Comments on: Syrian war in video

Syrian war in video

stbalbach — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:30:34 -0800

Watching Syria's War [Caution: war]. The New York Times is posting video coming out of the Syrian Civil War with context and background: Street Fighting in Allepo (related), Crusader Castle Becomes Rebel Redoubt (AFP report), Tank Stalking, Harrowing ride through the streets of Homs. The online video has "allowed the war to be documented like no other", according to the Times, presumably because of the ubiquity of video cameras among the fighters and access to the Internet.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:38:13 -0800

In the first link, the blue "expand" buttons show other videos.

By: MartinWisse

MartinWisse — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:44:06 -0800

It's been that way for a couple of wars now: the 2008 Russian-Georgian war could be followed almost live on Youtube as well.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:45:57 -0800

> Crusader Castle Becomes Rebel Redoubt Like a great many fortresses of the crusader era the Crac des Chevaliers is perched right up on top of a pinnacle, the better to view the land about and make attackers charge uphill. The crusaders didn't have to worry about attack aircraft. I hope this works out for the rebels better than I fear it will.

By: angrycat

angrycat — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:48:27 -0800

I am not getting the thing that is going to keep Assad from going even more apeshit and using, say, nerve gas on the population. I mean, this is a dude that is going to say, war planes on my people are fine, but chemical weapons, no no no?

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:53:24 -0800

This is a great post.

By: cr_joe

cr_joe — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:55:08 -0800

The Economist on Syria's chemical weapons. They've claimed that they'll only use them against "external aggression."

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:07:04 -0800

baynetnas has a lot of video uploaded.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:07:07 -0800

Syria's video activists give revolution the upper hand in media war. Also Syria's DIY Revolt

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:12:39 -0800

Syria's DIY revolt is being helped a lot by Saudi money and arms, as well as Chechen fighters giving advice. No value judgements*, but it isn't just like the guy next door is making it all up. * I have no particular love for either side, and it's not like the West didn't prop up similarly dubious people in Libya.

By: Copronymus

Copronymus — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:29:20 -0800

Syria's DIY revolt is being helped a lot by Saudi money and arms, as well as Chechen fighters giving advice. Of all the lessons I might have hoped Iran and Saudi Arabia would learn from the Cold War, Proxy Wars Rock! was really not one.

By: BWA

BWA — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:40:07 -0800

The crusaders didn't have to worry about attack aircraft. I hope this works out for the rebels better than I fear it will. I hope it works out better for the castle than I fear it will.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:40:25 -0800

Of all the lessons I might have hoped Iran and Saudi Arabia would learn from the Cold War, Proxy Wars Rock! was really not one. If Syria flips, Iran is constrained a lot in their actions as they lose a) their major state ally, b) rock-solid reliability access to the Med and c) the supply lines to Hezbollah, their other major regional chip. It's utterly unsurprising that they are playing for keeps.

By: notyou

notyou — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:42:38 -0800

I am not getting the thing that is going to keep Assad from going even more apeshit and using, say, nerve gas on the population. He's not a total monster? He recognizes that his government still has legitimacy with a sizable chunk of the population, and unleashing chemical weapons that way might weaken that support? He recognizes that his government still has some legitimacy internationally (China, Russia), and that unleashing chem weapons would eliminate that? It's like asking why the United States didn't drop nukes on Hanoi and Baghdad even while both were shocknawed by B-52s.

