"Qatar’s jihad and mideast failing states" Times of Israel

 

"Al Attiyah even tried to spin the narrative of Qatar as the defender of Syrian people, proclaiming “We will spare no efforts to do anything that can help protect the Syrian people…with our Saudi and Turkish brethren,” and defended Al Qaeda affiliate Ahrar Al-Sham as part of the “moderate opposition.”

However, it is unclear how Qatar is defending the Syrian people when its mercenary jihadists in the anti-Assad groups are committing genocide and ethno-religious cleansing in Syria. The Free Syrian Army and Nusra even made a video to boast of their 2013 massacre of the Christian village of Sadad where 45 Christians including children and women were tortured and executed, while Druze and other religious minorities continue to be slaughtered by these Sunni extremists."  Times of Israel

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 It is refreshing to see the Times of Israel publishing something like this.

I have been wrestling with the problem of a shorthand description for the forces opposing the Syrian government. 

"R+5" (Russia+Syria+Iran+Hizbullah+Iraqi Shia militias+Syrian militias) seems to work for one side but what should we call their opponents?

How about "Borg+ 6" (International Borgistas+US Government+Israel+Turkey+Saudi Arabia+Gulfies+ Euros)?

PL 

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/qatars-jihad-and-mideast-failing-states/

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Takfiris+6.

[Ryan]

That works for me, colonel. I've had the same problem describing these folks on other comment threads and will use this where I can.

[Trey Nelson]

"Psychopathic murdering scum" more accurately describes this semi-human filth, but is a bit unwieldy for describing the Amerikan/Izzy neo-con animals in everyday usage (and I'd hate to insult colon bacteria by bringing them into this conversation...).

Oh, we were talking about their fellow travelers as well? Then your proposed term sounds as good as anything else out there at the moment, Colonel (better TM it!).

[plantman]

Borg+6 sounds good to me...

Is there a reason why Russia is not targeting the oil tankers traveling the main highway in the east around deir ezzor? Seems like that would be a good way to terminate ISIS main funding stream.

[Thomas]

I concur with Borg+6.

[RogerSpenser]

The US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals can at best be described as post-Christian and are throwing the Orthodox Christians to the wolfs in the interest of vicious geopolitical schemes.

But there is a meaning to this terrible suffering: the last five hundred years of Western dominance over others (with all its brutality, cruelty, and greed) is coming to its end.

The East has drawn a line in Syria saying 'no more'. The East is checkmating the West.

Will the West listen or will it double down leading to a catastrophic world war?

[Ghost ship]

"However, it is unclear how Qatar is defending the Syrian people when its mercenary jihadists in the anti-Assad groups are committing genocide and ethno-religious cleansing in Syria."

My guess, according to the takfiri Wahhabists in Qatar, Alawites, Shi'ites, and Arab Christians are not people so from the Qatari point of view they are protecting the Syrian people.

[turcopolier]

AriusArmenian

Just post things once. Comments are hand moderated ere. pl

[Barish]

"Moderate" insurgents?

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Obama-Russia-failing-to-distinguish-between-ISIS-and-moderate-insurgents-in-Syria-419799

Got to say, isn't "insurgents" one key word that pushes several non-comfy buttons with western public in general, US public in particular? Just recall what coalition troops were pitted against in Iraq and Afghanistan these past one-and-a-half decades...
So, other than the Israeli press which apparently has taken a dramatic turn opposite the insane Michael Oren-crowd regarding Syria, I am doubly surprised finding this 'venerable' US-paper among search results for "moderate insurgents":

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/world/middleeast/us-trained-islamic-state-opponents-reported-kidnapped-in-syria.html?_r=0

[FB Ali]

All in good time. As you may have read, the Russians believe their present volume of air sorties in support of the Syrian offensive is too small, and are taking steps to increase it. This is their main effort at the moment.

Iraq has now given the RuAF permission to target IS convoys in its territory. It is slowly moving towards enabling full participation by Russia in its war against IS. That will ultimately come (whether the US likes it or not).

[Petrous]

Perfect.

[J Villain]

The author of the Stry is an American, Israel is probaly the largest supplier of outside intel to the US. So why can't Washington figure out what is going on there?

[David Habakkuk]

All,

I think the article to which the Colonel linked is of particular interest, not simply because of the outlet, but also because of the author. Her bio:

'Dr. Christina Lin is a Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of "The New Silk Road: China's Energy Strategy in the Greater Middle East" (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy), and a former director for China policy at the U.S. Department of Defense.'

It may very well be that I am imagining things, but I think the direct link to the video of people massacred in a Christian village in Syria – and the patent anger of Dr Lin's tone – may be significant. She sounds to me like the offspring of a family of Christian refugees from communist China.

Also relevant, I think, is the fact that a writer of Chinese extraction, who has clearly been affiliated with neoconservatives, is both endorsing the Russian action, and placing an article from an Indian strategist – Brahma Chellaney – at the centre of her own polemic.

