Today’s rallies took place under the slogan “One Nation, One
Flag, One War” – but the Nation in question is not Syria, rather, it’s the
Islamic Nation, the flag is not the independence flag chosen by the early
protest leaders but Al-Qaeda’s infamous black flag, and the War is not one for the
liberation of Syria but one for the restoration of the Caliphate system! The
extremists are gaining more and more grounds by the day in Syria. With its
reluctance to intervene, the U.S. has already bungled the job there at the
expense of $350 million to the American taxpayer in addition to the newly
promised 60. The cost to Syrians is immeasurable. This wrong cannot be righted
with halfhearted measures. But is it even perceived as a wrong? If not, what’s
the point in suggesting remedies? If there is any silver-lining here, it’s found
in the refusal by most protesters today to actually abandon the independence
flag. The extremists managed to impose their slogan on today’s rallies, but
they didn’t succeed in imposing their interpretation and message. The moderates
remain in the majority and they are fighting back. But time does not seem to be
on their side, especially if they continue to be left alone.
Friday
March 1, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 125 martyrs,
including 13 children 11 women and 1 martyr under torture. 54 in Aleppo, 45 in
Damascus and Suburbs, 9 in Daraa, 6 in Homs, 3 in Hama, 3 in Idlib, 3 in Deir
Ezzor, 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Qouniter (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 324 points,
including 11 point were shelled using warplanes; 2 using Scud missiles; 4
points using explosive barrels; 1 point was shelled using cluster bombs; artillery
shelling was reported in 124 points; mortar shelling in 95 points and rocket
shelling in 87 all around Syria (LCCs).
Clashes: 114. Successful FSA operations
include bringing down a fighter jet in Aleppo, taking over the Yarobiya
Checkpoint along the Syrian-Iraqi border to the northeast, and attacking a loyalist
barracks in Eastern Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa (LCCs).
News
Assad
forces take Aleppo village, reopening supply line The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the capture of Tel Shghaib marked the last
step to creating a land supply route north into Aleppo from Hama province,
crucial for Assad's forces who have lost control of part of the main
north-south highway. Rebels say they hold most of the city itself and nearly
all the rural hinterland. But they have been unable to achieve a decisive
victory and complain that they are outgunned and vulnerable to Assad's air
force, artillery and ballistic missiles, which killed dozens of people in
Aleppo last week.
Syria
risks "dissolution", U.N. chief says He said the situation in
Syria was deteriorating by the day after almost two years of conflict in which
70,000 people have died, but there was now a slim chance for peace talks. "This
is a very small window of opportunity which we strongly support and encourage
them to use that. The opportunity may soon close," Ban said at a news
conference in Geneva.
Syria
crisis: European countries expected to start arming rebels Syrian
opposition representative in UK says 'breakthrough' is expected after
relaxation of EU rules.
Kremlin
says Putin, Obama seek "new initiatives" on Syria "The
presidents have instructed (Lavrov and Kerry) to continue active contacts
focused on working out possible new initiatives aimed at a political settlement
of the crisis (in Syria)," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Are
Syria’s pro-Assad hackers up to something more nefarious? So what,
exactly, does the Syrian Electronic Army hope to achieve? Some believe the
answer may be something more insidious than the group’s stated purpose of
“show[ing] the world the truth about the ‘Syria Revolution.’”… The Post’s James
Ball has suggested that pro-government hackers have actually begun acting as a
sort of quasi-intelligence unit, “using the Internet to uncover members of the
opposition” by advertising fake Facebook and Skype software that is embedded
with spyware.
U.S.
aid to Syria should be "non-lethal," new Pentagon chief says New
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday he believed U.S. policy of
giving only "non-lethal support" to Syria's opposition was the
correct one.
Scud
missile fired in Syria lands near Iraqi village: mayor "A
Russian-made Scud landed near the village of Yoush Tapa, 3 km from the
Iraqi-Syrian border between Telafar and Baaj," said Abdul Aal Abbas, the
mayor of Telafar. "There were no casualities or damage, but it created
fear among the Turkuman population of that village and they fled their
houses". Nineveh governorate spokesman Qahtan Sami said security forces
had also said the rocket was of Russian provenance.