By: AdamCSnider

AdamCSnider — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:53:48 -0800

I've often thought that the future of war-theater reporting is going to be people with cellphones selling their footage to Western news agencies too poor/disinterested/worried about their personnel to send in their own reporters. Especially as the quality of the video you can get from handheld devices goes up over time. I am not getting the thing that is going to keep Assad from going even more apeshit and using, say, nerve gas on the population. Everything that notyou said, but also because he still has a fair chance to win at this point using conventional weaponry. A lot of people are treating this fight as if it is all over but the formalities, but this isn't Libya. This war could go on a very long time, and the US/EU is not going to intervene in the way that they did against Quaddafi given how China, Russia and Iran are acting. Unless, of course, Assad does something ridiculously over-the-top which makes supporting him untenable. Like using chemical weapons.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:07:19 -0800

US/EU is not going to intervene in the way that they did against Quaddafi given how China, Russia and Iran are acting. Turkey, and the Saudis could get a bit more open about their preferences, as it's not a situation where there's one central government and one set of rebel beliefs (Saudi Islamists vs. the more secular Muslims/Alawites/Christians in general/secularists, for example) and all the regional powers have their proxies and allies. But, frankly, mainly Turkey as their regional interests re the Kurds are very threatened indeed; the've only just managed to get Iraqi Kurdistan at least grudgingly on side against the PKK and it's not like they haven't had problems with the PKK openly operating out of the Beqaa Valley and staging operations against Turkey before.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:13:00 -0800

Turkey eyes Syrian crisis through lens of Kurdish stability

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:13:06 -0800

In fact, given that a) they don't like Assad; b) they don't like Iran; c) they are not particuarly keen on the Saudis, and; d) they didn't have their own proxy force, but appear to allow the FSA to operate fairly freely out of Turkish refugee camps it would rather appear that the Turks have decided they have a reasonable chance of winning Syria as a close ally if the FSA leadership can win. That would enable them to not be so close to Israel, something that has both domestic and international political advantages. It would also mean that the FSA would be able to deal with the Kurds as a proxy force. Turkey really needs for this to go right for purely military/geopolitical reasons, even setting aside the fact that they almost certainly aren't really that keen on paying the food and security bill to host millions of refugees of various political stripes for the foreseeable future.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:26:26 -0800

> I hope it works out better for the castle than I fear it will. > posted by BWA at 5:40 PM on August 1 [+] [!] Oh aye, that too. Though I admit if it was me I'd probably crawl under the nearest handy thing even if it were a World Heritage Site.

By: Postroad

Postroad — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:42:16 -0800

The rebel militia, on tv, now doing street executions of army guys caught...the place a real horror show and no wonder the US afraid to be involved with so many loonies on either side.

By: AElfwine Evenstar

AElfwine Evenstar — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:08:47 -0800

the place a real horror show and no wonder the US afraid to be involved with so many loonies on either side. I'm pretty sure arming rebels counts as being involved...but they are our goddamn loonies amirite?

By: happyroach

happyroach — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:10:29 -0800

The Economist on Syria's chemical weapons. They've claimed that they'll only use them against "external aggression." If things get bad enough for Assad, he'll probably claim that the rebels are really external aggressors, and use chemical weapons.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:38:24 -0800

No, Syria Doesn't Have Saddam's Chemical Weapons

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:39:47 -0800

Why Syria's Rebels Can't Have It All: Don't listen to pundits who want to drag America into another Middle East quagmire. The Obama administration's strategy in Syria is already working.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:51:01 -0800

The Big Picture: Battle for Aleppo intensifies Syrian conflict

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:05:27 -0800

Why Syria's Rebels Can't Have It All: Don't listen to pundits who want to drag America into another Middle East quagmire. C'mon, it's be over by Christmas. I'm sure of it.

By: MartinWisse

MartinWisse — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:07:11 -0800

If things get bad enough for Assad, he'll probably claim that the rebels are really external aggressors, and use chemical weapons. It's not up to him. It's up to the mid-ranking officers who actually have physical control of the chemical weapons and they won't use them if "things get bad enough" because at that time they'll be thinking more about their future and potential appearances in Den Haag than about the survival of the Assad regime.

