The Syrian military has taken an important Homs neighborhood that had been in the hands of the rebels for over a year, as part of its counter-offensive in the strategic center of the country. With the help of the Lebanese militia, Hizbullah, it recently took al-Qusayr, a town near Homs. And now it is taking more of Homs itself, though at the cost of destroying the taken neighborhoods. The capital of Damascus is in the south of the country and is supplied from the port of Latakia in the northwest. The supply routes go through Homs. The rebels had also been using al-Qusayr and Homs as depots for smuggled arms and other goods coming from Lebanon.
The importance of the small advances of the Syrian army in recent weeks, however, shouldn’t be exaggerated.
The Pan-Arab London daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat [The Middle East] reported on Aug. 1, according to the USG Open Source Center:
‘Syrian government forces have recently won a series of battles against the rebel groups fighting to topple Assad in the city of Homs, around the capital of Damascus, and along the Lebanese border, a key supply line for rebel forces.
However, analysts say that despite its recent successes, and its ability to deploy heavy weapons and air power, the Syrian government lacks the resources to re-take control of the whole country, making an outright military victory for either side unlikely in the near future.
Additionally, Syrian government forces have required external assistance from Hezbollah fighters from neighboring Lebanon for some operations along the border, as well as receiving weapons and expertise from Iran, Syria’s only regional ally.
A recent report from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington DC-based think-tank, issued earlier this month, said: “Assad’s forces are too limited to conduct decisive operations in multiple fronts simultaneously, and once they move on from one location, they risk losing it again.” ‘
Margaret Warner reports for the PBS NewsHour:
(The PBS report is really worth watching)
No comments? No interest? Really? A fuse on a really big pile of munitions and madness is lit and burning, and Already vanished into the news and attention cycle flood? While a demonstration of the true import of that old nostrum about rulers ruling only with the consent of the governed works itself out? Fueled by the monstrous energies, “Allahu Akhbar!,” of the limbic system, and the dynamics of crowds and mobs, and of course the very profitable business of filling the planet with weaponry that enables and facilitates and accelerates the plague of anomie, “jihadists” sticking their AKs and RPGs up over walls and the rubble piles of former walls and just letting fly, or peering through those sniper scopes and trying for the “pink mist” kill shot off there 500 meters away…
If the ruler can’t establish an acceptable quantum of legitimacy, can’t meet the real needs of most of the people, or leave them enough alone to let them meet their own, gee, what happens then?
Welcome to the world of the 4th Generation, where the “doctrines” of the Great Game Machine founder on the reality of what they’ve created: link to fabiusmaximus.com (Maybe ask yourself who the “we” in the title is…)
And for your daily dose of War Porn, be sure to tune in to link to syriavideo.net for more proof that ‘war might be hell for some, but it sure is a lot of fun, too, for us folks with flags, slogans and guns, more guns please!’