Syria in 2017 (January-April)

[Azor]

Totally and completely disagree...there are numerous examples over the last year where the Sunni side has attempted to not allow the fighting to truly degrade into pure sectarian fighting...

Where it has gone sectarian it was forced on them by the Shia militias...uncontrolled Assad regime warlords and on a number of occasions Iraqi Hezbollah...

I never said that the Sunni Arabs have turned the conflict sectarian; that was Assad’s doing. Nevertheless, they have committed their own acts of sectarian violence, albeit nowhere near the level of Assad.

I would imagine that Syrian Sunni Arabs would treat Syrian Kurds, Syrian Alawis, Syrian Christians and Syrian Druze, far better than foreign Shia militias would treat them.

I am actually surprised that the entire FSA has not gone totally over to HTS in the last months...

That might win the FSA a few battles, but would lose them the war to be sure. They want to be included in the settlement process and continue to receive TOWs.

I am well aware of the sectarian cleansing at work in Syria, however, I would put the onus on Damascus and Teheran, with Moscow being a collaborator rather than instigator. Arguably, Merkel’s bid for sainthood has been conducive to this cleansing as Syrian Sunni Arabs are welcomed into Europe and taken off of Assad’s hands.

No, Hitler would not be “envious”. Stalin would be disappointed and complain at the slow and chaotic pace of the cleansing process. I did not bring these mass murderers up to compare them to Assad, because he is more akin to Karadzic and Tudjman, but to reiterate that this is a very old way to deal with restive populations.