By: empath

empath — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:17:15 -0800

I've been roaming around el Salvador for the past few weeks. If you talk to people, you get to hear all kinds of stories about what happens when the us and Russia fight a proxy war in your country. If you go a bit south east of la libertad, there is a beach called San Diego. In the 70s, it was a fairly happening beach town, kind of like the jersey shore, I guess. When you walk down the mud streets, there is one beach house after another, water slides, big pools, and so on. Then the war happened. Now they're all empty and in ruins. With razor wire on top of the walls, or even just shards of broken glass in concrete to stop people from breaking in. The only economic activity is a few shacks with tiendas in them, a couple of restaurants and a few hostels. The beach down there is gorgeous, the people are great, but it basically looks post-apocalyptic there. And the war ended 20 years ago. I've had a couple of people tell me about how their family members were tortured and murdered, sometimes by both sides in the civil war. Travelling the country now, it's almost impossible to believe they were massacring each other so soon in the past, or that they would intentionally do that to each other, or to their own country. And if it weren't for the 'great' powers, playing their geopolitical games, they probably wouldn't have. It's so, so easy for us over here to talk about supporting freedom and capitalism, but the money and arms we are sending over to these places don't just do that, if they do it at all. They're supporting economic devastation and murder first and foremost, and it doesn't just magically bounce back after the war ends.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:32:54 -0800

Syrian Activists Face Moral Toll Over Brutal Revolt Against Assad

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:18:23 -0800

Breaking the Arab News: Egypt made al Jazeera -- and Syria's destroying it.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:19:25 -0800

Reuters Hacked, Phony Stories Posted on Syrian Conflict

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 01:05:38 -0800

BBC: Turkey training rebels, says FSA fighter. US coordinating with secret command centre operated by Turkey and allies but arrangement falls short of arming Syrian opposition. State Department and Pentagon Plan for Post-Assad Syria. We Are the New Government'; Rebels Plant Seeds for Syria's Future

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:06:37 -0800

Rebel astronaut? Syria's first man in space defects, says Turkish report: The astronaut, Mohammad Ahmad Faris, joins a long list of high-profile defectors to the rebel Free Syrian Army.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:41:47 -0800

'My classmate is a war criminal': Syrian expatriates in the US recount their impressions of the country's embattled president during his student days.

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:40:57 -0800

Assad Strikes Oil Deal To Keep War Machine Moving

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:29:37 -0800

Al Jazeera: Fight for Syrian city of Aleppo continues 'Army shells rebel-held districts of commercial capital as violence nationwide kills 37 people, activists say.'

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:40:47 -0800

Battle for Syria's main cities intensifies Syrian Prime Minister Defects From Assad Regime Damascus explosion targets state television Several wounded in attack on Syrian capital, while rebels say they are coming under increasing shelling in Aleppo. Syria and the End of Populism Syria's Army, Prepared for Outside Aggressors, Strains Under Civil War

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:54:18 -0800

Facts on the Ground the Only Narrative that Matters in Syria Syria's Mutating Conflict Syria's Christians Can Be Catalyst For Peace Syria's Government And Its Weapons (video embedded)

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:01:26 -0800

UN Says No One Will Win

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:18:04 -0800

US Ans Turkey to prepare for worst (i.e. chemical weapons) in Syria

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:33:45 -0800

Harper's: Decoding the Syrian Propaganda War

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:04:52 -0800

Foreign Affairs: Ramadan in Aleppo

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:28:47 -0800

Iran accused of setting up pro-Assad militias: US defence secretary says Iran's Revolutionary Guards giving pro-government fighters in Syria training and weapons. Most of Syria out of Assad's control, says ex-PM From Syria's Ashes: A new Alawite state could redraw the map of the Middle East.

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:49:16 -0800

In Focus: Syria 'On The Verge Of Collapse'

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:34:48 -0800

If Alawites are turning against Assad then his fate is sealed. The Long View: There seems to be a Baathist pattern of destroying Sunni villages on the edge of the Alawite heartland. I always find Robert Fisk's view on what is happenening in the Middle East to be worth a read.

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:27:28 -0800

CSMonitor: Syria Has Chosen The Path Of War, Says UN