U.S. may be open to Islamists joining Syrian rebel coalition

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Washington Post

The Obama administration is willing to consider supporting an expanded Syrian rebel coalition that would include Islamist groups, provided the groups are not allied with al-Qaeda and agree to support upcoming peace talks in Geneva, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

In addition, the official said, the Americans would like the Islamic Front groups to return U.S. vehicles, communications gear and other non-lethal equipment they seized last weekend from warehouses at the Syria-Turkey border.

The seized material, which had been provided to the U.S.-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC) of Syrian opposition fighters, led the administration this week to suspend aid shipments through Turkey.

The emergence last month of the Islamic Front has presented the administration with a dilemma as it seeks to maintain military pressure on the Syrian government before an opposition-government peace conference next month that it hopes will lead to the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and the installation of a transitional government.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-willing-to-support-a-syrian-rebel-coalition-that-would-include-islamist-groups/2013/12/12/e400fc86-636d-11e3-aa81-e1dab1360323_story.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. This whole Syria thing really isn't working out the way it was supposed to.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. Dear islamic terrorists.

Pretty please give back our weapons... If this wasn't so sad you could make it a comedy.

[warrant46]

25. In the old days they were our hit men

They killed a lot of Russians for us in the Afghan Cesspool

[1000words]

2. Watch it, folks ... A well-deserved blowback coming our way!

We never learn, do we?

[Purveyor]

4. "In addition, the official said, the Americans would like the Islamic Front groups to return U.S"...

Well then they should just say 'pretty please'...

Another clusterfuck, indeed!

[dipsydoodle]

12. If you let us have our ball back we might play with you.

.

[Jesus Malverde]

5. the Front "are hardline Islamists opposed to secularism and Western-style democracy

the Front "are hardline Islamists influenced by the Salafi school of thought. They want a theocratic state, and are opposed to secularism and Western-style democracy -- although they've said they can imagine having some sort of elections in a framework of Sharia law."

The most effective of the groups is Ahrar al Sham, which has been involved in the insurgency since its early days. Observers say it is disciplined and well-funded from Gulf sources and has captured a good amount of heavy weaponry, including tanks and mobile artillery, from government forces. Opposition activists say it was Ahrar al Sham that led the takeover of the SMC's headquarters at Bab al Hawa.

On the battlefield Ahrar al Sham and others in the Islamic Front groups do cooperate with another al Qaeda affiliate: Jabhat al Nusra. Some analysts say this is because al Nusra is more focused on waging the insurgency on a national level against al-Assad than is ISIS, which is devoting much of its effort to creating a mini-state -- an emirate -- in northern Syria, complete with Sharia law.

The leader of Ahrar al Sham, Hassan Aboud Abu Abdullah al-Hamawi, has been complimentary about al Nusra, telling al Jazeera earlier this year that "we see honesty in their work as well as toughness and courage."

The two groups joined forces to seize a border crossing with Jordan in September. But there are also instances, especially around Damascus recently, where fighters from the Front, al Nusra and ISIS have all fought together against al-Assad's forces. As so often in Syria, there are few hard-and-fast alliances and many local variations on a theme.

Valerie Szbala at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington says the Islamic Front contains a wide spectrum of groups, but for the West the presence of Ahrar al Sham -- and its extensive relationship with al Nusra -- is the most troubling. She says most of its funding appears to come from sources in the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/12/world/syria-islamic-front/

[BelgianMadCow]

27. at least we now see the "spreading democracy" meme for what it is

a convenient excuse, if and when needed for strategic reasons.

[Jesus Malverde]

7. This plan dates back to the bush years...

[Igel]

20. Dates back to before the Bush II years.

Rather long before.

It's also a common strategy--coopt some of the forces in order to achieve your goal and assume that they can be managed afterwards. Split the opposition. Coopt them. Win now, mop up later. Divide and conquer. Whatever you want to call it.

