Beirut // Young Syrian men in regime-controlled areas are using any means necessary, including violent protests, to avoid military conscription - even if they support the government.
More than 80,000 soldiers and other pro-regime fighters have been killed in the four-year-old conflict, out of a total of about 220,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“I’m with the regime but I am a deserter, because military service in Syria means death,” said George, a Christian student from Damascus.
“Very few young men accept to enlist because at our age, no one wants to die.”
As the territory that has fallen out of regime control is predominantly Sunni Muslim, the government is heavily recruiting from among the Druze, Christian, Alawite, and Ismaili minorities.
Now these communities feel they have paid a heavy price to defend president Bashar Al Assad’s rule against deadly opponents including Al Qaeda-linked militants and ISIL.
“Even if they support the army and the regime, they’re not willing to serve its flag,” said Sema Nassar, a human rights activist from the north-western province of Latakia, a heartland for the Alawite sect from which Mr Al Assad hails.
Beirut // Young Syrian men in regime-controlled areas are using any means necessary, including violent protests, to avoid military conscription - even if they support the government.
More than 80,000 soldiers and other pro-regime fighters have been killed in the four-year-old conflict, out of a total of about 220,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“I’m with the regime but I am a deserter, because military service in Syria means death,” said George, a Christian student from Damascus.
“Very few young men accept to enlist because at our age, no one wants to die.”
As the territory that has fallen out of regime control is predominantly Sunni Muslim, the government is heavily recruiting from among the Druze, Christian, Alawite, and Ismaili minorities.
Now these communities feel they have paid a heavy price to defend president Bashar Al Assad’s rule against deadly opponents including Al Qaeda-linked militants and ISIL.
“Even if they support the army and the regime, they’re not willing to serve its flag,” said Sema Nassar, a human rights activist from the north-western province of Latakia, a heartland for the Alawite sect from which Mr Al Assad hails.
From all reports another SAA offensive that turned into a complete disaster. Al-Nursra has entered Busra al-Harir with video evidence showing dead Irnaian soldiers, and maybe even a general. Over a dozen tanks destroyed, and heavy Militia losses.
Heavy fighting in Jobar.
Rebels inspect abandoned regime convoy outside of Busra al-Harir.
Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Syria is really simple: EVERYBODY is fighting EVERYWHERE against EVERYONE... and NOBODY is a good guy.
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Syria is really simple: EVERYBODY is fighting EVERYWHERE against EVERYONE... and NOBODY is a good guy.
But some bad guys are worse than other bad guys!
Massively oversimplified version:
Team Regime: Assad/SAA/Government/"Syria": Supported by Iran, draws power base especially from Alawites (Shiite offshoot), but also generally from minorities afraid of what happens if the state become dominated by the Sunni majority Assad has long suppressed. Iran: Looking to defend their ally, fuck with the US, exert control over Iraq. Hezbollah: Shiite Lebanese militia allied with Iran/Assad. Historically a foe of Israel.
Team Free Syrian Army (FSA): The alliance of pro-democracy pro-Western rebels. Basically a fiction at this point, but used as an "all other" term for rebels.
Team Al Nusra: Sorta allied with the FSA, these guys are the local Al Qaida franchise. US has bombed them a little bit.
Team ISIS: Evil bad baddies. Want an Islamic State. Feud with AQ.
Team Arab League: Competing with Iran for dominance over the region. Generally wary of Islamist power (and to a lesser and mostly related extent, Democracy), seeking stability and peace. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar all have different agendas (Jordan too, to an extent) but at the moment unified in not liking Assad, but being far more afraid of Islamist domination.
Team The West: Yeah, we're not really a team. We're basically muscle for the Arab league. Nominally pro-democracy, but aware that free elections in the Arab world would mean bad things for minorities and Israel. Divided on how much to help and how much to coordinate with our enemies who hate each other.
Team Iraq: Holy shit Iraq, get it together. Sorta on the Arab League/West side, but also full of sympathizers for both Sunni Islamists and Shiite Iran.
Team Kurdistan: Looking to found a Kurdish state in all this mess. Friendly with the West, less so with the Arabs, hates both Assad and ISIS. Recently Israel came out in favor of a Kurdish state. Pro-democracy, pro-minority protection, though some worry this is a cynical attempt to get the West on board. Basically Team Stark.
Team Turkey: Probably aided the Islamists early on out of hatred of Assad, mostly on Team Arabs now. More complicated than that, as all of this is.
