"Your President Mr Obama told the Blessed King of Saudi Arabia last Friday that he is committed to providing more support for us. Your Secretary of State Mr Kerry said on Saturday there must be more support for us "in order to have an impact on the ground". Your CIA said they will make sure only moderate insurgents get the weapons, and not the bad guys.
But your Congress is blocking our weapons. Oh people from Congress!
Don't be such a spoiler! We have such a brotherhood of nations here. People from 29 different countries! OK, there are a lot of Salafis, a bit hot headed. But for us they are all brothers. In fact most of us are moderate insurgents." Pepe Escobar
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This is exquisite in its ironic grandeur. pl
Col: Best comment—
“Yes, and then there’s the moderate versus extremist annihilation of Syria’s Christian minority. Moderates prefer decapitation with a formal sword. For an extremist beheading, any kitchen implement will do.”
–Michael Collins
Guns for the FSA, not the NRA!
I’m sure there are plenty in Congress who will rally to that call.
The message under the irony is the same as that in a famous passage from one of the bitterest writings of Herman Melville, The Confidence Man, published not long before the outbreak of the Civil War:
‘”You fools!” cried he with the wooden leg, writhing himself loose and inflamedly turning upon the throng; “you flock of fools, under this captain of fools, in this ship of fools!’
A lot of the book is about people who want to be fooled.
I have a modest proposal to end the Syria madness. Now that we have effectively created a second civil war inside Syria–between the Al Nusra and other Salafist and Al Qaeda linked Islamist insurgents (with their vocal minority of cannibals) and the “secularist” Free Syrian Army–maybe now is time for the FSA commanders to enter into discreet negotiations with the leadership of the Syrian Army, their former colleagues. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old story goes, is perhaps very relevant at this time. Can the FSA and Syrian Army agree to wipe out a common enemy, the hardcore jihadists among the Syrian rebels? If so, that could be the start of a larger agreement for succession. After all, the main difference between the FSA and the Syrian Army is the attitude towards Assad. With the assassination of one of the top FSA commanders by Al Nusra last week, and Al Nusra’s declaration of jihad against the Western-backed FSA, all the elements are there for an anti-jihadist front as the first and most pressing order of business. With the CIA accelerating shipments of more advanced weapons to the FSA, increasingly the neo-Salafist militias will be conducting raids on FSA weapons depots, so the killing of the FSA commander was not an isolated incident, but a sign of things to come. How about it?
A good idea, Harper, if peace is the goal.
American literature at its best…
What clairvoyance[!]
He was an Oracle?
Syria and everybody else should batten down the hatches, as yesterday (17 July) the confirmation hearing for Samantha Power to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations took place. Sitting behind her is her husband and former Obama White House employee, Cass “Nudge The Sheeple Along” Sunstein. The C-Span video of the hearing is two hours, if you can stand it–
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221724
What is the Obama administration up to?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-us-military-officer-america-152600397.html
Great goal yet how have our leaders handled exactly this kind of internecine politics in the past with what current outcome, e.g Iraq, Afghanistan?
All
Senator McCain has announced he is putting a ‘hold ‘ on General Dempsey renomination for JSC . The reason given by Sen McCain is that General Dempsey is not willing to support intervention in Syria.
AE: Time to nominate General Dempsey for the “General Eric Shinseki Truth-Telling Award.”
What is the prize for winning that award?
Harper
Last two or three days different media outlets to include al Jezeera , BBC , -are reporting that the CIA Chief of Station in Beirut gave Hizbollah / Lebanon Security exact information on who , when , & where there were to be Salafi suicide bombings inside Lebanon targeting Western backed FSA leadership . And that the Lebanese Army made multiple arrest of al Nusra & other radical Islamists elements . Could this be the first visible outline of your Modest Proposal ? ( With the one caveat that Assad the Younger is staying in power ) .
PS
what real evidence is there that the CIA is stepping up more sophisticated arm shipments to the FSA ?
Whenever people hear your name, they say: “That’s the guy who Rumsfeld retired for being right.”
Matthew
Whose name? pl
General Shinseki. I thought he was not reappointed as Army Chief of Staff because he had (correctly) estimated it would take at least 200,000 troops to secure Iraq. And then Rumsfeld supposedly even snubbed him at his retirement party.
I believe Gen Shinseki now runs the VA – with a huge backlog of returning veterans waiting to be helped .