It was a strategy in the '50s in Africa (and not a US strategy, mind you), a strategy in NE Africa and in the ME in the '30s. The Spanish did it in Texas (and the "Mexicans" did the same thing in the following decades). The French did it in Canada.

Heck, the Romans did it in Europe. And the Muslims in N. Africa during the Conquest.

"Islamist" is just the current trendy opposition-group flavor.

[defacto7]

9. And just how in fact

can they tell the difference between an non-al-Qaeda islamist and and al-Qaeda islamist? Of course they wouldn't lie to us would they? Or maybe it's the ones with beards that are al-Qaeda.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Different coloured base ball hats - red or blue.

Watch Red Dwarf sometime - part of the origin of the war which needed the universe.

[Jesus Malverde]

21. Don't forget team yellow...

Strangest camouflage ever.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b16_1378511045

[dipsydoodle]

22. His name brought to mind a UK soft drink from the year dot

One of their advertising slogans was " I drink Idris when I's dri "



Above is just a 1940's original advert someone was obviously trying to sell - hence the auction mark on it.

[davidpdx]

10. As I said in another post today

I think we should focus on two things: the elimination of sarin and helping refugees.

[idwiyo]

11. One Afghanistan is not enough? Wonder who is being trained by CIA to replace Osama bin Laden...

[dipsydoodle]

14. That is the direct valid comparison.

.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. Absolutely. It was the first thought that leapt to my mind.

We must be running short of terrorists to justify the Forever War and the Surveillance State or something.

[ReRe]

15. So what is this?

Is this like normalization of relations with VietNam, or "most-favored-nation" trading status with the communists in China, or funneling arms from Iran to Nicaraguan freedom fighters? I don't get it. What did we fight that damn Cold War for? "You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas," is not just a cliche.
I think it's about time we fumigated ourselves and stayed out of trouble for once in our life.

[7962]

16. Maybe the unstated goal is to arm them enough to keep it even and let them kill each other

for the next 20 years. Pretty much a win-win for everybody BUT Syria.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Sorta like arming the Mujihedin to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.

Let them kill each other.

That certainly worked out well.

[DhhD]

19. Agreed. With the removal/death of the Syrian population, a vacuum exist for a funnel of displaced

persons seeking Sharia Law. A new Homeland(s) are being sought by Islamic Europeans, Africans, Asians/Palestinians.

[Jesus Malverde]

24. With Islamists now in firm control of Syria rebellion, civil war might last years

The Islamist consolidation of power over Syria’s rebel movement in recent weeks is another indication that foreign policy strategists are correct when they warn that the Syrian conflict is likely to grind on for years before either side is prepared for serious peace negotiations.

Despite the staggering death toll and worsening humanitarian crisis, experts say, the conflict isn’t yet “ripe” – a term professional mediators use for the point when warring parties recognize that they’re each suffering from a stalemate and are ready to find a mutually acceptable settlement. That phase is a long way off in Syria, analysts say, and the collapse of the moderate rebel command underlines why next month’s peace summit in Geneva is considered an exercise in futility.

Holding the conference at this juncture presents a difficult choice for the United States, which is struggling to find Syrian opposition partners who can form a credible, representative delegation to sit across the table from the more sure-footed, fully supported representatives of President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The biggest challenge now is how to have a rebel voice in the room, when the Western-backed Supreme Military Council is in tatters and its Islamist rivals reject the Geneva process outright.

In other words, the only rebels who’d show up are those with little or no influence on the battlefield. And the entire exercise is anathema to the fighters who do hold enough sway to implement any agreement under the so-called Geneva communique, a document that calls for talks to a mutually agreeable transitional government that would assume full executive power.

“There has to be a question mark of whether Geneva 2 will go ahead because, while it’s embarrassing to have the regime show up and your side doesn’t, it’s even more embarrassing to have a conference that’s just a farce,” said Shashank Joshi, a London-based analyst who monitors Syria for the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security research center.


Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/12/12/211529/with-islamists-now-in-firm-control.html

[jessie04]

23. What could possibly go wrong ?

[get the red out]

26. Great

Evil vs evil.