The Jabhat al-Nusra’s April pledge of loyalty to al-Qaeda still looms large in discussions of Western backing of rebel fighters, and has obliged the US to go to great lengths to try to shift the conversation to backing certain rebels, potentially having them fight the other rebels.
That may play in soundbites, but the reality is al-Qaeda’s ties to Syrian rebels run deep. The group was backing al-Nusra virtually from the start, and that is still where their closest allies are, but other rebel blocs, particularly the foreign ones, see al-Qaeda at the very least as kindred spirits, if not outright allies.
The bulk of the rebellion’s front-line fighters are foreign Salafists or Nusra, meaning they are expected to do the heavy lifting in the ongoing civil war. The secularists, to the extent they fight at all, serve as auxiliaries to these fighters, and see common cause with them in fighting Assad, and by extension common cause with al-Qaeda.
The Obama Administration still has a vision of buying the loyalty of the secularist rebels away from the more Islamist portion of the rebellion. Buying them with weapons seems to be the working plan now, but in practice the rebel factions share their equipment back and forth out of sheer necessity, meaning the US support will inevitably be funneled around to the al-Qaeda-linked factions.
We said it from day one: these terrorists and barbarians are the last resorts which USA and EU can use and will be using to achieve their goal, regime change, geopolitical and economic interest is what these entity of vulture capitalism are about.
You couldn't make it up!
Al Nusra and has repeatedly been explained IS El Quada.
95% of the paramilitaries and only effective ones are Islamist Sunni Jihadists.
This explains the bitterness as soon as Hisbollah Shia paramilitaries enter the fray.
The Obama – Kerry regime apparently has the Cunning Plan of creating an army of secular fighters who will squeeze out the Jihadists and fight and overthrow the Syrian government.
This is who they propose to army directly, since the indirect arming by Saudi and Qatar means the arms go to various sorts of Islamist.
They will also fight the Islamists.
This is after 2 and 1/ 2 years.
It has apparently been going on since January and this is what the training in Jordan is all about.
This is the Vietnam Syndrome.
In Britain the headline this morning is "Sir Baldrick". Tony Robinson of the British black satirical comedy Blackadder Goes Forth set in WWI is getting a knighthood.
This reads like one of the Cunning Plans of general Sir Melchett Stevens and Field Marshal Haig.
All together now "Blackadder! Blackadder!…."
I have a feeling that the local islamic resistance is underrepresented in this story and in general. That's Ahrar al-Sham, Syrian Islamic Front, Syrian Islamic Liberation Front and so on. I'd expect that non-al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic resistance , including Salafist resistance, would be able to get a lot of local approval or support, and in a sense represent part of the population. We wouldn't like them of course, and it would be mutual, but they could be representative, and I know we'd have the tendency to overlook that.
Jason i know allot of folks are calling these guy rebels but it sounds like they are essentially Foreign mercenaries. If that is the case the rebellion has little to do with what Serians want. Thanks for this discussion
When will the United States learn STAY OUT OF OTHER COUNTRIES CIVIL WARS! Does the US not remember the angst it had when Britain helped the Confederates, what it thought about foreigners interfering? Does it not remember what happened when it interfered in Afghanistan yes way back when Carter was President, that is what caused Al Qaeda to come into existence in the first place!
Let's call the Free "Syrian" Army for what it really is: American Al-Queda.
After all, the FSA's main force is the Al-Nusra Front.
Americans of course are trying to downplay this embarassing fact with lots of propaganda about "moderate" Islamicists. LOL.
In reality, however, America and the Islamofacists are in bed together!
For more general background info, read Robert Dreyfusss _Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam_
Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Game-Unleash-Fundame…