Syrian Army captures central Daraya, rebel supporters executed.

"Scores of mutilated, bloodied bodies have been found dumped on the streets and on waste ground on the outskirts of Damascus in recent days, apparently the victims of a surge of extrajudicial killings by Syrian security forces seeking to drive rebel fighters out of the capital and its suburbs." Washpost

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The Washington Post led with this article today.  That is not surprising.  The Post has been a consistent backer of the Sunni Islamist led rebellion against the Assad government.  Yes.  The Syrian forces are methodically searching areas that they retake and are killing supporters of the rebellion.  Why are they not hiding the bodies?  They want those they do not kill to see the bodies and they don't mind if the Washington Post wants to talk about it either.  This is 'pour encourager les autres."  The message is that this is what happens when you take up armes against the government.  An additional message is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are impotent in the face of the defeat of their proteges.  This will continue until morale improves.

This war is not like the American Civil War (WBS).  When that war ended at Appomattox there were no executions for treason among the defeated.  Confederate ofiicers took their "sidearms, baggage and personal horses" home with them.  Grant encouraged the Southern troops to take the horses and mules home with them so that "a crop could be put in."  The Army of the Potomac presented arms to the Army of Northern Virnia as they lay down their weapons and colors.  Their hearts had not been in the war?  Look at the casualty figures.

The end in Syria will not be like that.  The Confederates knew in their hearts that the Union Army would not massacre their families.  Nor would they they be made into the slaves that they no longer had.  None of that is or will be true in Syria, Having encouraged the uprising, the US can only watch the inevitable, terrible end of the war.  The Syrian Army believes the war WILL end in the massacre and effective enslavement of them and theirs if the rebels win.  At the same time, the rebels have now been demonstrated to be people who kill their prisoners like sheep at the Eid.  This war will be fought to the death.

Last night on the "Newshour" a Saudi stringer for "Nightline" was interviewed on the subject of the war.  He had recently traveled around insurgent held north Syrai,  He commented that the Syrian Army was "demorailised and very cowardly" because they advance a few blocks in a town and then halt.  This fellow was clearly "boosting" for his side but in fact the SA is advancing from phase line to phase line in order to avoid an uneven front line that would be vulnerable to counter-attacks.   pl 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/gruesome-killings-mark-escalation-of-violence-in-syrian-capital/2012/08/23/597e09c4-ed57-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html

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"Syrian troops backed by tanks entered the centre of Daraya, a town on the southwest edge of Damascus, on Friday after three days of heavy ground and helicopter bombardment, opposition activists said. Hundreds of troops and dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles were seen on al-Thawra street in central Daraya, taking control of the sprawling suburb as a core group of Free Syrian Army fighters pulled out, several activists said by phone from the Syrian capital. Daraya, which has a population of a quarter of a million, is one of a series of mostly poor Sunni Muslim suburbs that surround Damascus and have been at the forefront of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite. "  Reuters

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More of the same, today it is Daraya, somewhere else tomorrow.  pl

 http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/24/syria-crisis-town-idINL6E8JOC7V20120824

Comments

[Matthew]

Is it possible to kill anyone in the FSA without it being labeled a "massacre"?

[fdixon]

Good column from Fisk on Beirut exhibition of Goya's Disasters Of War.

Section compares effects of photos to that of these sketches:
"There is much less interpretation in photographs. But there is a depth of misery in these sketches. You can dive into them. The photographs are real but they only shock you, so in the photos, something is shut off from you."

Fisk can be a nut case at times BUT unlike the supposed "news jurnos", he is there on the ground and always has compassion for especially the unarmed civilians.

I like your use of the print.

[Charles I]

From Rothko to whoever, you are a dab hand with the artwork. Do I recall learning somehwere on PBS that that's His Imperial Majesty Don Maximiliano I throwing up his hands above?

[turcopolier]

Chatles I

Goya of course. I believe eare supposed to be french soldiers. pl

[Tunde]

Sir,
There was a 'mock horror' report on the beeb which the FSA is shown treating a badly bruised SA captive with a cigarette and gentility and promising to adhere by 'the Geneva conventions'. Next you see him bound and blind-folded, loaded in the cab of an explosive-laden pickup which was later found to have been used in a 'matyrdom' suicide bombing. Nice chaps, eh ?