While
world leaders refuse to commit to their Responsibility to Protect, as evidenced
by the fiasco in Geneva, Assad is wholeheartedly committed to his “Duty to
Annihilate,” as he so kindly put it. Political pressures will not change Assad’s
mind. Unless plans are formed in consultation with Syrian opposition groups and
introduced under UN Chapter VII allowing for clear enforcement mechanisms to be
agreed, Assad’s war against the Syrian people will continue, so will the
massacres, the ethnic cleansing, and the irrevocable disintegration of
Syria.
Sunday July 01, 2012
A number of massacres were perpetrated by pro-Assad militias over
the last 48 hours. The largest of which took place lace in Saturday June 30 in
the Damascene Suburb of Zamalka when 85 people were killed when a car
bomb went off during the funeral for a local activist.
The moment of the explosion http://youtu.be/HNUg448Erls
The first few seconds following the explosion http://youtu.be/RlBM2wj-44M Retrieving
bodies http://youtu.be/6LBdU9xzHsg , http://youtu.be/U-Sm9EQ7DIc , http://youtu.be/UglcLe5YgqE Helping the
wounded http://youtu.be/LW9HqAvj1T4
Collecting the bodies in the local field hospital http://youtu.be/YMIq4AoTPBQ Preparing
for the burial http://youtu.be/FP0kozCv0wQ
, http://youtu.be/xjB-NEdb20w The
burial http://youtu.be/L17lhUIZdfc , http://youtu.be/uKVwd8FZrEc
News
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
Disorganized
Like a Fox Why
it's a great thing that the Syrian opposition is fragmented.
To avoid sectarian civil war in Syria,
support the right opposition. Response by Molham Aldrobi: There is no “Right
Opposition” and “Wrong Opposition.”
Paper
trail leads to Damascus Sticking to its reactionary, faux-revolutionary
politics, the paper (Al-Akhbar) has regularly delivered fulsome praise for
Assad, portraying him as the last bulwark against Western imperialism.
This time, the delay in sending out
updates was not caused by traveling but by power outage caused by the recent
storm that hit the Washington Metro Areas.
This interview was given
on May 31, some things have changed since, but most arguments remain quite
relevant
"After more than a year of conflict, the
violence in Syria is finally being recognized as a civil war. This weekend,
world powers are preparing for a high-level meeting that the US hopes will be a
turning point in the Syria crisis. To discuss the international community's
search for solutions and the goals of protesters, AAM sits down with Ammar
Abdulhamid, a leading Syrian human rights and pro-democracy activist, and
fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies." (The interview could
also be watched on YouTube).
By Ammar Abdulhamid, Reuf Bajrovic and Kurt
Bassuener
“U.S. domestic politics
emboldened Milosevic in both Bosnia and Kosovo; it is doing the same in Syria.
To prevent Syria from becoming the new Bosnia, the West should apply its Balkan
lessons before Assad finishes applying his. The United States must lead, lest
it once again stain its collective conscience.”
On the Geneva Conference and the proposed unity government
A plan
without clear endgame and clear enforcement mechanisms is not a plan meant to save
Syria, but one meant to stall for time and save face of certain leaders who
couldn’t agree on anything of substance.
“Rebels
report that nearly 200 tanks have moved to positions on the Turkish border,
north of the city of Aleppo. The tanks are apparently there to attack rebel
held towns, not fight invading Turks. In the last two days, the Turks have
moved more troops and anti-aircraft missile units to the Syrian border.”
Comment: We should soon find
out if the Turks mean business or if their move is another empty gesture. Assad
and his militias are willing to gamble, because they believe they have a strong
fallback position along the coast. The only thing they have to lose is control
over areas that are already beyond their control. So, while world leaders talk
transition, Assad & Co. are working towards partition.
Meanwhile,
Turkey’s and NATO’s true intentions are more accurately captured by these
comments by Andrew Finkel in the New Yorker:
Yes, Syria’s implosion
could degenerate into a regional conflict involving Turkey, Iran, Iraq,
Lebanon, and maybe even Russia. And yes, Turkey has summoned other NATO members
to discuss the threat to its national security under Article 4 of the
alliance’s treaty. But the odds that these tensions with Syria will trigger
Article 5 and require NATO to respond in collective self-defense are basically
nonexistent: The last and only time that article was invoked was in response to
9/11. Neither Turkey nor the rest of NATO is looking for a fight.
