Where can one find a paradigm shift when one really needs
one? With no one willing to provide it, is it any wonder that Syrians are
turning to God, in the form of his self-appointed representatives on earth? It seems we’re screwed no matter where we
turn, and a paradigm shaft is the only thing we can look forward to.
Friday March
8, 2013
Today’s
Death Toll: 81 martyrs,
including 7 children, 3 women and 1 martyr under torture. 29 martyrs reported
in Damascus and suburbs, 16 in Idlib, 13 in Aleppo, 10 in Homs, 6 in Daraa, 4
in Hama and 3 in Deir Ezzor (LCCs).
Points
of Random Shelling: 346 points: 5
Ballistic missiles were reported; Explosive Barrels were reported in Dar Kabireh
in Homs; artillery shelling was reported in 118 point; mortar shelling in 112
point; and shelling using rocket launchers was reported in 105 locations (LCCs).
Clashes: 105. Successful rebel
operations include taking control of the Abbassin Sports Compound and defending
rebel strongholds in Jobar and Yarmouk neighborhoods in Damascus City (LCCs).
News
Chemical
weapons 'are being used on children and babies in Syria by Assad's army' Medics
believe they have detected a nerve gas called Agent XV. Teenage victims are
pictured in a French magazine suffering from horrific burns.
In
Parts of Syria, Lack of Aid ‘Is a Catastrophe’ the vast majority of aid
is going to territory controlled by President Bashar al-Assad, and the small
amount reaching opposition-held areas is all but invisible.
Syrian
Rebels Agree on Deal to Release Peacekeepers Josephine Guerrero, a
spokeswoman for the United Nations departments that oversee its global
peacekeeping activities, said “arrangements were made with all parties for the
release of the 21 peacekeepers” and that a team had been sent to the location
where they were held, but that soldiers remained captive as of Friday night. “Due
to the late hour and the darkness it was considered unsafe to continue the
operation,” Ms. Guerrero said in a statement. “Efforts will continue tomorrow.”
Syria
Refugees Turn To Prostitution Out Of Desperation Scores of the Syrian
women who escaped to Jordan are turning to prostitution, some forced or sold
into it, even by their families. Some women refugees are highly vulnerable to
exploitation by pimps or traffickers, particularly since a significant number
fled without their husbands – sometimes with their children – and have little
or no source of income… It's impossible to pin down how many Syrian refugees
are now working as prostitutes in Jordan, but their presence is inescapable.
Syrian women outnumbered those from any other country in several brothels, and
in a couple of cases, virtually all the prostitutes were Syrian. Pimps say they
have more women who are Syrian than of other nationalities.
Al-Qaida
is not yet at Syria’s gates Claims that al-Qaida has taken control of
the border zone between Syria and Israel are a bit exaggerated; meanwhile,
Assad and the rebels are locked in a stalemate.
Syria crisis:
Russia won't pressure Assad, says Lavrov Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov says there is "absolutely" no chance of Moscow telling
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stand down. He told the BBC that Russia was
not in the "regime-change game".
Syria’s
Assad hails Turkey anti-Erdogan opposition Assad told the Republican
People’s Party delegation there was “a need to distinguish between the stance
of the Turkish people, who support stability in Syria, and the positions of
Erdogan’s government, which supports terrorism, extremism and destabilization
in the region,” it said. “The Syrian people appreciates the position adopted by
forces and parties in Turkey that reject the Erdogan government’s negative
impact on our societies, which are multi-religious and multi-ethnic,” Assad
said.
Special
Reports
A policy paradigm shift is needed if
the United States is truly committed to changing Assad's calculation. It will
also be needed to counter the growing impression that the United States, burned
in Iraq and stretched in Afghanistan, will bear no burden and fight no foe when
it comes to Syria. Boots on the ground and even manned aircraft in the airspace
are not on the table, but the United States can and should help foster an
alternate Syrian government on the ground in liberated parts of Syria. That
government should be recognized by the United States and all of the Friends of
the Syrian People Group. It should be given the resources it will need to govern.
NATO and regional powers should assist in its defense. Would a no fly zone
really require an extended bombing campaign to neutralize air defenses when
stand-off systems can kill, on the ground, much that flies? Might Assad's
calculation be affected if key regime command facilities begin to disappear?
Ideally these steps will not be necessary. Ideally Assad's calculation will
change without them. Yet the West may, in the end, have to be as bloody-minded
in trying to end the Assad-Iranian terror spree as the regime and its
supporters have been in facilitating it.
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.”
Video Highlights
The people of Kafrenbel have a message for Secretary Kerry http://youtu.be/39ZMPM5bfRE
The pro-regime soldiers in this video were killed less than a day after
making it. This was their last celebration. They were cadets at the police
academy in Aleppo. The video was found on a cell phones of one of them http://youtu.be/MTSxRzLn93s
Pro-Assad militias plucking the beard of two Sunni Sheikhs from Aleppo http://youtu.be/YATP9igYW1Y This one in Deir
Ezzor City is taunting rebels http://youtu.be/4xPMy2uSG8U
For over 30 years the Yellow Man was an Aleppo phenomenon that
no one really understood. The man insisted on dressing in yellow down to his
socks and underwear, and hang around certain spots in Aleppo City where he
became part of the scenery. For some reason, some rebels thought he was an informant
to the regime, they arrested him and humiliated him, in a development that earned
them more popular criticism. The man was eventually released, and people who
met him report that he refused to talk about the event http://youtu.be/HQj5AxqV4GY
The repatriation of the remain of pro-Assad soldiers who were killed in
Iraq http://youtu.be/HXOeUcihn34
The pounding of cities continues: Zamalka, Damascus http://youtu.be/L_iIKIVRSak Douma,
Damascus http://youtu.be/84iogHW4ScQ Homs
City http://youtu.be/p9cfsFDKAwI
, http://youtu.be/_rjDYIpBxCI , http://youtu.be/kFnwelTVNqg Houleh, Homs
http://youtu.be/X3fLdMGFzxA Kafar
Sijneh, Idlib http://youtu.be/5gl4cluhYNg
Heesh, Idlib http://youtu.be/nFtM9wXRWoA
Intense clashes take place in Sahel Al-Ghab, Hama http://youtu.be/9qMLTDB79aU , http://youtu.be/tS45khx_X1E
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