Syria: Descent into darkness

Over at Front Page Magazine, Rick Moran has a rather grim update on the current state of affairs in Syria. The situation there is far more complicated than the canned sound bites from CNN could ever convey, with a variety of factions in play on each side and a dictator who, from all appearances, isn’t planning on leaving any time soon. But the violence continues unabated.

Violence erupted in three Syrian cities over the weekend as President Bashar Assad continues his efforts to put down incipient revolts against his 11 year rule. But while protests against the regime appeared to be spreading, the government mounted a number of massive demonstrations in support of the dictator in Damascus, as well as Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo.

Most troubling for Assad is the specter of sectarian violence in the city of Homs that raised its head for the first time in the revolt, and the defection of a significant military force in the Iraqi border town of Abu Kamal. This may be a signal that the conscripts that have been ordered to shoot down civilians in the streets are weakening in their allegiance to the regime despite brutal methods to keep them in line.

Homs is only one place where violence is spreading, with the rebels facing very steep odds against Assad’s forces, but as Moran explains, it’s also a microcosm of the complex mixture of ethnic and religious groups vying for power. As it turns out, Assad is actually viewed as a protector against majority oppression by a number of groups, including Christians, who fear the power of the Sunnis. Part of the problem today is that the Sunnis are less than happy with the favorable treatment shown by Assad to his charges.

Homs, a city that was once dominated by Sunnis, has seen Alawites move in during the last 20 years and gradually, the newcomers began taking over the government and getting preferred jobs. That tension escalated when Assad moved his forces into Sunni neighborhoods last month to quell the huge demonstrations that erupted against his rule. Most of the violence occurred in two neighborhoods –one Sunni and one Alawite — that border each other. A resident explained, “The magic is turning against the magician. The regime thought that if it feeds the tribes and allows them to carry AK-47s it will secure their loyalty forever.” He added that the “repression was turning them into insurgents.”

This is an excellent article to read if you want to get up to date on the complex internal struggle playing out today in Syria. The worrying part is that conflicting loyalties and alliances in the international community, combined with traditional antagonistic stances between rival clans make it all the more difficult for anyone else to do anything about Assad’s brutal crackdown. There’s a lot of news coming out of Syria, but none of it is very good.

from: hotair