Syria: Tragedy of a country in a war without end
A short review by the BBC's Jeremy Bowen; note film portions of the report were on BBC News Channel yesterday, behind the lines with the Syrian regime, which is partly cited here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30011154?
He ends with:
Quote:
The war is changing, morphing into an even more grotesque shape, but it shows no signs of ending.
The Case Against an Alliance With Assad
A German authored article for Carnegie, with numerous links and ends with:
Quote:
Considerations for cooperation with Assad overlook his weakness, to say nothing of the destruction it would bring to the anti-IS alliance. It could easily lead to the collapse of this coalition and would require policy choices that the U.S. in particular is not ready to take. For once, realpolitik appears to be the most solid deterrent against a deal with Assad.
Link:http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/20...ith-assad/hvru
New US Military Command Established for Iraq and Syria Operations
New US Military Command Established for Iraq and Syria Operations
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Rebels cannot remove Assad: DoS says
With my emphasis:
Quote:
The US State Department has put out a firm message to the Syrian opposition: you will never defeat the Assad regime. Brett McGurk, a senior official in the effort in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State,
told a Congressional committee on Wednesday, “
We do not see a situation in which the rebels are able to remove [Assad]. It will have to be a diplomatic process.”
Link:http://eaworldview.com/2014/12/syria...t-assad-heres/
The author, Professor Scott Lucas, suspects an unlikely diplomatic dance is underway possibly.
Well I expect the non-ISIS rebels will not be having a happy Xmas if they read this.
Israel -v- Syria & allies: a war in the shadows
On the Oryx blog context and detail for this not so quiet war:http://spioenkop.blogspot.co.uk/2014...ia-and-is.html
It starts with:
Quote:
Israeli airstrikes on targets in Syria remain shrouded in secrecy, and are often subject to speculation about what has been hit this time. For instance, the recent raids on Syrian territory, during which just one Popeye air-to-surface missile was intercepted by a Syrian Pantsir-S1 SAM system, saw depots near Damascus being hit by Israeli jets, although the content of these is unknown. The actual locations and targets reported to have been hit do often not correspond with the truth. This post will try to make clear why Israel is bombing Syria and why it is getting away with it.
(Concludes) Essentially, both parties are waging a covert war spanning a large period of time. Syria (as well as Iran for that matter) use Hizbullah and other anti-Israel groups in the Middle East as a proxy to fight the war on their own terms, whereas Israel manages to strike at its enemies without any retaliation.
Rethinking Our Strategy in Iraq and Syria
Rethinking Our Strategy in Iraq and Syria
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What's left of Aleppo's old city
It was only a matter of time
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12...ilot-captured/
ISIS reportedly shoots down Jordanian plane over Syria, pilot captured
Quote:
Islamic State group fighters shot down a Jordanian warplane on Wednesday over Syria and captured its pilot, activists and the country’s military said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the aircraft was shot down near the northern city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital.
Jordan’s state news agency, Petra, confirmed that the pilot was from Jordan and he has been captured, the BBC reports.