The Ghost of Iraq Past and Syria Present
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
U.S. Strategy in Syria
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
The Ghost of Iraq Past and Syria Present
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Airpower Options for Syria
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Ambassador Christopher Hill and General Anthony Zinni on Syria
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
General Dempsey Lays Out Goals for Syria Attack
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
The Guardian has analysed UNOCHA data and produced several diagrams, which refuse to be copied as attachments:http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...uch?CMP=twt_gu
What is interesting is not who has paid the most, but those whose money has arrived - on Fig.1.
The US has boasted of being the largest donor so far - which is true - but the donations look a little different when considered as a proportion of the donor's economy. We've done the calculations and, when stacked as a percentage of GDP, Kuwait emerges as the largest donor.
davidbfpo
Syria Thoughts
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
CNAS to Host Live Stream and Twitter Chat on Syria Tonight
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Remarks by President Obama on Syria
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
No US Military Consensus on Syria
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Syria Crisis Underlines Pentagon’s Move to the Back Seat
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
I am sure we each have our own "word cloud" for Syria, alongside a variety of human emotions and realpolitik. SWC now has several threads on Syria: 'Syria: the case for action', 'Syria: The case for inaction', 'The background to Syria, history, people and more' and 'Syria: a civil war (closed)'.
In the background are two older threads: 'Muslim Brotherhood': and 'US policy with an ally like the Saudis':http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2119
Now to the "meat" IMHO. Three interesting articles trying to make sense of the political and ideological / theological competition within Syria, in which Saudi Arabia is the leading player now.
Two short articles: 'Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Brotherhood', which ends with:Link:http://www.mei.edu/content/saudi-ara...an-brotherhoodIf the Saudi agenda in Syria is similar to that of Egypt and aims at bringing in a ‘Syrian el-Sisi,’ things will not go down well with many of us,” a leader of the Brotherhood said. “We do share the same short-term goals with the Kingdom,” he insisted, “but our long-term relationship is currently being reevaluated.”
Then from Reuters: 'Saudi Arabia boosts Salafist rivals to al Qaeda in Syria', with one passage:Link:http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...e=RSS&irpc=932If Riyadh's aim is to thwart al Qaeda enemies by rallying local Syrian Islamists in the way Washington did with Iraq's Sunni tribal Sahwa, it may be miscalculating, said commentator Hazem Amin. Unlike the Iraqi fighters, he said, Syrian Salafists were increasingly embracing radical views close to al Qaeda.
For the really dedicated, the third link is to an on-line publication from the London-based Cordoba Foundation, whose latest issue looks at the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia:Link:http://www.thecordobafoundation.com/...hp?id=4&art=69In this edition, we analyse the Saudi state and its Salafi trends
davidbfpo
A French article on mapping the conflict:Link:http://orientxxi.info/magazine/l-ins...nne-et-la,0397The cards they reflect reality? Are they an objective view of the world, its divisions, its conflicts? Nothing is less certain. They often reflect a subjective point of view and also biases. They are also part of the information war, as evidenced by the Syrian conflict.
No-one says here that a civil war is easy to understand. I suspect in the US Civil War similar maps could be produced, especially in the west.
davidbfpo
I wonder how the logistics of daily life work for the residents of that pocket in eastern Damascus?
Probably more complex, even. The area where I grew up, Southern Appalachia, was quite a patchwork. East Tennessee was nominally part of the Confederacy until 1863, but plenty of folks never bought in.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
As I understand from some reading the people are starving. Somehow that fact and situation have slipped from the media's reporting. When the chemical incident happened only then did I realise that several eastern suburbs had been rebel-held for over a year.I wonder how the logistics of daily life work for the residents of that pocket in eastern Damascus?
davidbfpo
An update on Ganulv's question:A BBC News report:I wonder how the logistics of daily life work for the residents of that pocket in eastern Damascus?Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24730536Thousands of Syrian civilians have finally been allowed to leave the besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiya....At least three of Damascus's suburbs - Yarmouk, Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiya - have been besieged by government forces for several months....The situation has become so desperate that earlier this month Muslim clerics issued a religious ruling allowing people to eat cats, dogs and donkeys just to survive. Those animals are usually considered unfit for human consumption in Islam.
Note the fighters in this suburb have stayed behind, one can guess what will happen now.
davidbfpo
Thanks for passing that one along, Dave. Earlier today I saw the BBC piece regarding the polio outbreak in Syria. I saw cases of polio while living in Guatemala near the end of the civil war there. I have had more than one public health/medical professional tell me they refuse to believe that, an indication of how vanishingly rare the disease is outside of Pakistan and Nigeria today.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
The Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike yesterday (01 November 2013) near Latakia against Russian-made missiles apparently intended for delivery to Hezbollah.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
A useful glimpse into the Syrian civil war, using interviews with three rebels, two of whom give up and leave:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...nflict-rivalry
davidbfpo
An in-depth WSJ article, subtitled:Link:http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...94203188283242Miscalculations by the Syrian regime, opposition groups and U.S. government left them all unprepared for the Aug. 21 gas attack.
Classic we don't understand what the target speaks:As Syrian troops battled rebel forces in the Damascus suburbs Aug. 18, U.S. eavesdropping equipment began picking up ominous signals.
A special Syrian unit that handles chemical weapons was ordered closer to the front lines, officials briefed on the intelligence say, and started mixing poisons. For two days, warning signs mounted until coded messages went out for the elite team to bring in the "big ones" and put on gas masks.
U.S. intelligence agencies didn't translate the intercepts into English right away, so White House officials didn't know what the Syrian regime was planning until the assault began.
davidbfpo
Bookmarks