Syrian Civil War (Graphic Photos/Vid Not Allowed)

[Falcon29]

I am not so sure about that brother. Forget about outside influences for a second and allow me to draw a comparison to Palestine. The Palestinian people have been under occupation for ages while fighting against an adversary many times stronger. Not to mention that this adversary has much stronger allies backing it.
Logic should almost dictate that the Palestinian cause should be dead by now however it is well and alive despite tremendous hardships. Why is that? Because almost every single Palestinian believes in the same cause, an independent Palestine.

Palestinian cause is alive primarily due to the armed wing of Hamas. As well as other factions plus independent activists. If Hamas didn't exist, there would be no serious effort by the Palestinians as a collective whole to put the brakes on anything, and it would die out without people noticing. This is the role that Fatah is playing in the West Bank, it wants the cause to die out, and I don't trust their people. Hamas's armed wing has individuals who have the best intentions any human being could possibly have, they are sincere in all their efforts and want the best for their people, and will sacrifice a lot to keep our cause alive.

How does this relate to Syria? Well, the future is entirely in the hands of the Syrian people. If the Syrian people unites no outside influence, no matter how strong they are, would be able, on the long run, to prevent the will of the Syrian nation.

There won't be no unity but neither will there be any form of partition. Thanks to an unnecessary conflict, which nowadays the world uses as money machine, and playground to 'pull out some cards' or keep pressure against adversaries in the region, all at behalf of the Syrian people(whether Alawite or Sunni). Jordanian officials took much of the funding that is intended to go to the refugees, for personal benefit, and now blame those refugees for any economic price paid. Turkish administration also makes money for every refugee with EU deal's lately, and who knows how much money is being taken out for personal reasons. Arabs like it as it puts pressure on Iran. Iranians also benefit in a way, by being able to influence many more factors of life in regime controlled area and able to support economy.

So Syrians are expected to live through this for the decades ahead. Thanks to disgusting and heartless people. And I've lost any faith I've had in humanity due to such people, that unfortunately make up the majority.

Anyway I blame nobody but our own leaders for everything that is going on. They have the foremost responsibility for events and foreigners are just exposing that for their own gains. Hard to blame them in this brutal world where power is king. You cannot help people who do not want to help themselves.

I don't blame the leaders, I blame the people(not the majority but close), it's ultimately peoples fault. They are the ones who agree to corruption, dangerous endeavors for personal benefit. That being said, I have no suggestions, and don't wish any more harm than good on the region. Let the people choose what they want, and let the situation remain stable, to focus on economy and future outlook. What would help the people is having good intentions, simple values, like being honest, not using anyone or anything for personal benefit, seeing another person as your brother and not your tool/mercenary, etc....If Arabs can't adhere to these simple values, then they're doomed.

For Arabs, the founders of 3 of the 11 largest empires in history (more than any other ethnic group in the top 15), and the Arab world, home to the oldest and most significant ancient civilizations, the very birthplace of civilization, to fall this low as currently seen, is the fault of nobody but the current Arabs. I am sad to say this but it's really a disgrace. I blame those in power of course not the ordinary men and women who have no say. What is even more sad is that we are talking about a region and a people (just take a look at the size of our youth and how many gems who are solely waiting for the right environment to flourish in) with tremendous potential, enormous resources, amble land etc. Almost everything that we could wish for we have, yet look at the situation. A tragedy. I am not wise enough to answer what causes all this (some of the causes are obvious) but something seriously needs to be done otherwise I fear that things will just go more one negative to the other.

What is even more annoying is that far too many Arabs simply have stopped caring. Shows how bad the situation is.

Well I'd really like to know how past Arab leaders operated, I don't trust historical sources. They can't be as great as they were made out to be. I attribute their successes to other factors, such as social structure and general lifestyle at the time, made it easier to form society, and leaders had less responsibilities. That being said they also had more power. Today's leaders are enabled by the people. None of them really impress me, people liked Saddam for certain qualities, but on economy/development aspect he didn't deliver much. I like the visions of the young prince in Saudi Arabia, he appears to be genuine and enthusiastic. Nevertheless, he is solely looking out for his country. And I don't blame him, he probably is intimidated by other Arabs and the status quo, and is seeing the world through 'survival of fittest' lenses, and there is no reason to try being a 'hero' at this time.

Anyway I should really withdraw from following events in the region for some time, it seriously impacts you in almost only negative ways.

