Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Syria’s rattlesnakes commit suicide
Jerusalem Post ^ | 12/17/2013 | SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Posted on 12/19/2013 5:32:33 AM PST by SJackson

It is the natural tendency of radical movements to be outflanked by radicalism.

On Tuesday the UN announced that it was seeking an unprecedented influx of cash to facilitate aid operations in Syria and for Syrian refugees. More than 60 percent of the aid is to be spent on the burgeoning refugee camps of Syrian civilians in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. The refugees are currently suffering through harsh winter conditions and unprecedented sums are needed to support several million Syrians.

The tragedy of the refugees is underscored by increasing failure of the Syrian rebels to make any gains against the regime. Since the summer, and especially after Hezbollah fighters began to flow into Latakia in northwest Syria, the regime has scored impressive victories against the rebels and is increasingly inching forward in the battle for Aleppo. On December 13 the BBC asked whether it was “time to rethink a future with Assad.” Another BBC article noted, “Western hopes of helping construct a unified, moderate, politically obedient rebel movement, sidelining Islamist hardliners and leaving them to wither away, could hardly be further from realization.”

The rebel command in Syria is falling apart. This was apparent to anyone who saw the graphic Al-Jazeera published several months ago that claimed to show all rebel groups in Syria. Browsers could click on any area, which would lead to dozens of dots appearing in each town showing the various groups involved. From Kurdish nationalist groups to al-Qaida affiliates, the gaggle of little groups supposedly fighting the regime were endless.

Recently six of these groups formed a new alliance called the “Islamic Front” which has sought to displace Free Syrian Army positions along the Turkish border in order to control the supplies funneled to the rebels. This Sunni Islamist alliance is anti-democracy and anti-secular, but is supposedly made up of “non al-Qaida” affiliates. According to reports, even the al-Qaida affiliated “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” is forced to fight with the “Nusra Front” for the title of who is the “real” al-Qaida. This fracturing of the opposition has resulted in western governments withdrawing aid from the FSA .

When we look at the Syrian rebel experience what is clear is that the increasing Islamisization has put the focus on Islamic purity as opposed to actually fighting the government. Reports are not always accurate, but what is clear is that there is a grotesque underside to these rebels. First there were videos of them beheading and ethnically cleansing minorities. There were also numerous kidnappings of journalists undertaken by them, journalists who were usually there to show the rebels in a good light. One report claimed that radical Islamists were recruiting innocent girls in Tunisia to wage a “sexual jihad” by being mistresses of the “pure Islamic” fighters, who were evidently spending more time raping Tunisian beauties than fighting.

In a recent case Islamists kidnapped a rebel commander and filmed his beheading, only to then issue an apology for having beheaded the wrong person. A more telling story related the experiences of foreign, mostly European-born, jihadists who were transferring through jihad-hostels on their way to loaf around in Syria. “We are all al-Qaida... there are thousands of us, literally from every corner of the world,” boasted the fighters. One former student from France claimed he served with a brigade of 8,000 foreigners.

According to the FSA these foreign jihadists are not very effective fighting Hezbollah or the regime, but are good at sitting behind the lines and murdering FSA fighters.

One commander claimed his unit was captured by members of the Islamic State of Iraq. “They told us we were not true Muslims” he told a BBC reporter. “I saw how they beat my friends with iron bars, smashed their faces with ammunition boxes and then killed them.” The picture painted is of unknown numbers of French students, disaffected British youth and former football hooligans from all over the EU are taking part in the “glorious jihad” of slaughtering actual FSA fighters while ostensibly fighting the Syrian regime.

The savage, blood-drenched story now playing out in Syria, in which the rebel movement is cannibalizing itself, has played itself out among many Islamic movements. It is the natural tendency of radical movements to be outflanked by radicalism.

