Reply to The Confused Situation in Syria

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[quote=jsteele]In several threads there have been discussions about the various sides in the Syrian conflict. Given that there are very few -- if any -- "good guys" fighting and the fact that "good guys" is more often attributed to groups the US supports regardless of the relative "goodness" of the groups, reporting on the situation can become quite complicated. Take this article from today's Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-backed-rebels-rival-insurgents-clash-in-syria-20-killed/2015/11/30/2f45aef8-9760-11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html

The headline is "US-backed rebels, rival insurgents clash in Syria, 20 killed". The article goes on to say:

"The fighting between the so-called Democratic Forces of Syria, which is led by Kurds, and Islamic militants has flared in recent days in the northern province of Aleppo."

Which one of these groups do you suspect is the "US-backed" group? Would you guess it is the "so-called Democratic Forces of Syria" which is led by Kurds or the "Islamic militants"? The article does not clarify. If you are confused, you can be excused because both groups are US-supported. As they say, "let's go to the tape":

https://twitter.com/HK2307/status/671004318682750976

This tweet shows the "Islamic militants" capturing a building formerly occupied by the Kurds and burning their flag. The tweet identifies the two groups as the FSA (Free Syrian Army) and the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces). The FSA is actually a US-backed coalition of anti-Assad forces. Watching the video, it becomes clear that the FSA group is actually Jaysh al-Thawar, which while Islamic, is far from being an extremist Islamic group in the Syrian context. So, what really happened here is that two US-backed groups -- one Arab and one Kurdish -- got in a fight with each other. The media apparently spun the dial to see who were the "good guys" today and it landed on "Kurds". It could just as easily have landed on "Free Syrian Army", but luck was not with them and rather being described as "anti-Assad moderates" as they may have been another day, they became "Islamic militants".

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