It doesn't impact me negatively, but I'd wished I'd seen the reality earlier, and dropped all my hopes. It was all one process, with sub processes, where I lost political enthusiasm/will and also began realizing what role religion really plays in society, and I began viewing it as man made for that reason...I don't know if I'd call myself an atheist yet, but I wish I had recognized the world as it is much earlier.

At this point, I kind of stopped caring, but also am developing feelings of disgust towards some people. Nevertheless, current events remain a big interest of mine.

 

[Jamaal Yelmaaz]

Assad regime non stop continue to fueling ISIS with newest tons of weapons to use againist opposition groups and Turkey's upcoming save zone operation in Jarablus and Azzaz...
Last weak there have been carried out a big weapons transfer again between SAA and ISIS by collusion clashes..

 

[T-Rex]

Assad regime non stop continue to fueling ISIS with newest tons of weapons to use againist opposition groups and Turkey's upcoming save zone operation in Jarablus and Azzaz...
Last weak there have been carried out a big weapons transfer again between SAA and ISIS by collusion clashes..

I have been saying this that the existence of ISIS terrorists is beneficial to the assad regime. So, logic says they assist each other.

 

[ptldM3]

Assad regime non stop continue to fueling ISIS with newest tons of weapons to use againist opposition groups and Turkey's upcoming save zone operation in Jarablus and Azzaz...
Last weak there have been carried out a big weapons transfer again between SAA and ISIS by collusion clashes..

So some random photos of ammo creates are proof that Assad arms Isis?

I'm going to post some random photos of Ferraris, and say Assad also provides sports cars to Isis

 

[Sparkle229]

So what is the current situation on the ground,I read somewhere that intensity of the Russian strikes are getting lower(could be a rumor)

 

[United]

Grank:-
Fermented seminal fluid. Generally stored in a bottle or other container, but sometimes found in uncontrolled locations, such as a shower drain.

 

[beast89]

so rebel infighting in east ghouta has killed around 300 in 20 days http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=440361

if only zahran alloush was here but then again he pocketed $12 million saudi oil money that was his price....cheaper then most arab leaders. Now the governemnt is making gains in there.

FSA record there war crimes against YPG spokewoman in revenge for the ambush. Now total war declared between the kurds and FSA. Rebels are dumb as you can get.

 

[Solomon2]

Opinion: Iran’s New Map of Funerals

AMIR TAHERI 4 days ago

One of Iran’s chief features has always been the existence of several hundred small and medium towns each with its distinct characteristics and long history.

For example, imagine you are in Aqda, on the edge of the Lut Desert; you know that you cannot be anywhere else in universe. It is like nowhere else, and nowhere else is like it. Located in a cluster of pomegranate and quince orchards it is an earthly paradise. These human-sized towns are out of the turmoil of national life and seldom, if ever, in news headlines.

In the past few weeks, however, many of them have reappeared on the map of national information, reminding everyone of their existence. Sadly, the reason for this reappearance is tragic, the drip by drip death, or “martyrdom” as official propaganda puts it, of Iranians sent to fight in Syria’s seemingly endless war. A new map of Iran emerges of an archipelago of small towns connected by a chain of funerals.

What started as sporadic bad news became a flood last week when dozens of Iranians, including a whole unit of the Karbala 25 Division of Mazandaran were wiped out in four days of battle in Khan-Touman, southwest of Aleppo. With Syrian and Russian allies staying at a safe distance, Iran and its Lebanese Hezbollah cohorts were massacred, leaving corpses strewn on the street while those who could undertook a retreat.

We now know who the men who die in Syria are. There are three groups. The first consists of young men unable to find a job as unemployment for the 16 to 25 age group hovers around 40 per cent. A three-month’ stint in Syria could fetch a cheque for $1500 and something to shine on one’s CV when applying for a job.

The second group is formed of retired officers from captains to one-star generals looking for action to punctuate an otherwise dull life. Because Iran has three parallel military structures, the regular army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and the Mobilization of the Dispossessed (Baseej), it churns out more mid-ranking officers that the nation needs.

Thus an inordinately large number of officers retire in their 40s and 50s which means they face decades of life with the sentiment that they are on the margins of society. A stint in Syria helps keep you fit, re-charges your adrenaline machine and revives feelings of youth and optimism. In memoirs penned weeks before his death, General Hussein Hamadani, “martyred” in Syria last year, evoked the feeling like a child in a candy store.

