This
revolution is against the Assad regime not just against Assad, the sooner the
Russians (and Chinese) understand that the better.
Tuesday June 05, 2012
Today’s death toll: 54. The Breakdown:
15 in the town of Hiffen (Lattakia Province), 13 in Hama, 9 in Homs, 6 in
Idlib, 5 in Daraa, 2 in Aleppo, 3 in Damascus, and 1 in Hassakeh.
Battles in the mountainous Hiffeh District in Lattakia Province
have intensified today as the local resistance managed to repel an advance by
pro-Assad militias. 15 locals were killed, and 5 tanks were destroyed. But the
continuous pounding of the towns did force many inhabitants to flee their
villages. Naturally, pro-regime websites spread stories of Salafist- take-over
of villages where a Salafi Emirate is said to have been declared. This is the
usual propaganda that proceeds a mass assault. With this, the ethnic cleansing
of the coastal area will now begin at earnest. As western leaders watch on, Abkhazia
on the Mediterranean inches closer to reality, with Russian, Chinese and
Iranian backing. At night, intensive gunfire was heard in the majority Sunni
neighborhood of Sleibeh in Lattakia City: http://youtu.be/jjNiKlHCgYQ.
Turkish officials declare that over 27,000 Syrians have crossed
the border into Turkey over the last 5 days alone after loyalist troops set
fire to fields and forests in an effort to flush out members of the local
resistance.
So-called Jabhat Al-Nusrah today claimed the killing of the 13
locals in Deir Ezzor Province whose bodies were discovered last week. The
victims, the announcement claimed, were pro-Assad informants and security
agents. But this account contradicts with reports from locals who now say the
dead were defectors insisting that the Jabha, which had earlier claimed
responsibility for the most recent bombings in Damascus, is nothing but a
regime creation.
Meanwhile, the war continues to rage in the countryside of Aleppo
and Hama, with the continuing pounding affecting the towns of Eizaz and Hayan
and reaching the outskirts of Aleppo City itself. In the town of Kafar Zeiteh,
Hama Province, members of the local resistance was forced to evacuate after
days of fighting.
Battles in Daraa City left Colonel Mohammad Aslan, one of the
architects of the local crackdown dead.
News
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
KAFER ZAITA, SYRIA --
For four days, Syrian army units and armed rebels of the Free Syrian Army
fought for control of this town in a battle that demonstrated the strengths and
weaknesses of both sides. In the end, the rebels abandoned their positions, but
only after fighting off multiple assaults by the army… (More)
Joshua
says:
“Let's be clear: Washington is pursuing regime change by civil war in Syria.
The United States, Europe, and the Gulf states want regime change, so they are
starving the regime in Damascus and feeding the opposition. They have
sanctioned Syria to a fare-thee-well and are busy shoveling money and helping
arms supplied by the Gulf get to the rebels. This will change the balance of
power in favor of the revolution. It is also the most the United States can and
should do.”
Let’s
be clear indeed:
everything that Joshua said above is false. At this stage the best thing that
can be said about U.S. policy towards Syria is that they are pursuing regime
change in rhetoric. So far, the opposition is ill-fed if not severely
malnourished, while the regime can still count on the support of its allies to
meet its basic crackdown needs, then some. U.S. and allies have come to us
bearing the good intentions outlined above by Joshua, but so far, their support
remains conceptual.
So, if we have
asymmetrical civil war conditions currently prevailing in Syria, we have the
Assads and their allies to thank for this (and it’s indeed noteworthy that the
role of Assad’s allies has been completely ignored in Joshua’s analysis). The
U.S. can be blamed only for its absence and for allowing the situation to
devolve to this point. The kind of U.S. intervention that we seek is meant
exactly to stop this civil war, asymmetric as it is, and ensure that some of
our basic expectations are still met. There is no “democratization Kool-aid” to
be drunk in this conflict, as Joshua implied, but there a milkshake at end of
the road, and there will be blood on the way to it. Democratization is never
easy, and, in a region like ours, it cannot be a purely internal affair as so
many are advocating. There are too many players involved, domestic, global and
regional, and too many intersecting and clashing interests to allow for this.
The situation needs
to be judged on its merits. Not on what happened before or what sort of
mistakes could be made in the future. Inaction might indeed save the U.S. and
its allies from having to deal with a logistical nightmare and can help them
avoid some blame for the unavoidable mistakes that come with intervention, but this
inaction might just amount to an all-out betrayal of the values that America
stands for, while jeopardizing certain of her interests.
If inaction is the
lesson that some are drawing from the experiences of Iraq and Libya, Bosnia,
Kosovo and Rwanda have more compelling lessons to teach in this regard.
It’s also interesting
to see how analysts like Joshua who have advocated and helped chart yesterday’s
wrong policies toward Assad, namely: engagement, are now advocating inaction,
something that still benefits Assad. After all, inaction gives him the needed
time to lay the necessary foundations for his Abkhazia on the Mediterranean.
No, this is not a
personal swipe against Joshua. After all, he is not the only analyst that fits
in this category. Almost all engagement-advocates of the days of yore are now
inaction advocates. But Advocating inaction after advocating the wrong policy
is a way for shirking responsibility for doing the right thing, just to avoid
dealing with the headaches and the mess that come with it.
By the way: yes, a
policy that calls for arming rebels and watching from the sidelines, while
providing occasional advice, is inaction. Stopping a civil war and keeping a
country, or most of it, together, requires far greater involvement than
allowing arms to flow in. There is a need for some micro-level involvement
while managing this situation.
Video Highlights
The Battle for Hiffeh,
Lattakia Province: members of the local resistance confiscate a tank http://youtu.be/mEZHdt0KcZk
Father Paolo visits
the activists in Homs http://youtu.be/mbwDARff8Ok Including Dr.
Mohammad Al-Mohammad, the former field doctor of Baba Amr neighborhood http://youtu.be/d3_W33xcur8
In Aleppo City,
nighttime protesters in Salaheddine Neighborhood http://youtu.be/4GQLSlRU78c come under fire http://youtu.be/MJG-HkbvEUM Explosions heard at
the outskirts of the city http://youtu.be/UakcBKRsl3k
The town of Hayan,
Aleepo province, is pounded http://youtu.be/TcHs1pvqdnY Bayanoun as
well http://youtu.be/VEX6XWu5qzo Choppers take part
in bombing of the town of Eizaz http://youtu.be/pfBLn5UtYQM
After retaking the
town of Kafar Zeiteh, Hama Province, pro-Assad militias venture into
town o their motorcycles for a brief victory parade http://youtu.be/p2Pk2fmJJqE
The city of
Ma’arrat Al-Nouman, Idlib Province comes under heavy pounding http://youtu.be/fVx5Qo2_4dA
The pounding of Homs
City continues: Qoussour http://youtu.be/74r46Blr18c , http://youtu.be/_krfG6q5rGw
Daraa
City
received its fair share of pounding today as well http://youtu.be/F1kDzWAv-js especially the area
of the Palestinians camps http://youtu.be/F1kDzWAv-js Attempt by loyalist
troops to storm the camps at night was repelled by members of the local
resistance http://youtu.be/7Qozj5gllx0 , http://youtu.be/9Yj3D45VzI4
Muhammad Aslan, the architect
of the crackdown in Daraa Province, assassinated on June 5, 2012
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