Special
Reports
This is a hydra-headed war, a bit like
a high-stakes poker game, and the best Washington can likely do is take a deep
breath and sit down at the table to try its hand, hoping to make some profit by
doing so and not lose the family farm in the process. Given the U.S. role in
the world, there is no real option but to play, because out of Syria’s mess
will come some kind of new reckoning between the world’s powers where
everyone’s leverage lies in the new Middle East. The Russians have staked their
bets, and, in their own way, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Turks, and the
Saudis have, too. So has everyone else in the neighborhood, even the small fry.
The result is a bloody stalemate. For better or worse, everyone is looking to
the Americans to tip the balance, because that is the role that a superpower,
still in the game, is expected to play. This is not about what’s right so much
as it is about the game. If the Americans want the outcome to favor them and
their allies they must try to help mold it. Direct aid may have its risks, but
no move at all means losing, too.
The U.S. has declined to supply the
rebels with the heavier weaponry that could help neutralize the regime’s
advantages in air power, armor and artillery, and is widely reported to have
also restrained many of its allies from doing so. Still, Saudi Arabia has
reportedly recently managed to supply some rebel forces with anti-tank and
anti-aircraft missiles, and has openly agitated for the West to do the same.
But the Administration sees arming the rebels — a plethora of small armed
groups, some of the most effective among them being jihadists, and lacking a
single overarching chain of command or political leadership — as a risky bet.
Why couldn't NATO forces take on
targeted attacks like that to hasten Assad's fall from power? (A transitional
government and U.N. peacekeeping force would have to be ready, waiting.) Sen.
John McCain, the Arizona Republican, is calling for using cruise missiles to
destroy Syrian aircraft on runways.
Using the Bosnia precedent, and
allowing for a population four times its size, up to 200,000 foreign troops
could be needed in a post-war stabilization effort – if only for a time. But if
their focus were on policing ceasefire lines, the number might be cut in half,
with the U.S. share perhaps 20,000.
My
new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on
January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria
2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my
previous briefing “The
Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The
Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”
Below is my article at the Freedom Collection Website. I have to
apologize to my Syrian readers in particular for not drawing a rosy picture in
it or any of my recent writings, I prefer to describe reality and deal with it
as it is in order to see what can be done to change it. For me, romantic
notions don't give me the necessary will or tools to do that. They might work
for other people, but they don't work for me. After all, I am not motivated by
faith, but by a mixture of dutifulness and personal obsession, for better or
worse.
As we approach the
second anniversary of the Syrian Revolution, it’s important to remember a
simple truth, if for no other reason than out of respect for all who have died
or continue to suffer:
Although the
revolution has unleashed one of the most brutal post-Cold War conflicts, it
began as a peaceful protest movement calling for democratic reform. However,
the massive crackdown ordered by the Assad regime, the inaction of Western
leaders, and the political ineptness of the Syrian opposition have gradually
transformed this nonviolent protest movement into a full-fledged civil war that
has devastated the country.
In its current
condition Syria is no longer a viable state, and no political settlement seems
conceivable at this stage. Though the civil war remains asymmetric with the
bulk of the massacres being perpetrated by regime-linked militias, extremist
groups (including some with Al-Qaeda connections) are proliferating on the side
of rebel forces. Over the preceding year, the struggle between the two sides
has been transformed into an identity conflict and a veritable holy war ruling
out the possibility of compromise. Law and order has broken down across the
country, except in a few pockets along the coast, in Kurdish-majority areas in
the north and northeast, and in the Druze-majority province of Suweida in the
South. With the introduction of Scud missiles to pound rebel-held territories
alongside fighter jets, the nihilistic dimension involved in the conflict can
no longer be ignored. I fear the fate of
the country has been irrevocably sealed.
The Syrian National
Coalition’s near boycott of the Friends of Syria meeting in Rome and of their
scheduled meetings in Moscow and Washington underscores the point that politics
in the current context have been rendered irrelevant. The world can either
intervene to put a forceful end to this tragedy, irrespective of the risks
involved, or it can choose to maintain course and watch Syria implode perhaps
seeking to alleviate some of the suffering.
