Meet the Rebels

This Syrian civil war is extremely sad and tragic, but it has become abundantly clear that there are no “good guys” when it comes to the main factions fighting. The idea that we would provide aid to a side that is allied with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group used to justify the destruction of civil liberties domestically, is beyond absurd.

As we see from today’s New York Times article, these rebel factions are not fighting for peace or democracy, but more often than not for simple bloodthirsty revenge. Some of the factions are actively trying to form an Islamist state, while others are calling for the extermination of an entire group of people based solely on the fact they are part of a particular religious group, the Alawites. From the New York Times:

The Syrian rebels posed casually, standing over their prisoners with firearms pointed down at the shirtless and terrified men.

The prisoners, seven in all, were captured Syrian soldiers. Five were trussed, their backs marked with red welts. They kept their faces pressed to the dirt as the rebels’ commander recited a bitter revolutionary verse.

The moment the poem ended, the commander, known as “the Uncle,” fired a bullet into the back of the first prisoner’s head. His gunmen followed suit, promptly killing all the men at their feet.

This scene, documented in a video smuggled out of Syria a few days ago by a former rebel who grew disgusted by the killings, offers a dark insight into how many rebels have adopted some of the same brutal and ruthless tactics as the regime they are trying to overthrow.

In the more than two years this civil war has carried on, a large part of the Syrian opposition has formed a loose command structure that has found support from several Arab nations, and, to a more limited degree, the West. Other elements of the opposition have assumed an extremist cast, and openly allied with Al Qaeda.

Across much of Syria, where rebels with Western support live and fight, areas outside of government influence have evolved into a complex guerrilla and criminal landscape.

In Washington on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the issue of radicalized rebels in an exchange with Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican. Mr. Kerry insisted, “There is a real moderate opposition that exists.”

Much of the concern among American officials has focused on two groups that acknowledge ties to Al Qaeda. These groups — the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — have attracted foreign jihadis, used terrorist tactics and vowed to create a society in Syria ruled by their severe interpretation of Islamic law.

While the jihadis claim to be superior fighters, and have collaborated with secular Syrian rebels, some analysts and diplomats also note that they can appear less focused on toppling President Bashar al-Assad. Instead, they said, they focus more on establishing a zone of influence spanning Iraq’s Anbar Province and the desert eastern areas of Syria, and eventually establishing an Islamic territory under their administration.

Other areas are under more secular control, including the suburbs of Damascus. In East Ghouta, for example, the suburbs east of the capital where the chemical attack took place, jihadis are not dominant, according to people who live and work there.

Hmmm, this makes it even more probable the al-Qaeda rebels may have been the ones to launch the attacks…

But, they said, one of his tactics has been to promise to his fighters what he calls “the extermination” of Alawites — the minority Islamic sect to which the Assad family belongs, and which Mr. Issa blames for Syria’s suffering.

So some of our “allies” are pushing for ethnic cleansing. Stay out Obama.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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10 thoughts on “Meet the Rebels”

  1. As I am sure you have seen who is really behind the scenes from Zerohedge and their contributors like Michael Snyder’s blog; even the progressive Democracy Now are suggesting there is no real evidence of precisely who was responsible for the chemical attack. Facts will not stop the puppets here in US of A from obeying as their dirty masters wish which is to create as much chaos as possible. Just recently I was reminded in one of Gail Tverberg’s blogs about how oil exporting nations need higher prices – so, little surprise on who is creating this havoc and why. And your continued reiteration regarding the petrodollar keeps everyone on top of what is really going on. If I want to be entertained with un-reality, I watch cartoons, not the bozos running the show in D.C.

    Reply
  2. Nat gas pipelines, petro-dollars, debt ceilings, Biblical prophesies, psychotic politicians, Gazprom profits.Qatari/Saudi ambitions, 10yr Bond yields, religious persecution……

    I am so over it. WTF is wrong with this planet???

    It doesn’t need to be this complicated, …. or dangerous!!.

    Or does it??? Are we all just actors in some sort of bizarre stage show??

    Reply
  3. The US Government Stands Revealed to the World as a Collection of War Criminals and Liars

    Paul Craig Roberts

    Does the American public have the strength of character to face the fact that the US government stands before the entire world revealed as a collection of war criminals who lie every time that they open their mouth? Will Congress and the American public buy the White House lie that they must support war criminals and liars or “America will lose face”?

    The obama regime’s lies are so transparent and blatant that the cautious, diplomatic President Putin of Russia lost his patience and stated the fact that we all already know: John Kerry is a liar. Putin said: “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them [the Americans], and we assume they are decent people, but he [Kerry] is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36117.htm

    When Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent by the criminal bush regime to lie to the UN, Powell and his chief of staff claim that Powell did not know he was lying. It did not occur to the Secretary of State that the White House would send him to the UN to start a war that killed, maimed, and dispossessed millions of Iraqis on the basis of total lies.

    There is not a shred of integrity in the US government. No respect for truth, justice, morality or human life. Here are two people so evil that they want to repeat in Syria what the bush war criminals did in Iraq.

    http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/09/05/the-us-government-stands-revealed-to-the-world-as-a-collection-of-war-criminals-and-liars/

    Reply
  4. They are already exterminating Christians. In such a horrible way. When they get a Cristian village, they kill everybody. I saw (and I had nightmares later that night) few pictures, that were coming from a friend of a friend, of the “rebels” cutting in pieces alive people, because they where Christians. And I do not want even to tell you what they did to a Christian girl. I cannot force myself to tell you: it was more than hideous. They are not humans beings, they are demons.

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  5. Today, 7 september, Christians of all types, Buddhists, Atheists, Muslims, and even the Italian Jewish Community and many Jewish Community in South America will make a day of fasting and, each one in their own way, prayer for peace in Syria. The more we are, the better! Some look for solution in violence and war, some look for solution in people’s heart.

    Reply

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