The third group consists of officers whose career is in the ascendancy. A young and energetic Lt. Colonel could fast-track towards one-star generalship with a passage in Syria. And, if you have your first two stars as general, you could reach for the third by appearing in Syria, making a tour of real or imagined battlefields, clicking a few “selfies” and heightening your profile.

That is precisely what General Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the mythical Quds (Jerusalem) Corps, a master of self-promotion, did with great success securing his third star on the sly.

If we know who goes to Syria, at least roughly, we don’t know who is sending them. Last month, General Ata-Allah Salehi, Commander of the regular army, told the press he didn’t know who was sending members of his elite” Green Beret” unit to fight and die in Syria.“The armed forces are not involved,” he said. “The officers dispatched there {Syria} are sent by an organization.”

His use of the word “organization”, a political term, as opposed to “unit”, which is a military term, indicated his desire to expose the Syrian adventure as a political gamble.

Appearing to state the obvious, he said the army’s task was to defend the borders against foreign enemies, implying that fighting in other countries’ civil wars was not in its remit.

A few days later it was the turn of General Ibrahim Pourdastan, commander of the army’s land forces, to announce the formation of new rapid intervention terrorists “to fight terrorists along our borders.” This was a strong hint that the leadership may be beginning to form doubts about the ability of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the parallel army, its reputation sullied by the Syrian setback, to defend the nation. Apart from the fact that we don’t officially know who is sending those men to Syria, although we could guess, we also don’t know why they are sent there.

Under the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, the nation cannot be taken to war without a rather tortuous process. The matter must be discussed at Cabinet level, in the High Council of National Security and the Islamic Majlis. The process must establish several things: What is the rationale for engagement, what are the objectives, what are the means required, who is in command, who the enemies are, who the allies are, what is the oversight mechanism and, last but not least, how would such action serve the interests of the nation.

None of all that has happened; and, as far as we could make out, even the military top brass don’t quite know what is going on.Thanks to Gen. Hamadani, we know that his unit arrived in Damascus without a mission order. The Syrian military didn’t know what the Iranians had come for and, according to Hamadani, were suspicious enough to keep them out with “heavy iron doors” around their military and political institutions. Hamadani and his men had to make it up as they went along, ending up, at one point, by saving President Bashar Al-Assad who seemed to be about to fall.

Despite the 2007 Defense Cooperation Agreement between Tehran and Damascus there seems to be no mechanism for joint staff conversation, exchange of intelligence and combat plan coordination.
Many Iranians, and an unknown number of Afghani, Pakistani and Iraqi “volunteers”, not to mention fighters from the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah, are sent to the killing fields of Syria in a fog of confusion.

The “Supreme Guide” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei states that his objective is to maintain Assad in power. That is both too little and too much as a war objective. It is too little because it is not clear what benefit Iran, as a nation, may reap from its fulfilment. It is too much because Assad might simply die of natural causes, leaving Iran without an objective in a costly war.

In the past few weeks, Iran has suffered its heaviest military losses since the eight-year war with Iraq that ended in 1988. That tragic fact has persuaded many to question General Soleimani’s Jihad mythology based on slick PR and “selfies” with exotic backgrounds.

The claim that Iranian fighters are in Syria as “advisers” is hard to sell when so many are killed in combat. Equally hard to swallow is the claim that we are there to protect “holy shrines” of which we didn’t know until the Syrian imbroglio started. In any case, 95 per cent of Iranians killed so far lost their lives up to 200 kilometers away from any shrine, holy or unholy.

In an analysis last month, the daily Kayhan, reportedly published under the supervision of Khamenei’s office, hinted at what looked like an emerging strategy in Syria. It said Iran and its mercenaries, including Lebanese Hezbollah, the Faitimouyn Brigade of Afghani, Iraqi and Pakistani units now controlled “several strategic locations” in southern and central Syria.

For Iran, the Syrian adventure is a costly exercise in tragic futility. Iran’s national interest isn’t served by killing Syrians in pursuit of a forlorn cause. Across the nation today a sentiment is shaping that it is time to stop redrawing the map of Iran with funerals.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has understood the cost-benefit imbalance in the Syrian enterprise and is trying to walk the cat back, and out. The sooner the Tehran leadership understands that, the better.

