/nr-B-6MsgfU , http://youtu.be/_pL42SvaKqc The
Desolation http://youtu.be/_LE6tdvNClY
, http://youtu.be/IbX9_2GHzuA Local
members of the FSA hold a banquet in defiance http://youtu.be/5Nd20QJvXeI Khaldiyeh
http://youtu.be/2peNYXm44cA , http://youtu.be/asdkMuZG_Zg Martyrs http://youtu.be/QObplvmZFEE , http://youtu.be/3HcGRwrhUuk , http://youtu.be/3v3_qqdMF2o , http://youtu.be/XyRKOlGxwkc , http://youtu.be/QkDTFVR0EHI Qarabees:
an entire building is brought down by the pounding http://youtu.be/rRtQvfkKPbY
Local activist Khalid Abou Salah shows how the regime is abiding by
Annan’s Plan http://youtu.be/Lokoi75IHrY
, http://youtu.be/FWLDkvCqUsU
But it’s not all about pounding and killing, peaceful
protests are still the main hallmarks of the resistance:
Homs City (Al-Malaab) http://youtu.be/mzPWjJqms0s Deir
Ezzor City http://youtu.be/5PLHHYm2aGA
Albou Kamal http://youtu.be/IxTwQmSUScU
Seri Kanye http://youtu.be/_WSaS8OkDT8
Hassakeh City (Ghuweiran) http://youtu.be/AlPxJPZYxjA
Anadan http://youtu.be/NikvCynmNtI
Kobani http://youtu.be/890yjY-quJ4
Hama City (Janoub Al-Malaab) http://youtu.be/5EBSFLQox6w
Maaraat Al-Nouman (Idlib) http://youtu.be/Lj4EwRySZoc
Daraa City http://youtu.be/7IyW7J3UuNU
Damascus: Arbeen
(funeral) http://youtu.be/32zIDDWD_qQ
, http://youtu.be/2usA9BxsACQ Kafar
Sousseh http://youtu.be/FPryU3IkVZo
Douma http://youtu.be/ZV0_NpQSyEc
Barzeh http://youtu.be/KnmwY4n47ec
Qarrah http://youtu.be/A3KMH3IZ9nI
Zamalka http://youtu.be/w6boAK9YfQI
Zabadani http://youtu.be/LGJe0d4wAns
No comments:
Post a Comment