Category Archives: Syria

France24: Abou Ayman is a young Tunisian architect who left everything behind to wage holy war thousands of kilometers from his home. He is one of several thousand foreign jihadists currently fighting against the Syrian regime. Syria’s best-known rebels, those … Continue reading →

This is the flag of the biggest and most effective jihad group in Syria, jabha al Nusrah. When I see this flag, I doubtless see the black flag of al-Qaeda. I’ve been extra busy with work, school, setting up a … Continue reading →

That the US has sent a task force of 150 military advisers to Jordan to shore up the regime in the face of the spillover effects of the Syrian war speaks volumes about the gravity of the conflict in Syria. … Continue reading →

The more Saudi Arabia and Qatar support the uprising in Syria, the less sympathetic I get: “BBC News has uncovered evidence that weapons intended for the Saudi military have been diverted to Syrian rebels.”

Here is another discussion at Huffington Post Live in which I participated. The conversation circled around Syria in the context of the wider Middle East.

See the video here. I was and continue to be very sympathetic to the Syrian people’s uprising against the Ba’ath dictatorship in Syria. But I also agree with Professor Abu Khalil, the “Free Syrian Army,” which is bankrolled by the … Continue reading →

Here’s an important al-Jazeera video about various foreign powers arming various sides to the conflict in Syria. There is now no doubt that Gulf countries, the centers of counter-revolution, are now arming the opposition. The obvious question here is that … Continue reading →

Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi on the recent UNSC veto: “I agree with the Syrian opposition activists who have branded the Russian and Chinese veto as a ‘license to kill’–I also sympathize with the American UN envoy Susan Rice, who … Continue reading →

Angry Arab: When will there be an article in the Columbia Journalism Review about the lousy Western media coverage of Syria?  What about the claim that the Syrian “rebels” arrested 3 (just three) members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who … Continue reading →

This is an important update by Reuters about the burgeoning guerrilla war in Syria, the numbers of its fighters, and what it’s facing in terms of the military power of the Syrian Armed Forces still loyal to the regime: “If … Continue reading →

There are a number of issues related to the civil war in Syria that I’d like to address. First, one of the blog’s commenters has suggested that there was an armed insurrection against the Syrian regime from the start of … Continue reading →