Wherever there is a Hamas there is an Islamic Jihad and Salafi movements to the right of it. In Egypt there are the Muslim Brothers, and then the “real” Muslims of the Salafi Al-Nour party, which supported the military in its toppling of Mohammed Morsi.

WHEN WE think of the life-cycle of the radical Islamic movement and its tendency toward implosion, it bears clear resemblance to the failure of the “popular front” in Spain’s Civil War. The war broke out in June when Francisco Franco led an army revolt against the Popular Front government of leftists running Spain in 1936.

Ostensibly united as “Republican Spain” opposing “Fascist Franco,” the Spanish government was deeply divided between its socialist leaders, and the communists, anarchists, social revolutionaries, regional nationalists (Basques and Catalans), trade unionists, workers’ collectives, international brigades and Trotskyists (termed Workers Party of Marxist Unification-POUM) that made up its supporters.

After a year of fighting, the Republicans began to disintegrate. An uprising in Barcelona by anarchists and POUM members was brutally suppressed by the Republican government. A mark of worse to come, the POUM leader Andres Nin was arrested along with other Trotskyite Spaniards, at the behest of the Communist party and their Soviet supporters (the Soviets were supplying the Republic). Nin was secretly tortured to death and “disappeared” by Soviet agents.

As the Republic weakened in 1938 and 1939 its leadership spent as much time on internal “ideological purity” as they did fighting the fascism they claimed to oppose. Franco didn’t win just because of his soldiers, whose best contingents were made up of Moroccan Muslims he brought from Africa, but because the Republic crumbled internally due to Communist zeal that sought ideological purity over the larger goal.

The Syrian Civil War is similar: An ostensibly democratic fight against a tyrannical regime is being undermined by ideological Islamist extremism. Western governments are cutting off aid, as they did to Spain’s Republic, and Syrian President Bashar Assad is drawing on foreign soldiers, as Franco did. As in Spain, brigades of “international volunteers” are coming to fight.

It is unfortunate, for those who thought Syria might emerge better from this, that the rattlesnakes took over the war and are in the process of killing themselves. It is most horrific for the refugees suffering through the winter. They are being let down by extremists who are more interested in beheading each other, beating each other with iron bars and accusing one another of not being good Muslims.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: agitprop; alqaeda; bhomiddleeast; soskerry; syria; waronterror
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-46 next last

1 posted on 12/19/2013 5:32:33 AM PST by SJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

2 posted on 12/19/2013 5:33:23 AM PST by SJackson (the Democrats take back control, we donÂ’t make (this) kind of naked power grab, J Biden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
they're all Muzzies, a pox on all their tents/caves..spider holes.

3 posted on 12/19/2013 6:03:02 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi :-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Supply both sides with just enough intel, ammo and logistics to annihilate each other.


4 posted on 12/19/2013 6:17:52 AM PST by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dick Vomer
I have to agree, sadly. Arm up both sides. Let the incessant war rage.

These are international fighters who would OTHERWISE be focusing their attentions on Madrid, Rome, London, and Washington subways and railroads. Oh, and airplanes.

5 posted on 12/19/2013 6:27:57 AM PST by sauron ("Truth is hate to those who hate Truth" --unknown)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Dick Vomer

I prefer to leave Assad in power. At least he was fair to all religions and protected them from the radical Muslims.


6 posted on 12/19/2013 6:28:25 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (From time to time the.tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

islam is arabic in origin. Of the first Arab, God said that he would be a wild donkey, everyone would be against him, and he would be against everyone else.

Untameable, without cohesion. See some liveleak videos of the islamists fighting in Syria. Unorganized, uncoordinated, without unified movement, and not really concerned for the guy next to him.


7 posted on 12/19/2013 6:53:40 AM PST by lurk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants

I agree , let Assad crush the rebels for the next 30 years by the tens of thousands.


8 posted on 12/19/2013 7:07:15 AM PST by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

For the longest time I was really unsure which side was worse in the Syria conflict .

