Syria crisis: Time to rethink a future with Assad?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25362244
Quote:
It's not a thought being openly voiced by the US State Department or the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but a week ago the highly respected former US diplomat Ryan Crocker told the New York Times that it was time "to start talking to the Assad regime again".
"As bad as he is," Mr Crocker said, "he is not as bad as the jihadis who would take over in his absence."
AMB Crocker is not a liberal who is opposed to the use of military force, and while I think he may have been a tad too optimistic on Afghanistan, he seems to adopted a realist view on Syria.
Quote:
Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has spoken about his anxiety over an unprecedented pooling of al-Qaeda fighters in Syria.
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Against this backdrop, President Assad starts to look indispensable again. A man who can deliver up his country's chemical weapons and, perhaps, take on and defeat the hardliners of the Nusra Front and ISIS.
I think we're all somewhat frustrated with reality, but you can't wish it away.
Syrian Refugees & Why Realists Are The Real Ethicists
Syrian Refugees & Why Realists Are The Real Ethicists
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How al-Qaeda Changed the Syrian War
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog...ed-syrian-war/
Quote:
A Syrian with close ties to Turkish officials told me that the Turks pass the buck: “the third countries let them leave so why should we stop them?” Last month, perhaps in a sign of the mounting pressure, Turkey reported that it had kicked out 1,100 European fighters. At points it has seemed upset at the foreign fighters, closing the border this fall when ISIS took over nearby areas. Still, Ankara seems reluctant to clamp down on ISIS in areas where it has battled the Kurdish PYD, whose growing strength is a threat to Turkey. (The PYD has close ties to the PKK, the militant Kurdish group in Turkey which Ankara is now trying to make peace with.)
Quote:
If rebel commanders are reluctant to be openly critical of ISIS, their subordinates are less so. “They are foreigners occupying our land,” one fighter for Ahrar al-Sham, a large Salafist network, told me. “They ban people from smoking straight away—not even a doctor would prescribe that!” another rebel fighter, a nineteen-year-old from Aleppo, said. ISIS has also changed Syrians’ view of the war. “If the choice is between ISIS and Assad, I’ll take Assad,” says a Syrian friend who enthusiastically supported the protests.
It is a long and well written article, another interesting paragraph or two talks about ISI's increasing control of the border with Turkey, which is if an intentional part of their strategy it seems sound since they can control the aid coming in from the West to the resistance.