Konflikten i Syrien

Financier and philanthropist George Soros of the Open Society Foundation announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$100 million to HRW over a period of ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally. He said, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support. Human rights underpin our greatest aspirations: they're at the heart of open societies."[13][14][15] The donation increases Human Rights Watch's operating staff of 300 by 120 people. The donation was the largest in the organization's history.[16]

For several attacks using the 9M55K cluster munition rocket, geo-located video footage shows that the rockets were fired from the base of the Zeyn al-Abedeen mountain, just north of Hama city, in an area controlled by the Syrian military.

All the recent cluster munition attacks documented by Human Rights Watch fell on opposition-controlled territory.

One is the air-dropped Russian-produced RBK-500 SPBE cluster bomb, containing SPBE sensor-fuzed submunitions. This submunition descends by parachute and is designed to destroy vehicles by firing an explosively formed slug of molten metal downward after the vehicle is detected by a targeting system. The other is the ground-launched 240mm 3O8 projectile containing O-10 submunitions, which is used by the self-propelled 2S4 Tyulpan or towed M-240 mortar systems.

(New York) – Following apparent chemical weapons attacks on August 21, 2013, in Eastern and Western Ghouta near Damascus, the United States, Britain, France, and other countries are assessing options for military intervention in Syria.

Human Rights Watch does not take a position advocating or opposing such intervention, but any armed intervention should be judged by how well it protects all Syrian civilians from further atrocities.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/28/statement-possible-intervention-syria

If Obama decides to strike #Syria, will he settle for symbolism or do something that will help protect civilians?

Menar du att upplysning om illdåd av USA inte påverkar hemmaopinionen negativt?

Varför spelar det ingen roll? De skriver om Syriens likväl som USA:s och andra länders illdåd. Vad är det du vill att de ska göra mer än det?

Kan Vänsterpartiets beslut att stötta NATO-insatsen i Libyen bero på att insatsen var sanktionerat av FN:s säkerhetsråd och de tidigare inte var det?

If the Castle Falls: Ideology and Objectives of the Syrian Rebellion
At least 65,000 militants in Syria share key parts of the ideology of ISIS, with 15 of its rivals ready to take its place if it is defeated, according to new research from the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics (CRG). This briefing sets out who these groups are; their ideology, numbers and alliances.

The current focus on a military defeat of ISIS does not consider the other groups in Syria (and around the world) with exactly the same global ideology and ambition.

Our research has found 15 groups stand ready to succeed ISIS. Their ideology is Salafi-jihadism: a transnational religious-political ideology based on a belief in violent jihad to enforce a return to a perceived Islam of the Prophet Mohammad's first followers.
Its cuel and horrific acts rightly shock us. But ISIS is not simply a 'death cult.' The group represents a continuation of a way of thinking that started before it existed and will carry on if it is defeated. The West risks making a strategic failure by focusing only on ISIS. Defeating it militarily will not end global jihadism.
Over several months our team has tracked and analysed a range of sources to come up with what we consider to be the most detailed analysis available of the major jihadis and rebel groups operating in Syria.

Sixty per cent of major Syrian rebel groups are Islamist extremists
Our study of 48 rebel factions in Syria revealed that 33 per cent - nearly 100,000 fighters - have the same ideological objectives as ISIS. If you take into account Islamist groups (those who want a state governed by their interpretation of Isamic law), this figure jumps to 60 per cent.

Unless Assad goes, the Syrian war will go on and spread further

Despite the conflicting ideologies of the rebel groups, 90 per cent of the groups studied hold the defeat of Assad's regime as a principal objective. Sixty-eight per cent seek the establishment of Islamic law in Syria. In contrast, only 38 per cent have the defeat of ISIS as a stated goal.

Syria's rebels cannot be divided into radicals and moderates

Any attempt by international powers to distinguish between acceptable 'moderates' and unacceptable 'extremists' is flawed. Where short- or long-term objectives overlap, groups form coalitions regardless of ideology. Across Syria, Islamists battle Assad or ISIS alongside non-Islamists, and Western-supplied arms are used as fire support for extremists.