In Syria, in Search of Options, Any Options

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/228356/in-syria-in-search-of-options-any-options/

In Syria, in Search of Options, Any Options
Veja, Brazil
By Caio Blinder
Translated By Jane Dorwart
5 December 2013
Edited by Bora Mici

For some time now, the militias of analysts from the Blinder & Blainder Institute have been lost in their projections about Syria. For a while, they fired first and asked questions later. Now, they ask too many questions and offer too few answers. Let's do battle!

There is information that the Obama government, so reluctant to stick a hand in the Syrian muck, could finally be forced to take a more active role by targeting jihadi groups fighting the Assad regime, other rebel groups and even the moderates between them. This activism would be the product of the vigorous, yet fragmented jihadi threat in various parts of the Middle East, in an arc that goes from Mali to Yemen, and which obviously has a nerve point in Syria. European jihadis, who were fighting in Syria alongside Islamic groups, are now coming home and planning terrorist acts, after taking intensive courses.

With a certain delicacy, The New York Times observes that the price of countering the terrorist threat could be a certain "accommodation, even if just a temporary or tactical, with the brutal, but secular government of Assad" — the government that has committed war crimes, according to "massive evidence" released this week by United Nations investigators.

This American move will require domestic and international negotiations. In the foreground is an increasingly furious Saudi ally, furious with Washington and active in its support of various jihadi groups. In The New York Times, Ryan Crocker gets to the point. He says, "We need to start talking to the Assad regime again about counterterrorism," adding that, however bad the Syrian dictator is, he is not as bad as the jihadis, who would take over in his absence.