Finding out exactly who's doing the fighting in Syria outside of the Kurdish areas is a frustrating business. It's true, though, that most of the time you find a named force mentioned for 'the Rebels' or The FSA they turn out to be a jihadist group. This is a quote from the introduction to
Patrick Cockburn's latest book, who's a pretty respected Irish journalist who writes for The Independent in the UK, and who's been covering the Middle East conflicts, largely from there, for years.
Quote:
It was only in the first half of 2015 that there was a general admission that, ruthless though the Syrian government might be in barrel-bombing civilian areas, the armed opposition was by then almost entirely dominated by ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qa’ida affiliate. Sympathetic reporting of rebel-held areas in Iraq, Syria and Libya largely died away because they had become too dangerous for any local or foreign journalist to visit without risking kidnapping or decapitation.
And later on in the book, talking about the period just before the Russians became involved
Quote:
Again there was talk about how the regime might be crumbling, though there was by now much anxiety at this prospect among Western governments because it was clear that the Syrian military opposition had become wholly dominated by ISIS and al-Qa’ida clones. There was no significant moderate armed opposition surviving and, when the US tried to build one up, it was ruthlessly crushed by Jabhat al-Nusra, which kidnapped or killed its members as they crossed into Syria. It was widely suspected that Turkish intelligence had tipped off the jihadis.
I saw a documentary on French TV a little while back about the moderate opposition in Syria, and how they'd been brutally repressed by the Regime in Damascus in the early years of the war. The film ended with those that had escaped talking about their depression now much of the country seemed in the grip of two opposing horrors, the Regime and jihadists.
I hope otherwise, and it's certainly the case that not all armed jihadist groups are equivalent to Islamic State, but it's difficult to be confident of continued armed moderate resistance outside of the Kurdish regions. Most politicians in the West talk around this issue in a way that I find pretty disingenuous at best. It's impossible to know for sure from where I am, though.
I absolutely don't want this post to be a defence of supporting the slaughter-happy Syrian Regime, or of conspiracy theories about the sarin attack. Just trying to undermine a complacent use of terms like 'Rebels' for anti-Regime forces, and any idea that just weakening the Regime is sufficient for a decent Syria policy. Letting them consolidate power, which was what, in effect, Trump's first few months amounted to, is no recipe for a better Syria either. Every time they've felt more secure they've used the opportunity to attack, which involves deliberate civilian slaughter.