First Person: The dark knights of the Syrian opposition
NORTHERN SYRIA and ANTAKYA, TURKEY -- There was another checkpoint up ahead, so we slowed down, but didn’t stop. It’s better to keep moving at rebel checkpoints now. Don’t make too much eye contact, and move on.
We were in a convoy of pickups with commanders from the Free Syrian Army, top guys, but they didn’t have much juice anymore.
A year or two ago, the FSA ran all the checkpoints. They ran the revolution. With their fatigues, Winston cigarettes and patriotic songs blaring on their car radios, they were the rebels of Rebelstan and the people loved them.
Farmers stopped them on the road to push baskets of figs snapped right from the trees into their cars. The FSA didn’t need bases because families opened their homes for fighters to bed down for the night.
But it got all messed up. The extremists started coming about a year ago.
...
The men in pajamas waved us through the checkpoint, but there were more checkpoints to come. During the recent hour drive from Aleppo to the Turkish border, our convoy passed through nearly a dozen. Only two were run by the Free Syrian Army. The rest belonged to Nusra, the Islamic State, the Mohajeroun, or were run by men unknown to the FSA commander with us.
He told me his men had stopped traveling alone. Even the original rebels weren't safe from the whims of the Islamic extremists.
So who exactly would the United States be helping if it bombed Syria? We don’t really know. Neither do many Syrians.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/09/20405910-first-person-the-dark-knights-of-the-syrian-opposition?lite
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