A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[Bill Kelly]

And Maggie, if most of the Free Syrian Army is defecting, who are the Assad aircraft, helicopters, tanks and artillery shelling? All the foreign mercenaries?

Well, yes, for the most part that seems to be born out by the evidence of the passports collected from the dead and testimony of the prisoners. In the videos posted by the FSA it will be noted that many of the people are talking with Arabic accents not from Syria. Some are not talking Arabic at all. Spanish can be heard on the Gaddhafi murder video.

I agree that the Assad government was not beloved universally as is my government and as is your government Bill. There were protests and this resulted in significant political reforms which are pretty difficult to implement under the current circumstances. There have been no steps to implement the demands of the protesters in the US however. Just arrests there. What I see locally in our Syrian community, many of whom came here to get away from the current leader's father, is much support for the government and a total rejection of the invasion by foreigners from various countries seeking to install an Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship and theocracy. There have been large rallies here in support and more organised with people travelling interstate to attend. Under Assad, like Saddam in Iraq there existed a secular tolerance and balance between the various religious and ethnic groups and tribes. All of this is under threat now. Just read any of the Catholic papers and you will see the Christian communities looking to the Syrian government for protection from the foreign troops attacking them. And they do get that protection where possible. Same for the other groups. Moderate imams are being selectively assassinated. Shia communities are being targeted. Alawa communities are being targeted.

While I had studied US-Libya relations since 1993, I knew nothing about Syria until the Arab Spring revolutions began, and I started my blog - Revolutionary Program because I recognized the revolts as a Deep Political Event worth in depth study and analysis. Originally the blog was to be program - describing the participants on both sides, and their roles, and strategies and tactics. It didn't take long however, to see that the dictators were wrong and the revolutionaries were right -and it will take years to determine if they do the right thing - but from my perspective, few people, even the CIA, recognized what was going on in January 2011.

I am still learning about the situations in various countries, and am only knowledgeable about Libya, but it appears that the other countries are not that much different, in that their leaderships are dictators, and one by one they are falling - Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, - Syria and after that Bahrain and on to Saudi Arabia et al. I am not for NATO or CIA or any particular nation or group, but only view the situation as the Arab Spring revolt against dictators and the toll it will take on them. I am just keeping score, though I do support the rebels as opposed to the police states, that I have always opposed.

BK