With Syria buried in the news, hopes fade for ending world’s bloodiest war

[oberliner]

Syria’s civil war is buried beneath the headlines these days, as Israeli forces pound the Gaza Strip, Ukraine struggles with the downing of a commercial jet with 298 people on board and much of Iraq has been taken over by Al-Qaeda-inspired extremists. Libya, meanwhile, is literally going up in flames.

Even with 1,400 Gazans killed over the past few weeks, Syria has not lost its title as home to the world’s deadliest conflict. During a 10-day stretch in mid-July, a record 1,800 people were killed, as the death toll from three years of fighting climbs past 170,000. And as the United States wrangles for a cease-fire to stem the latest violence in Gaza, there seems less hope than ever for a diplomatic solution to Syria’s bloodshed.

The difficulty with Syria is not just that international diplomacy is bogged down elsewhere, working to stave off violence that is viewed as more solvable than the Syrian stalemate. The problem, analysts say, is that for quite a while now, Western resolve to pressure the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has all but dissolved.

Washington and its allies are unwilling to front the tens of billions of dollars or decades of commitment that would be required to guarantee a rebel victory. After three disastrous rounds of peace talks and the resignation of a frustrated United Nations mediator, many in the rebel camp feel their most important backers are ready to let the chips fall where they may.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/1/syria-forgotten-crisis.html

[sadoldgirl]

1. I doubt very much

that it has been forgotten. The so called rebels don't even agree among themselves to what their aim should be. Thus one deals with a civil war without any serious goal outside of getting rid of Assad. I for one hope Washington remembers clearly what happened the last time we got bogged down in a civil war ... and had to leave without having accomplished anything but killing thousands and thousands including 50,000 of our own.

Even the $8 million to the Ukraine is senseless. They should solve the problem without us for once. Don't we have enough on our plate to repair our country?

[Igel]

2. Meh.

Fine, cause the Assad regime to crumble.

The moderates--a risible term, to be sure--won't get most of the territory. It'll go to Islamist hardliners.

This is a great disincentive to *not* make Assad retreat and vanish. Moreover, Russia and Putin are firmly behind Assad. Syria is an outpost of the Eurasian movement in the ME and supports Russian goals. "We don't want no cold war--let the Ukrainian fascists get their butts kicked" coupled with "Let's fight Putin so that the Islamic repressive nationalists can triumph" is an odd combination of views to take. The cognitive dissonance should be truly impossible to miss.

What some in the West really want and even quixotically believe is this. Challenge Assad. Redefine the "moderates" as "progressive democrats"--like that's worked out so well in other areas where we say, "All people are the same" but mean "All people are just like us." So they'd arm the good progressive Arabs enough to destroy both Assad and the Islamists. Then all will be right and Syria will turn blue. That was the claim for Libya and Egypt, which have been retconned by some to have been deemed "neocon" projects in their entirety or in which al-Sisi is deemed a dyed-in-the-wool "liberal" because he's only imposing a military dictatorship to destroy the enemies of the true, secular people. Some people are always right, it's just the past has to be re-arranged just so every once in a while to maintain that ever-present Truth.

What some in the Arab world want is to arm the Sunni forces against the Shi'ite Hegemony that's bent on destroying True Islam (which, like all true religions, just means "what my tribe believes ... at the moment&quot . Challenge the Shi'ite Assad and restore the right order of things, in which the Sunnis are in charge and the Shi'ite heresy is expunged.

What others in the Arab world want is to arm the Sunni forces and challenge a secular Assad regime, secure in the belief that the worst elements of the Islamist front will wither and what results will be not just a nominally Sunni Arab territory but a territory in which a righteous ummah can live and prosper, and even expand.

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