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Syria is really simple: EVERYBODY is fighting EVERYWHERE against EVERYONE... and NOBODY is a good guy.
But some bad guys are worse than other bad guys!
Massively oversimplified version:
Team Regime: Assad/SAA/Government/"Syria": Supported by Iran, draws power base especially from Alawites (Shiite offshoot), but also generally from minorities afraid of what happens if the state become dominated by the Sunni majority Assad has long suppressed. Iran: Looking to defend their ally, fuck with the US, exert control over Iraq. Hezbollah: Shiite Lebanese militia allied with Iran/Assad. Historically a foe of Israel.
Team Free Syrian Army (FSA): The alliance of pro-democracy pro-Western rebels. Basically a fiction at this point, but used as an "all other" term for rebels.
Team Al Nusra: Sorta allied with the FSA, these guys are the local Al Qaida franchise. US has bombed them a little bit.
Team ISIS: Evil bad baddies. Want an Islamic State. Feud with AQ.
Team Arab League: Competing with Iran for dominance over the region. Generally wary of Islamist power (and to a lesser and mostly related extent, Democracy), seeking stability and peace. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar all have different agendas (Jordan too, to an extent) but at the moment unified in not liking Assad, but being far more afraid of Islamist domination.
Team The West: Yeah, we're not really a team. We're basically muscle for the Arab league. Nominally pro-democracy, but aware that free elections in the Arab world would mean bad things for minorities and Israel. Divided on how much to help and how much to coordinate with our enemies who hate each other.
Team Iraq: Holy shit Iraq, get it together. Sorta on the Arab League/West side, but also full of sympathizers for both Sunni Islamists and Shiite Iran.
Team Kurdistan: Looking to found a Kurdish state in all this mess. Friendly with the West, less so with the Arabs, hates both Assad and ISIS. Recently Israel came out in favor of a Kurdish state. Pro-democracy, pro-minority protection, though some worry this is a cynical attempt to get the West on board. Basically Team Stark.
Team Turkey: Probably aided the Islamists early on out of hatred of Assad, mostly on Team Arabs now. More complicated than that, as all of this is.
This is a really good summary, thanks.
The simple reduction to follow things is:
Assad is much like Saddam was in Iraq. Evil dictator that is more less manageable and most likely a better option than the Islamic state or Democracy.
This is a massive moral dilemma. There really is no good winner, there is unlikely to be an end to fighting EVEN IF the world powers united and came in and stabilized the area it would just create more problems.
I do not see how the world can avoid some sort of massive war in the Middle East within the next 10 years. Either Israel, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia will get put into such a dangerous position that they will attack someone that will start a big undercurrent or IS will actually get momentum and spread somewhere that will start something even bigger.
I hate coming to this thread and I do so every few days to see what else has happened, but so much loss of life.
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Syria is really simple: EVERYBODY is fighting EVERYWHERE against EVERYONE... and NOBODY is a good guy.
But some bad guys are worse than other bad guys!
Massively oversimplified version:
Team Regime: Assad/SAA/Government/"Syria": Supported by Iran, draws power base especially from Alawites (Shiite offshoot), but also generally from minorities afraid of what happens if the state become dominated by the Sunni majority Assad has long suppressed. Iran: Looking to defend their ally, fuck with the US, exert control over Iraq. Hezbollah: Shiite Lebanese militia allied with Iran/Assad. Historically a foe of Israel.
Team Free Syrian Army (FSA): The alliance of pro-democracy pro-Western rebels. Basically a fiction at this point, but used as an "all other" term for rebels.
Team Al Nusra: Sorta allied with the FSA, these guys are the local Al Qaida franchise. US has bombed them a little bit.
Team ISIS: Evil bad baddies. Want an Islamic State. Feud with AQ.
Team Arab League: Competing with Iran for dominance over the region. Generally wary of Islamist power (and to a lesser and mostly related extent, Democracy), seeking stability and peace. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar all have different agendas (Jordan too, to an extent) but at the moment unified in not liking Assad, but being far more afraid of Islamist domination.
Team The West: Yeah, we're not really a team. We're basically muscle for the Arab league. Nominally pro-democracy, but aware that free elections in the Arab world would mean bad things for minorities and Israel. Divided on how much to help and how much to coordinate with our enemies who hate each other.