The problem with
the latter approach, beyond the grave humanitarian implications, is that it
ignores the potential for spillover into neighboring countries and across the
region. It also ignores the security ramifications of seeing various Syrian
regions become havens for new Jihadi terrorist groups. More importantly, with
so many autocratic regimes around the world facing the potential for similar
revolutions, inaction by the international community against the Assad regime’s
atrocities sends the wrong message to tyrants worldwide.
Meanwhile, in
Syria’s quest for liberty or death, we are likely to see more death than
liberty for years to come.
Video Highlights
The intermixing of the flags, as we see in the protest rally in Manbij,
Aleppo, is a clear indication that the battle for the soul of Syria, and its majority
Sunni-community in this case, is far from over http://youtu.be/_MphSpnG3sA the intermixing
was seen in many communities: Massakin Hanano, Aleppo http://youtu.be/wtF0MiyTgbI Boustan Al-Qasr,
Aleppo City http://youtu.be/hby0buKC17o
Alboukamal, Deir Ezzor http://youtu.be/yEszBeD3HlE
Kafrenbel, Idlib http://youtu.be/Iex1xos-SvQ
But we can already see pockets of extremists emerging in different
parts of the country, in the town of Maarabah in Daraa Province for
instance, extremists seems to have taken over with some popular backing http://youtu.be/V9ZPnrg_oU8 In Douma,
Damascus Suburbs, the black flags intermixed with the white flags of the
extremist Islamist party Hizb Al-Tahrir http://youtu.be/-LRmVQ06-bw
Same in Old Homs, Homs City http://youtu.be/arle-TNDlhk
, http://youtu.be/zIzRFPw-qUE But in Al-Waer
Neighborhood there is some intermixing http://youtu.be/m2Vni02LZhA
In the town of Binnish, Idlib, despite the presence of some
independence flags, the speaker was chanting for the Caliphate. The town has
been taken over by extremists belonging to Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham
but not all inhabitants are happy with this http://youtu.be/1P1xIi6M_jE
All three flags made their appearance in the town of Yabroud,
Damascus Suburbs http://youtu.be/KfvZPv-5NQk
But in the majority of rallies that took place today, the black flag
was completely absent: Kafar Zeiteh, Hama http://youtu.be/IE9hOVu7Gmk Tawhid Street,
Hama City http://youtu.be/FYooyh-IwKU
Sarmada, Idlib http://youtu.be/I8D5TASuLR4
Houleh, Homs http://youtu.be/zTigj76OEOU
Bouqrous, Deir Ezzor Province http://youtu.be/C74wWSHFSfA
Babbila, Damascus Suburbs http://youtu.be/DJRFV7p5ip4
Bayanoun, Aleppo http://youtu.be/qlzMKGwuQkQ
Al-Kashif, Daraa City http://youtu.be/xfKClZ7wfO0
Bza’ah, Aleppo http://youtu.be/QyV-_mqL_cs
Ellatamneh, Hama http://youtu.be/o4rMt3F7yzw
El-Bab, Aleppo http://youtu.be/ElBgO_R9je0
Maarrat Masreen, Idlib http://youtu.be/AqcYgI7W2Ps
Of course, in Kurdish-majority areas, such as in Salhiyeh,
Al-Hassakeh Province, the independence flags intermixed with Kurdish flags and
people didn’t even raise today’s slogan http://youtu.be/urRxJpMxySU
Same in Al-Qamishly http://youtu.be/t7pqiSJnzVY
Elsewhere, the battles and the bombing continued: Zamalka,
Damascus Suburbs MiGs take part in the pounding http://youtu.be/8n-lt5UMT3I , http://youtu.be/FXm-MVJFPCA , http://youtu.be/yYKidTON1ZU
Clashes between loyalist militias and rebel groups continued across the
country: Old Aleppo, Aleppo city http://youtu.be/5UUNxqNgRNE
, http://youtu.be/hi3dsva9dZ8 Daraa
Al-Balad, Daraa City http://youtu.be/RgLAjeOo2n8
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