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. Mr. Taheri has won several prizes for his journalism, and in 2012 was named International Journalist of the Year by the British Society of Editors and the Foreign Press Association in the annual British Media Awards.

 

[Serpentine]

Good news to hear:

According to SOHR, 50 terrorists killed today in clashes between Jaish al-Islam and Nusra/Failaq al-Rahman in Eastern Ghouta in the ongoing power struggle. Nearly 500 have been killed in total in past weeks according to SOHR and other sources.

They are making the hard job of SAA much easier in Eastern Ghouta. 50 in a single day, hope the trend continues.

 

[500]

Palestinian cause is alive primarily due to the armed wing of Hamas. As well as other factions plus independent activists. If Hamas didn't exist, there would be no serious effort by the Palestinians as a collective whole to put the brakes on anything, and it would die out without people noticing. This is the role that Fatah is playing in the West Bank, it wants the cause to die out, and I don't trust their people. Hamas's armed wing has individuals who have the best intentions any human being could possibly have, they are sincere in all their efforts and want the best for their people, and will sacrifice a lot to keep our cause alive.

If Hamas did not exist Palestinian state would be created by around 2000.

Good news to hear:

According to SOHR, 50 terrorists killed today in clashes between Jaish al-Islam and Nusra/Failaq al-Rahman in Eastern Ghouta in the ongoing power struggle. Nearly 500 have been killed in total in past weeks according to SOHR and other sources.

They are making the hard job of SAA much easier in Eastern Ghouta. 50 in a single day, hope the trend continues.

SOHR pulls numbers out of arse.

 

[Serpentine]

SOHR pulls numbers out of arse.

It's actually accurate about oppostion casualties, but mostly wrong about SAA casualties, simply because it's biased in favor of terror groups. There is no reason for it to lie about opposition casualties in their infighting.

Anyway, various Failaq-al-Rahman and Co accounts are already boasting about tens of Jaish al-Islam members they have killed today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/732494374467047424

 

[beast89]

It's actually accurate about oppostion casualties, but mostly wrong about SAA casualties, simply because it's biased in favor of terror groups. There is no reason for it to lie about opposition casualties in their infighting.

Anyway, various Failaq-al-Rahman and Co accounts are already boasting about tens of Jaish al-Islam members they have killed today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/732494374467047424

will rebel infighting ever end? @BLACKEAGLE jaish al islam were never the same since zahran was taken away by the russians

 

[HAIDER]

Everyone has eye on oil coastal region of Syria and that region Russia will never surrender. All eyes on Syrian coastal oil deposit.

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Good news to hear:

According to SOHR, 50 terrorists killed today in clashes between Jaish al-Islam and Nusra/Failaq al-Rahman in Eastern Ghouta in the ongoing power struggle. Nearly 500 have been killed in total in past weeks according to SOHR and other sources.

They are making the hard job of SAA much easier in Eastern Ghouta. 50 in a single day, hope the trend continues.

Iranian logic:
Use SOHR when it suits them.
Dump SOHR immediately after and scream "bias!!!"

SOHR is a bad source.

Iran has sent 500 more troops to be turned into fertilizer. Rebels have already repelled multiple attacks on Khan Touman, Handarat Camp, Abu Ruwayl, and al Rashidin. Thanks for the fertilizer Khamenei.

 

[Serpentine]

Iranian logic:
Use SOHR when it suits them.
Dump SOHR immediately after and scream "bias!!!"

SOHR is a bad source.

Cry me a river, but it's a fact that your brothers are slaughtering each other in Ghouta as we speak.

Iran has sent 500 more troops to be turned into fertilizer. Rebels have already repelled multiple attacks on Khan Touman, Handarat Camp, Abu Ruwayl, and al Rashidin. Thanks for the fertilizer Khamenei.

There has been no attack on Khan Tuman, just heavy artillery fire and bombings to take out as much rats as possible. You need to stop creating non-existing battles. The best fertilizer in Syria are the 'rebels', as they are getting killed in a much much bigger numbers, along with ISIS. Just in one single day for example, YPG/SDF killed 55 terrorists in Tal Rafaat (I bet you defenitely have seen the corpses pics, you can count all of them). Not to mention hundreds killed in northern Aleppo in past weeks in useless fighting between 2 ideological brothers: Rebels and ISIS and add this to hundreds killed in Eastern Ghouta infighting. I wish this continues and intensifies.