And the two concluding paragraphs of the article are, I think, of very great interest:

'Meanwhile, as Russia is effectively attacking ISIS and Al Qaeda-infested Army of Conquest that has burrowed itself in Idlib, Qatar is now attempting to sabotage these gains to aid the jihadists. This is a direct threat to not only Russia, but especially China given this Conquest Army consists of anti-Chinese jihadists, as well as thousands of Chechen and Central Asian fighters that are already attacking their homeland. India's Kashmir has also fallen prey to Qatar's Syrian policy, with some Indian scholars calling for joining Russian airstrikes against these salafi jihadists.

'Should Qatar continue to provoke an escalation of Syrian war, it may very well end up confronting the three nuclear powers of not just the Russian bear, but also the Chinese dragon and Indian tiger to defend their homeland from Qatar-backed jihadists. If the US and Europe do not want Qatar to turn the Syrian war into World War III, then as Professor Chellaney exhorted, ''for the sake of regional and international security'', this gadfly-turned rogue elephant ''must be tamed.'''

So, if Christina Lin is to be believed, it could end up as the 'R +7', against the 'Borg +6'.

It is not clear to me that the 'Borgistas' have displayed the least ability to understand the forces they have unleashed against them, by trying to play the trick of using jihadists to unseat regimes they dislike – in particular because they consider them threats to Israel – once too often.

[turcopolier]

David Habakkuk

I will rely on your counsel as to when it might be "R+7." This all begins to seem like the harrowing of the Shire. BTW, I read TLOTR when it was first published. My Classics professor insisted that it was but mock epic. He was a bit of a prig. pl

[Kunuri]

AriusArmenian, I do believe this is the first time you posted an opinion here. This is not my site, but I would be happy to hear your opinions, regardless of how many here agree. Hoping not to cross my boundaries, but welcome. I certainly would like to hear things from your point of view, assuming you are an Orthodox Christian, and as someone not happy about "Western dominance over others". Furthermore, how is "East checkmating the West." And how "Wwill the West listen, or will double down", and risk "a catastrophic world war", something nobody wants.

[turcopolier]

J Vilain

"Israel is probably the largest supplier of outside intel to the US." Absolute BS I was head of DoD intel liaison to the IDF for seven long years. they suck massively at our teats every day. A Jewish US senator once said to me during a closed hearing that he had heard thus and such from the IDF attaché in Washington. The senator asked why I did not know this particular bit of business. I asked if he knew how the Izzie knew this. He said he did not. I said that the Israeli general knew this because I had told him it at lunch earlier that week. The committee roared with laughter. Israeli intelligence both Mossad and IDF is much over rated. pl

[Bandolero]

plantman

Aas far as I understand the R+5 are out to strike military targets, not civilian targets.

So, while Kerry and the Saudi king just "pledged to continue and intensify support to the moderate Syrian opposition"

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/syria/us-saudi-arabia-to-bolster-support-for-moderate-syrian-opposition-1.1606437

Russian media reported that the Borg+6 just lost a war ship off the Yemeni coast:

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151025/1029092805/yemen-ship-saudis-rebels.html

[Deray]

Hello AriusArmenian,

I am conflicted in what you are saying.

I am an Ethiopian Orthodox and I too see the current historical trends with serious misgivings. It does appear that "the west" is currently rather disinterested in maintaining the cultural and religious diversity of the middle east, and Christianity in all its forms is dying within the area. Your term "post-christian" characterization is interesting. I have long felt the west cannot really be considered Christian per se but rather agnostic materialist.

Unfortunately, I do not see where I can agree with your "The East is checkmating the West" statement, if it was written in terms of the survival of religious minorities such as Christians in the middle east. However well this Russian campaign turns out, I do not see how it will reverse this historical trend.

[turcopolier]

AriusArmenian

Does your chosen moniker imply some sort of relationship to Arianism? pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

I should expect Ethiopia and Coptic Egypt as well as Armenia and Georgia to continue to exist.

I also expect to see the continued existence of Christians along the Mediterranean sea and in parts of Iraq & perhaps Jordan.

I saw the description of the West as being in its post Christian phase in an essay by A. Toynbee on Islam many decades ago.

[Tyler]

Deray,

Brother, there have been darker days in Christiandom than this one. Who knows how this will all end?

Perhaps there's a light at the end of the tunnel. If the Turk keeps up his antics perhaps Constantinople will be ours again?

[Lisa]

I use Coalition of the Terminally Insane (CoTI for short).

[Edward]

So now the Qatari and Suadi regimes are allies while in Egypt they were opposed. I would like to know the agendas of these various "helpers".

[Fred]

Col.,

How about "Jihadi six-pack". Of course that might be a better descriptor of the group formerly known as the FSA.

[J Villain]

If you go through her whole list of articles at the Times of Israel Christina Lin brings a lot of new information to the table that is very hard to find any where else. But her conclusions seem to be way over the top at times.

In particular her constant banging of the drum that China is about to get into the Syrian war. Looking at statements by Chinese leaders and diplomats shows no interest at all in getting into Syria. They do support what Putin is doing and do fight Islamists close to home. But I haven't seen so much as a hint that they are contemplating doing any thing in Syria.