"More than a month into the battle for Aleppo, the rebels who seized control of much of the city sense that its residents do not yet fully support them. Opposition fighters – around 3,000 of them – are almost the only people moving around the eastern half that the Free Syrian Army now controls. The small numbers of non-fighters who remain seem to pay them little heed. Few seem openly welcoming.
"Yes it's true," said Sheikh Tawfik Abu Sleiman, a rebel commander sitting on the ground floor of his fourth new headquarters – the other three were bombed. "Around 70% of Aleppo city is with the regime. It has always been that way. The countryside is with us and the city is with them. We are saying that we will only be here as long as it takes to get the job done, to get rid of the Assads. After that, we will leave and they can build the city that they want."" The Guardian
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Well. Well. CNN has not noticed this but The Guardian has. The truth of this matter is that the rebels are far too exrteme in their religious enthusiasm for the relatively sophisticated and cosmopolitan people of Aleppo.
Why is the battle in Aleppo taking so long? As I wrote here before, the government wishes to avoid destroying this important metropolitan area with its population sympathetic to the government and its economic base.
The simple truth is that Aleppo awaits its liberators and they are not the rebels. The American people are being lied to yet again by the media. But then, they and their AIPAC friends know better. pl
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/syrian-rebels-aleppo-local-hostility?newsfeed=true
The U.S. government seem to finally understood that.
Yesterday Obama said his red line on military intervention in Syria were the use of chemical weapons.
That was his ONLY red line. The Syrian government is thereby now free to use all its weapons (except "strategic weapons" it said it would not use) and means to fight down the insurgency.
Posted by: b | 21 August 2012 at 02:32 PM
b
Yes, but they will be careful in the major cities for the reasons I have given. Their behavior in rural areas that are heavily Sunni will be much more severe. One can only hope that they will give as many jihadis the gateway to their reward as possible. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 21 August 2012 at 02:35 PM
Col: And this quote from Abu Sleiman is so believable:
"We are saying that we will only be here as long as it takes to get the job done, to get rid of the Assads. After that, we will leave and they can build the city that they want."
Why does anyone doubt this guy? (Sarcasm.) As Henry Ford used to say about his beloved Model T's, "You can have any color as long as it's black." See http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
Posted by: Matthew | 21 August 2012 at 02:49 PM
Agreed, Sir. Let them give the jihadis thier wish to die in the service of thier beliefs.
Posted by: Tyler | 21 August 2012 at 03:53 PM
Excellent informative writing on a related topic: the Kurds in Syria and Iraq
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=15819
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Joshua Landis (today) debates the dilemmas faced by Nuri al-Maliki with "An Iraq intelligence specialist, who cannot use his name" who wrote him in disagreement with Landis' (8/20) analysis of “Assad’s Kurdish Strategy,” http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=15769
Posted by: Jonathan | 22 August 2012 at 11:06 AM