1. An excerpt from, "The Saudi challenge to US Syria policy" Al-Monitor, January 5:
The priority for Geneva II, especially given the terrorism in Iraq
and Lebanon, let alone the devastating humanitarian tragedy in Syria,
should be a cease-fire and discussions of a transition to
internationally supervised elections in Syria, as advocated by former US
President Jimmy Carter, among others, including this column.
The US does not have an interest in supporting a continuation of the war until Assad is overthrown.
There is no strategic rationale or moral high ground in fighting Assad
until the end, or in not dealing with Assad, when the real-life
consequences of a military solution are more war, more death, more
refugees, and more terrorism for Syria and the region. As former US
diplomat Ryan Crocker wrote in The New York Times
last month, “We need to come to terms with a future that includes Assad
— and consider that as bad as he is, there is something worse.”
While the warring parties were busy raining death down on
Aleppo, the capital of northern Syria, many Aleppans came together to
organize an eight-day theater festival to celebrate life in a time of
war.
Organizing a theater festival is a worthwhile endeavor anytime,
anywhere, but organizing an amateur theater festival in a city where
death lurks around every corner means that you are in Aleppo, the city
that has conquered death.
The afternoon scene on December 24 in the Jamilieh neighborhood was
surreal in every sense of the word. Only a day before, armed groups had
declared the neighborhood a “military zone” and designated it, along
with other neighborhoods, a “legitimate target,” thus intensifying the
rate at which it was targeted with mortar shells.
This, however, did not stop audiences who flocked to the Actors Guild
Theater, which hosted the closing ceremony of Aleppo’s amateur theater
festival. “I attended the festival from day one. The sounds of shells
were blasting outside, but a strange sense of security hovered inside
the theater hall,” said Ahmad. “It was a fantastic week. Long live the
theater.”
.
.
.
Actress Abir Bitar, winner of the festival’s best actress award, said,
“Organizing an amateur theater festival was a dream that did not
materialize during the days of prosperity, but it was finally realized
despite all that we are going through. Even death that has been lying in
wait for us has not managed to stop us from unleashing our cry: ‘We
love the theater, and we deserve life.’”
Infighting among Islamist antigovernment groups in northern Syria
continued for a third day Sunday, as more moderate rebel factions
engaged in a large-scale rout of an extremist group affiliated with Al
Qaeda.
The Mujahedin Army, a new
coalition of ostensibly moderate Islamist groups, as well as factions
affiliated with the Western-backed
Free Syrian Army
and the Islamic Front, consolidated their gains against the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, in what activists hailed as a "second
revolution."
"The rebels have achieved tremendous progress against ISIS in all the
points of conflict," said Abu Bakr, a pro-opposition journalist for the
Shaam News Network in Raqqah, specifically referring to areas around
the cities of Idlib and Aleppo.
Another activist, who goes by
the name Mohandess Abu Hamzeh, added that many facilities used by the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria had been handed over to Al Nusra Front,
another Al Qaeda-affiliated group that is nevertheless viewed as more
moderate.
This is just PR bullshit. The world has been hearing talk of "more moderate rebel factions" for three years now. This is a talking point, not an actual military reality. Al-Qaeda terrorist groups are receiving the bulk of the money, training, military guidance, and arms from the US, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey. That is why they are so effective.
The advance of the "moderate rebels" against these Jihadist terrorist groups is a clever storyline to justify the continuation of the war and the further destruction of Syria. It is also a convenient way to hide US and NATO support for Al-Qaeda.
The LA Times article above is filled with half-truths and lies. The fighters in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the fighters in Al Nusra Front are literally the same people. They are not rivals, but different divisions in the same army of death.
