{"id":182137,"date":"2015-12-10T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T00:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/12\/10\/there-is-no-moderate-opposition-in-syria\/"},"modified":"2015-12-10T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T00:51:00","slug":"there-is-no-moderate-opposition-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/12\/10\/there-is-no-moderate-opposition-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"There is No Moderate Opposition in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In looking for rebels to supply, the government <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/news\/nation-world\/world\/article48058665.html\">seems to be unable to fine forces that are not affiliated with terrorists<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Last July, an ultraconservative Islamist rebel group made a splash by publicly offering to work with Western powers to resolve the Syrian civil war and build \u201ca moderate future,\u201d a surprising overture from a force that regularly fights alongside al Qaida loyalists.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">But the very next month, the same rebel group eulogized Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban chief who sheltered Osama bin Laden before and after the 9\/11 attacks, as a steadfast warrior who embodied \u201cthe true meanings of jihad and sincerity.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The mixed messaging from Ahrar al Sham poses a serious dilemma for the Obama administration and its allies as they determine which rebel militias are acceptable partners in a revived diplomatic effort to resolve the Syrian conflict.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Ahrar al Sham is one of Syria\u2019s largest and most effective rebel forces, and its involvement in \u2013 or exclusion from \u2013 peace negotiations could determine the viability of any settlement hatched from a new series of negotiations in Vienna. The group is too important to exclude from talks on the country\u2019s future, say officials and analysts who monitor the conflict.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We have created a situation where the government of President Bashar Assad is the closest we have to a non terrorist non jihadi alternative.<\/p>\n<p>We have lost.&nbsp; Let&#8217;s cut our losses and get the f%$# out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In looking for rebels to supply, the government seems to be unable to fine forces that are not affiliated with terrorists: Last July, an ultraconservative Islamist rebel group made a splash by publicly offering to work with Western powers to resolve the Syrian civil war and build \u201ca moderate future,\u201d a surprising overture from a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[981,987,964,986,980,1076],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war","category-fail","category-foreign-relations","category-middle-east","category-syria","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}