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Excellent article (even if no doubt exaggerated for journalistic reasons) - the sharp reality for those fighters in the 3-year long raw intifada against the tyranny is that they have watched their families, communities, cities and whole country get destroyed by genocide-regime, got plenty of kind words (always mixed in jihadist-baiting) from the "democratic" west but never a gun, fought ISIS better than anyone else in the region did, but then watched as the US intervened not only against ISIS but also against genuine rebel groups as Assad's air-force. And so the US air strikes are enough to turn some of them, howver much they hate ISIS, to either supporting and defecting to ISIS, or at least to doing ceasefires. And a generation of "left" conspiracists and elitists pent the last 3 years denouncing these revolutionaries as ... US-orchestrated contras. Wow. Here's another little report direct from a refugee camp (one of the many round the region from this Syrian al-Nakbah) which hits home with some of the same ponts: Iyad el-Baghdadi on “Radicalisation” by Ben Allinson-Davies http://unfetteredfreedom.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/iyad-el-baghdadi-on-radicalisation / Via a compilation of tweets... "We're hearing about more and more core Arab Spring activists (espcially from Egypt) turning to radicalization and dying in Libya and Syria. The latest: Omar Mustafa, ex-member of the April 6 Movement, campaigned for ElBaradei; died fighting with Islamists in Libya. Their "war against radical Islam" is in fact increasing radicalization. I'm in a camp full of young Syrian refugees. It's very common to hear them curse ISIS and admire ISIS in the same sentence. It's an admiration of power, of success, even of revenge, perhaps. ISIS is winning and some people admire winners whoever they are. A Syrian young man here: "I can never live under ISIS but I respect the fact that they're the only ones who didn't fight among themselves." Another Syrian young man: "ISIS are khawarij but at least they managed to exact revenge". I even met a Syrian-Lebanese young man here who simultaneously admires Hezbollah and ISIS, I mean really. These Syrian young men aren't ideological; many of them aren't even religious... But they've been powerless all their lives and are in awe of whoever can start from humble beginnings and become powerful. It's the ISIS myth - that their success isn't the result of mass regional and international incompetence, but divine intervention. My experience here - at least in this camp - says that religious Muslims are in fact the least radicalizable. It appears to me right now that the less religious education you have, the more easily radicalizable you potentially are. Again: The rise of ISIS is a complex phenomenon so do NOT listen to whoever tries to reduce it to single causes or single solutions. When they fought the Arab Spring they ensured a Jihadist Disneyland. Note: Please do not give yourself the right to comment upon these young men's ideas and ordeals from your vantage point of privilege. Please do not assume you'll understand what they think or what they've been through. You'll never understand what they've been through. All our theorizing about what causes radicalization is nothing to the young man who lost his entire family back in Homs or Hama. The single most important seed of radicalization among these Syrian young men that I can sense is a deep desire for revenge. If you're seriously serious about fighting radicalization you'd have done something about Assad's massacres, so spare me the mock concern. The most friendly, outgoing, cheerful Syrian young man in this asylum camp is only cheerful until you ask him about his family. And I find it distressing and very unjust that many people only care about these young men in terms of how radicalizable they are. Really." Iyad El-Baghdadi is a human rights activist, writer and entrepreneur, who has contributed to the cause of freedom around the world since 2011. His website can be found here. Watch his speech at the Oslo freedom forum: On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 2:03 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > US air strikes in Syria are encouraging anti-regime fighters to forge > alliances with or even defect to the fundamentalist jihadi group Islamic > State (Isis), according to a series of interviews conducted by the Guardian. > > Fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Islamic military groups are > joining forces with Isis, which has gained control of swaths of Syria and > Iraq and has beheaded six western hostages in the past few months. > > Some brigades have transferred their allegiance to Isis, while others are > forming tactical alliances or truces. Support among civilians also appears > to be growing in some areas as a result of resentment over US-led military > action. > > “Isis now is like a magnet that attracts large numbers of Muslims,” said Abu > Talha, who defected from the FSA a few months ago, and is now in > negotiations with other fighters from Islamic groups such as the al-Nusra > Front to follow suit. > > Another fighter from a 600-strong dissident FSA brigade near Homs, Assam > Murad, said: “There’s no way we would fight Isis after the US military > campaign against them.” > > A third man, Abu Zeid, the commander of an FSA brigade near Idlib and a > defector from the regime’s army, said: “All the locals here wonder why the > US coalition never came to rescue them from [Syrian president Bashar] > Assad’s machine guns, but run to fight Isis when it took a few pieces of > land. We were in a robust fight against Isis for confiscating our liberated > areas – but now, if we are not in an alliance, we are in a truce with them.” > > These and other Syrian fighters told the Guardian in interviews by phone and > Skype that the US campaign is turning the attitudes of anti-regime Syrians > in favour of Isis. Omar Waleed, an FSA fighter in Hama, north of Damascus, > said: “I’m really scared that eventually most of the people will join Isis > out of their disappointment with the US administration. Just have a look on > social media websites, and you can see lots of people and leaders are > turning to the side of Isis.” > > He added: “We did not get any weapons from the US to fight the regime for > the last three years – only now US weapons arrived for fighting Isis.” > > full: > http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/23/us-air-strikes-syra-driving-anti-assad-groups-support-isis > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
