More Commentary on The FSA (Fictitious Syrian Army)

 Assad: The "Free" Syrian Army, hahahaha, that's a good one.

An excerpt from, "Syria: The "West's" Muddled Policy" (Moon of Alabama, July 15):

The Free Syrian Army is nothing but a marketing front for a whole bunch of disunited criminal and jihadi groups. Weapons flowing to it would certainly end up in hands of those the "west" would not like to be armed too much or to win the war. The administration has no real plans for Syria. It has no strategy and no idea who it wants to come out winning the war. But as long as the country gets destroyed it seems to be fine with the war proceeding endlessly.

An excerpt from, "Divisions within the Syrian “Opposition”? The FSA and the Supreme Military Council Support Al Qaeda Terrorists" by Phil Greaves (Global Research, July 13):

The “FSA” was a retroactive PR stunt implemented by the West and the GCC to uphold a facade of “moderation”, and bolster the false image of militants fighting for “freedom and democracy”. In reality, the FSA represents a branding exercise; enabling foreign powers to rally behind disparate groups of militants – often led by extremists – to undertake their desired use and mask the true identity of what are, by western legal standards, “terrorists”.

When the media refer to the “FSA”, at best it is lazy journalism, at worst it is disingenuous and designed to mislead the reader – otherwise known as propaganda. Yet the “FSA”, or “SMC” seem to have a new lease of life within the media. Furthermore, General Salim Idriss has been at the forefront of recent media campaigns to persuade foreign powers to increase military aid to the rebels (including a photo-op with renowned peace advocate John McCain); rebels that Idriss, nor any other commander in the “SMC” or “FSA” have any control over. I posited the theory in early May that the US and its GCC partners (now minus the deposed Qatari Emir) were attempting to marginalize the very militants they fomented, sponsored and armed in order to build a new “moderate” force under their control that is agreeable to the public, and the many European and American Parliamentarians and Congressman that have expressed concern about the “rising” influence of radicals among the militants they are indirectly supporting.

An excerpt from, "It is a proxy-war in Syria for a long time" (Interview with journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter, RT, July 15):

We should really see the realities. In the West they always claim there are the “good rebels” which are the so-called moderate rebels and the so-called “bad rebels” which are the Islamists, the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nursa Front rebels. But this doesn’t fit the reality at all. Reality is that in certain battlegrounds they cooperate very closely, that there is a fluent circulation of men and of fighters and for example what I heard yesterday from a reliable security source in Damascus is that between one hundred or two hundred rockets were delivered to so-called “moderate rebels” which is the FSA, but they sold them to the El-Nursa front because they have a lot of money, the get from the Gulf States for example. Seriously it’s very very hard to distinguish between “moderates” and extremists. Just let me finish this with one sentence: “The rebel, we all witness eating a heart of a killed Syrian soldier was not an extremist, we’re speaking, we are speaking here about so-called “moderate rebel”, he was FSA man, not an El-Nursa Front man”.

An excerpt from, "Jordanian Salafist Leader Foresees Conflict with Secular Syrian Opposition" by Tamer al-Samadi (Al Monitor, July 15):

The leader of the Salafist-jihadist movement in southern Jordan, Mohammed Shalabi, also known as Abu Sayyaf, anticipates that the confrontation between Islamist and secular fighters in Syria will escalate and be amplified after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. This comes at a time when Pakistani extremists announced that the Pakistani Taliban has established camps and sent hundreds of fighters to Syria to fight against the regime in a strategy designed to firmly establish ties with the central leadership of al-Qaeda.
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Abu Sayyaf — who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of Salafist-jihadists activities, including plotting to carry out attacks against US forces in Jordan — said that if Assad is overthrown, the FSA or some of its battalions will demand Islamists groups drop their weapons. At that time, the clash will grow and significant losses will be suffered.