Civil War in Syria

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It's official -the Obama administration is now focused on overthrowing Bashar al-Assad's regime. 

It's about time. 

The Obama administration should be focused on thee economy.

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It's official -the Obama administration is now focused on overthrowing Bashar al-Assad's regime. 

It's about time. 

The Obama administration should be focused on thee economy.

Multitasking is a thing that happens.

Let's not overestimate these politicians.

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Rebel caught on video eating heart of dead soldier: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22523804 (not a link to the actual video)

Surprised nobody posted it... not.

The west supporting a rebellion by radical Islamists in a proxy war against Russia. Hasn't this happened before?

Don't worry, we always stay good friends with our allies in that part of the world like the Afghan Mujahideen and Saddam Hussein.

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Qusair finally fell to government forces after two weeks of fighting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22778310

Bad news for the rebels. Without foreign intervention, it's looking like they will lose.

I don't think Assad can actually "win" in the sense that he'll never have enough forces to hold the whole country together at once.  But a stalemate that goes on for years and years is certainly possible.  How long did the Lebanese Civil War last?  15 years?

That's nothing compared to the Colombian civil war.

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Apparently the chemical weapons were only part of the reason for a decision that was coming anyway. According to Politico,

“The decision was ultimately driven by the discovery Assad used [chemical weapons] but there were a number of other factors in place that were also important,” conceded an administration official with direct knowledge of the deliberations.

“Would we have made [the determination Assad had breached the red line] even if we didn’t have the evidence? Probably.”

This seems more related to the promotion of Susan Rice and John Kerry than anything else. Apparently, Tom Donilon and Chuck Hagel were not as enthusiastic as Rice.

Oh goodie, another black female Stanford alum as National Security Advisor who is a warmonger.

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Kudos to Al Qaeda for excellent deployment of guerilla warfare. Simply by forcing Assad into desperately deploying WMD they gave revealed the fundamental desperation of his situation. Like the strategies of Vo Nguyen Giap, the Al Qaeda guerilla strategy in this war should be studied at US war colleges for years to come.

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Syrian Christians beg the US to stop supporting rebels.

But Hillary said we weren't and should be helping the Christian killing rebels.

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This map now shows some spillover into Lebanon.



Gray: ISIS
Yellow: Kurds
Green: Syrian opposition
White: Al nusra
Blue: Hezbollah
Orange/Pink/Red: Respective central governments

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Russia is bombing the FSA, not ISIS.

The US will be really sad if they kill that one guy who wasn't a jihadist and wanted western style democracy.

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At this point, the only reasonable thing for the US to do would be to pressure Assad and Putin that in exchange for the US and the Kurds not attacking Assad or funding those that attack Assad that the Kurds be left alone in an autonomous region.

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I'd reluctantly rather have Assad than an islamist government. But I think it would be better for Syria and for the world if he steps down and allows an election to take place, once the war is over. I think the only solution is a confederated Syria.

Ideally Assad steps down and they have free democratic elections as a multi-party democracy. But realistically, Assad is the best option.

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Are the neocons still backing those "moderate" "Free Syria" rebels while they massacre Kurds for the Turkish government?