But the world
does not move by intentions. There are now hundreds of tanks and missile
batteries on either sides of a very porous and hot border, which opens the
doors for all different sorts of nasty possibilities, and a showdown of sorts is
looming.
The Obama
Administration’s attempt
at containing the matter by casting doubts on the Turkish version of what took
place in regard to the downing of the Turkish jet is not only inadvisable, it’s
downright foolish. Undermining your only NATO ally in the region is stupid
politics. First E.U. gives Turkey the cold shoulder and now the U.S. Meanwhile,
Russia is sticking by her allies through thick and thin.
Turkey
might be about to get embroiled
in a war after many months of trying to stay aloof. The final decision has not
been made yet, and the U.S. may be trying to dissuade the Turks, but this may not
be that realistic at this stage. Just as Obama has certain domestic
calculations to take into account, so do Turkey’s leaders.
Indeed Erdogan
might truly distrust his generals, but Assad’s actions are challenging his and
his generals’ credibility at this stage. As such, they may not have a choice
but to put their differences aside and embark on a course of action meant
primarily to shore up their embattled image at home, and their ability to retain
credibility in a region that shows no mercy for the weak. The vacillations of Turkey over the last few
months and the inherent contradictions between official statements and official
actions have had a negative effect on the way Turkey and her leaders are being
perceived in the region. Seeing that Turkey has no alternative at this stage
but to pursue its eastward drive, its shaken image there has to be redressed.
Erdogan in particular needs to show that he is capable of making difficult
choices when it comes to foreign entanglements.
Video Highlights
Locals in Mourek,
Hama Province, find unidentified bodies in their town http://youtu.be/By4QLCcYric
The
pounding of Houla, Homs Province, continues http://youtu.be/aMWv1O3n36k , http://youtu.be/vDR5mmr_kgk
Locals from
the Damascene Suburb of Arbeen claim that the object we see here falling
from a helicopter gunship is a person that was executed by pro-Assad troops http://youtu.be/LVUfcfM8Npg
In Homs
City, the pounding of the Old Neighborhood continues http://youtu.be/6M4PVXbZydo , http://youtu.be/sVQa_Idf3wE , http://youtu.be/o3jCtgL2i6k Meanwhile,
the pounding of Houla continues http://youtu.be/R5wguG-iqEs
, http://youtu.be/YxDDXdrPZtc , http://youtu.be/Y8SscIVImm8 and Talbisseh
http://youtu.be/4tNwakqPxNA In Rastan,
choppers take part in the pounding http://youtu.be/78mDGGjS5e4
In Bouaydah Sharqiyeh http://youtu.be/zekie3xZJu8
The ethnic cleansing of the town of Ghanto is almost complete http://youtu.be/hDswlo4blJ8 But in Houla,
locals bury their dead and remain defiant http://youtu.be/WXNn158RUpI
In Deir
Ezzor City: rescuing the wounded of today’s shelling http://youtu.be/cC_tnPZI3W8
In Khirbet
Ghazaleh, Daraa, the pounding continues http://youtu.be/8hJL6TdkadY In Daraa
City as well http://youtu.be/gS13aDz22Wo
A helicopter gunship takes part in the pounding in Matayeh http://youtu.be/M8IFf83NLVk And in Taybeh
http://youtu.be/CAgzGWsp3uc
In the
restive areas of Lattakia Province, pro-Assad militias start forest fires to
drive out local fighters http://youtu.be/BEHYVk0meQ8
IN nearby town of Jisr Ashoughour in Idlib Province, the same tactic is
employed http://youtu.be/BlknPrEtwew And
in Rastan http://youtu.be/shH1INddCrs
In
Damascus Suburbs, the regime follows the massacre in Zamalka, by intensive
pounding of the nearby towns of Harasta http://youtu.be/YlOzqjQmR5c , http://youtu.be/0bOFzIxjGns and Douma
http://youtu.be/McGLmxdDXUQ
The Geneva Conference
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