All about Syria

I have highlighted the stuff that should stand out as important.

Joshua Foust writing at DefenseOne:
...In a video statement  released on Aug. 22, the five front-line commanders from the opposition-backed Supreme Military Council announced they were abandoning the group and choosing instead to work with any group willing to fight Assad. They tendered their resignation while sitting in front of the black flag of Jabhat al Nusra, a key opposition group with growing ties to al Qaeda in Iraq – implying they have rejected U.S. demands not to work with jihadists.

The council, formed in December 2012, was meant to consolidate the various rebel factions into a unified command structure. It never really worked – the SMC had little legitimacy, and the chains of command to each front were only as good as the individual commanders leading them. Though it had the potential to serve as a check on the radicalization of the opposition movement, that potential now seems further away than ever before.

“It’s really sad to see,” Elizabeth O’Bagy, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War who just returned from a research trip to Syria, told Defense One. “Islamic movements are taking over the council and people feel they can’t fight back.”................

Max Fisher writing at WashingtonPost
.....A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has finally   found something that Americans like even less than Congress: the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria. Only 9 percent of respondents said that the Obama administration should intervene militarily in Syria; a RealClearPolitics poll average finds Congress has a 15 percent approval rating, making the country’s most hated political body almost twice as popular.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was taken Aug.19-23, the very same week that horrific reports emerged strongly suggesting that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against his own people, potentially killing hundreds or even thousands of civilians. If there were ever a time that Americans would support some sort of action, you’d think this would be it. But this is the lowest support for intervention since the poll began tracking opinion on the issue..



Stephen Lendman writing at VeteransNews:
It’s happening again. It’s happening despite no evidence suggesting Syrian responsibility for Ghouta. It doesn’t matter. It remains to be seen whether greater US/NATO/Israeli intervention follows. False flags are an American tradition. They’re an Israeli tradition. They’re used strategically. They reflect Big Lies. 
Merriam-Webster calls them “deliberate gross distortion(s) of the truth used especially as a propaganda tactic.”
Official stories are false. They’re contrary to reality. They turn truth on its head. They point fingers the wrong way.
They’re pretexts for militarism, wars, mass killing and destruction, occupations, domestic repression, and other extremist national security state measures.
Wednesday’s Ghouta incident raises disturbing questions. It was a clear anti-Syrian provocation. No evidence suggests Assad’s involvement. Clear analysis shows he’d have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
Syrian insurgents used chemical weapons numerous times before. Clear evidence proves it. Media scoundrels suppressed it. They substituted lies for truth. They do it every time. It’s standard practice............

Taylor Luck writing at WashingtonPost:
....MAFRAQ, Jordan — Just 16 years old, Mohammed Hamad   was heading to war.
The lanky Syrian teenager was joining what United Nations officials warn might be the start of a flood of underage fighters enlisting in rebel ranks. About half of the 200 new recruits who board buses each week to Syria from Jordan’s sprawling Zaatari refu­gee camp are under 18, U.N. officials at the camp estimate.....