"Shortly before its operatives killed 14 Iraqi Shiite children in a school bombing this month, the group once known as al-Qaeda in Iraq sent guerrillas into northern Syrian villages with orders to reopen local Sunni classrooms. In a series of early fall visits, the militants handed out religious textbooks along with backpacks bearing the group’s new name: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
A four-hour drive to the east, a rival al-Qaeda faction called Jabhat al-Nusra was busy setting up a jobs program in Ash-
Shaddadi, a desert town it has held since February. The Islamists restarted production at an oil field that had been idled by fighting, and they fired up the town’s natural gas plant, now a source of income for Ash-Shaddadi and its new rulers." Washpost
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Let's see, Kerry thinks that there are effective "secular" rebel groups. He thinks that he can negotiate with these fanatics. He doesn't understand that they are not secret "moderates" like the Mullahs in Iran were thought to be long ago?
He is a fool. pl
In comparison, the Mullahs were moderates.
Well, it seems to me that Kerry’s “moderate” rebel friends in Syria had a bit of bad luck recently. Fars News reported theree weeks ago from Al Bab in the Aleppo province:
Al-Qaeda Terrorists Behead 40 FSA Rebels in Northern Syria
http://english.farsnews.com/print.aspx?nn=13920630000401
Aaron Y. Zelin (WINEP) who lauded the Nusra into highest heavens a while ago
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-19/world/35490516_1_al-nusra-al-qaeda-links-aleppo
has just published an updated photo collection from northern Syria
http://www.buzzfeed.com/aaronyzelin/46-scenes-from-the-islamic-state-in-syria-dski
And, just recently, Kerry’s moderate FSA friends were routed in Azaz and just today they sufferend a car bomb in Darkoush. So, maybe, Kerry will start to see that there doesn’t exist any secular rebels in Syria anymore when nobody will show up when he’s calling.
I’m not sure that Kerry has reached that conclusion through a reasoned process. He has neither the time nor the inclination to do much thinking. Like the Obama administration generally, he confuses movement with action – and is more concerned with appearance than reality. Living from day to day, as in a political campaign, it’s the headline story that counts.
This is an instance, like the GWOT generally, that demonstrates how difficult it can be to translate action into thought.
Kerry is most likely looking forward to (early) retirement. Them people are CRAZY (certified), he says. Where’s my yacht, he says. Difficult situation, but given the domestic crazyttown….
And the nutjobs among the mullahs still have influence because of the non-acceptance by the west of the Islamic government.
With these ‘immoderates’, I always think of some incidents repoted from Iraq at the time of the surge. Things Al Qaeda zealots did that pissed off the local Sunni population included: Ordering the locals to do away with vegetables that possess “indecent shape and form”. Best: Killing randy goats for the crime of “immodesty”.
So nutty one can’t make that up.
Beyond that, there of course there is that entire ‘beheading and killing people generally’ thing.
The photo collection is really revealing. Thank you ( I wonder how they were collected ?)
Together they seem to indicate the Washington Post piece has only barely scratched the surface of this new state in northern Syria.
Particularly now that our pet President Karzai – its so long ago I can’t just now recall on the back of whose motorcycle he rode across the border on to win the day – is not going to be around to attend to things.
Surely the thing to do would have been to figure out who would be in the loya jirga over all this and felt them out, er seen if they could be bought for a time. Karzai’s ticket is punched.