Team Iraq: Holy shit Iraq, get it together. Sorta on the Arab League/West side, but also full of sympathizers for both Sunni Islamists and Shiite Iran.
Team Kurdistan: Looking to found a Kurdish state in all this mess. Friendly with the West, less so with the Arabs, hates both Assad and ISIS. Recently Israel came out in favor of a Kurdish state. Pro-democracy, pro-minority protection, though some worry this is a cynical attempt to get the West on board. Basically Team Stark.
Team Turkey: Probably aided the Islamists early on out of hatred of Assad, mostly on Team Arabs now. More complicated than that, as all of this is.
Yeah that helped a lot. Not sure why that worked so much better for me, probably the more anglicized naming.
Team Regime: Iran and Russia backed non-democratic clown but it did not fall like other dictators since China threatened whole world about this, and they have gunz.
Team Free Syrian Army : They were good guys at first. Now they merged with a lot bad guys and many of em have the same religious views as ISIS. They dont have good relations with Kurds.
Al Nusra: Probably backed by Israel, actually Putin said Israel supports ISIS lol. So we cant say Israel is out of game. They are not good, but they are better than IS.
Team ISIS: They are backed by Sunni clerics and some population, we have strong information that Western countries and Turkey + Qatar armed them before they go full ALLAH ACKBAR. I think many local countries focused on taking regime down as soon as possible.
Team Arabs: Bunch of useless countries except Jordan. They give fight. Oh god i really dislike saudi arabia, qatar and egypt.
Team the West: Idk about eu assaults on Syria but USA does the big part of the job. Germany armed Kurds etc. No matter what these guys do, they are the ones whom will always be blamed.
Team Iraq: They get better everyday. They have nothing to do with Syria, yet they have still a huge work to do before Kurds dominate them after ISIS. I assume tension between iraqi kurds and central iraq will rise after ISIS.
Team Kurdistan: They stood AFK whole time until ISIS attacks them, we should not forget, and they were saying they will always stay AFK if ISIS does not attack them. So they betrayed their nation a little bit but who cares, they want their own nation. But however, nobody helped them during Kobane siege, but USA. In Iraq their more civilized and strong partners. They have good relations with Turkey and with many local ethnic groups except Maliki. In Syria they are dangerous.
Team Turkey: Does not like Kurds in Syria, at all. They did not move a muscle while kobane siege, they barely opened their gates for kurdish refugees. Their plans to assault ISIS are leaked by Israeli backed so called "parallel state" and they are angry. Only co operating with Kurds in Iraq and arming Peshmerga / training FSA in their soil. But they avoid any contact with ISIS since they dont want to help Assad + Kurds on anything, its win / win for them long as this war continues, they also dont like Iran, old enemies.
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Some of the relationships have changed by now, especially with the Kurds. The Iraqi government is now more friendly to the Kurds and Turkey are now less so.
On April 22 2015 05:48 GreenHorizons wrote: Ok particularly with whats going on in Yemen I am becoming more interested in the Middle East, but I find myself struggling to keep the factions clear in my head. Is there an infographic or something that explains who's fighting who and where?
Some of the relationships have changed by now, especially with the Kurds. The Iraqi government is now more friendly to the Kurds and Turkey are now less so.
I'd also color IS vs. JAN orange, not red, and probably IS vs. SA and the gulf states orange, although they are definitely red to the rest of the Arabic League. IS - Turkey is a very interesting relationship. Officially they are enemies, but in practice they seem more than happy to pragmatically ignore each other and fight their common enemies. That whole push into Syria to retreive Suleimani's remains from the tomb was very telling.
Mashaal Radio has published a report stating that Daesh and Taliban group have announced Jihad against each other. Nabi Jan Mullahkhil, police chief of southern Helmand province has told Mashaal Radio during an interview that he has received documents in which both the terrorist groups have announced Jihad against each other.
Mashaal Radio which is related to Azadi Radio quotes Mullahkhil as saying when the matter of peace talks between government and Taliban comes into discussion some intelligence agencies make new groups to keep the war ongoing in Afghanistan.
Reports of minor clashes between the fighters of Taliban group and the newly emerged Daesh have published in the past.
Both groups oppose each other. Abdu Bakar Al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS has called Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar “a fool and illiterate warlord”.
Al-Baghdadi has said that Mullah Omar does not deserve a spiritual or political credibility. While on the other hand Taliban fighters have been ordered by their leaders not to let Daesh flag raise in Afghanistan.
EPT
