Robert Fisk: Could there Be some bad guys among the rebels too?

[Bonobo]

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/7b674b3b-af00-46a6-bebb-76a86dfbd1a5.aspx

Robert Fisk: Could there Be some bad guys among the rebels too?
February 14, 2012

John McCain backed the good guys in Libya, who are now keenly torturing their opponents to death. The same John McCain now backs the good guys in Syria – no “boots on the ground”, mind you, for this is war without death for America – and it all seems OK, until I sit opposite a guy over coffee in Beirut who kind of makes the whole story a bit more complicated. We back surrounded minorities, fighting bravely for their rights against overwhelming odds – Homs, for example. We did the same when the Kosovo Liberation Army – not exactly the squeaky-clean outfit that Nato would have us believe until Slobodan Milosevic surrendered – fought against overwhelming Serbian odds in 1998.

There has been shelling – of homes and of at least one clinic – and there are graves in gardens. But then there are the other little comments, almost forgettable but still disturbing. The habit of “Free Syrian Army” soldiers of playing Islamic music before crossing roads under sniper fire and of praying before pressing their foot on the gas. Well, nothing wrong in that, for heaven’s sake.

Then the large number of FSA men who appear to be Islamist rather than Islamic – this subtle difference is initially hard to spot, says my friend. And then the boasts of “armed activists” in Homs – there now seems to be a gentle difference between activists (armed) and protesters (unarmed) – who are executing their Alawite and Christian neighbours.

My friend (no acolyte of the Baath party) expresses his absolute belief that if the FSA breaks out of Homs, there will be “massacres”. The ethnic cleansing of the Christians, then, the nightmare that Assad evokes? And the rumours that Syrian tanks use heavy machine guns in cities but growl around without shells for their barrels – just in case they, too, defect? Could it be that shelling Homs is one thing, but levelling it to the ground a much more painful gamble of “will the tank-crews defect or not”?

[sabrina 1]

1. And we know there are Libyans there with all those left over weapons.

What a horrible, tragic mess, destabilizing all these countries, Libya, Iraq and now Syria and Iran. A neocon dream come true. And I wonder how many Qatar troops are there? They're probably finished in Libya.

Was it Michael Ledeen who said 'faster please' referring to their plans to 'level the entire ME'? As if the people there did not matter at all. It's taking a little longer than they anticipated, but seems to be on track so far.

Great article by Fisk as always, thank you for posting it, Bonobo.

[Fool Count]

2. I believe, the West sold its support for the radical salafist takeover of the Middle East

in exchange for the promise of cheap oil afterwards. What can possibly go wrong with
such a mutually beneficial arrangement?