Now it ‘s clear that opposition is far worse than Assad which is hard to do.

In this conflict, both sides need to fight each other until they are all dead and gone.


9 posted on 12/19/2013 7:20:48 AM PST by rdcbn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Nut job Jihadist killing Nut job Jihadist.....win win contribute to both to keep it going!!!!


10 posted on 12/19/2013 7:21:22 AM PST by ontap
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

The Syrian Civil War is no longer a civil war, it’s a tourist destination for psychopathic murderers who want to act on their murderous impulses without inhibition


11 posted on 12/19/2013 7:23:18 AM PST by rdcbn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Prayer for Peace in Syria

 

God of Compassion,
Hear the cries of the people of Syria,
Bring healing to those suffering from the violence,
Bring comfort to those mourning the dead,
Strengthen Syria’s neighbors in their care and welcome for refugees,
Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms,
And protect those committed to peace.

God of Hope,
Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies,
Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria,
And give us hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.

We ask this through Jesus Christ,
Prince of Peace and Light of the World,
Amen.

Petition: For the people of Syria, that God may strengthen the resolve of leaders to end the fighting and choose a future of peace.


12 posted on 12/19/2013 9:05:24 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Anyone have a good estimate of how many foreign fighters we lured into Iraq and killed? Thousands? More? I wonder how much damage those radicalized young men would have done in other parts of the world if they had not died in Iraq?


13 posted on 12/19/2013 12:00:01 PM PST by Pan_Yan (Who told you that you were naked? Genesis 3:11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rdcbn

best post!!! Islam main theme here in Syria... is about “acting out” on murderous pathology and impulses. Your parents and uncles did crazy-ass sh** to you so you will do this to others to kind of cleanse yourself. But there is no cleanse so you are still screwed. (not my predicament btw)


14 posted on 12/19/2013 1:55:48 PM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

tragedy and comedy at the same time


15 posted on 12/19/2013 3:01:33 PM PST by SisterK (behold a pale horse)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: skinkinthegrass

UNRWA will take the refugees and never let them go. They will pass their refugee status from generation to generation as a perverse aristocratic title. This is worse than a pox.


16 posted on 12/19/2013 11:49:55 PM PST by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

bookmark


17 posted on 12/20/2013 12:38:00 AM PST by freds6girlies (many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. Mt. 19:30. R.I.P. G & J)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
On Tuesday the UN announced that it was seeking an unprecedented influx of cash to facilitate aid operations in Syria and for Syrian refugees. More than 60 percent of the aid is to be spent on the burgeoning refugee camps of Syrian civilians in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. The refugees are currently suffering through harsh winter conditions and unprecedented sums are needed to support several million Syrians.
That is where the non-lethal aid money goes.
The tragedy of the refugees is underscored by increasing failure of the Syrian rebels to make any gains against the regime.
The rebels have been 100 percent successful, as they've established control over large areas of Syria, and even when the regime manages to regain control over some town here or there, it doesn't manage to retain it. The rebellion has face changes, but continues to exist.
Since the summer, and especially after Hezbollah fighters began to flow into Latakia in northwest Syria, the regime has scored impressive victories against the rebels and is increasingly inching forward in the battle for Aleppo.
IOW, the regime hasn't scored *any* victories -- it has been defeated time and again, but is being propped up by foreign mercernaries. Thanks SJackson.
18 posted on 12/21/2013 5:44:18 AM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Darksheare; Borax Queen
Syria’s rattlesnakes commit suicide

Ruh roh. Some how, some way:

Dark's fault..........

19 posted on 12/21/2013 5:46:38 AM PST by Lakeshark (Mr Reid, tear down this law!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SJackson; SunkenCiv

I ask again: What’s up with this talk about a terrible winter in Syria? I thought global warming was a serious problem.


20 posted on 12/21/2013 7:17:11 AM PST by Berosus (I wish I had as much faith in God as liberals have in government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-46 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson