Syrian General: "Don't they understand that we are the last dam that is holding back the flood of Islamists in Europe? What blindness."

The 'last dam'??

Not the last.

The other - and more reliable - 'dam' is...ISRAEL.

I am sorry to hear Mr. Robert Spencer, whose work I really respect, fall into the trap of the Syrian regime. I am Lebanese Christian and no regime has supported Islamists and jihadists more than the Assad regime, from Fath al-Islam, to Hezbollah, to the al-Quaeda in Iraq, to Jund el Sham, etc etc...

yes there are jihadists in Syria, but there weren't any in the first three months of the uprising when it was peacefull and Assad was murdering the protesters at will. the jihadists in syria will be much easier to deal with after Assad is gone than when he is using them in a cynical way.

Syria is Shia ruling majority Sunnis. It is an ally of Iran, which is on way to be a nuclear nation. Syria could be trifurcated into Sunni, Shia and Joint Christian/Druze area. Then we already have Bosnia, Kosovo etc in Europe. Serbia is dam there.

What we have in Syria is a war between Hizbollah and its umbrellas and Al-Qaeda and its umbrellas, let them kill each other. The west should help non-muslims escape Syria, but of course... that's not happening, most of the west is supporting the sunnies, Al-Qaeda and its allies and non-muslims are getting the worst part from all this, what a surprise!.

This is a war between sunni islamic supremacists vs shiite islamic supremacists. You cannot forget who is backing and helping Assad and his henchmen: Iran and Hizboallah. And remember what Wafa Sultan and other Syrians(non-muslims and apostates) have always said about living in Syria, even under Assad rule. You cannot support either group, just think about non-muslims, those are the only one who need help.

@lanastaslem

Not only did they occupied Lebanon but thanks to Syria -and Iran- now Hizboallah runs that country, they own that place completely.

Bottom line: The Assad regime is despicable but those who would replace the Assad regime are even more despicable. Ah, again can be seen the wonderful choices the Islamic world offers up. For the ultimate reason here look no further than Islam itself why this is so.

"jihadists in syria will be much easier to deal with after Assad is gone"
History is littered with people who thought they could "deal with" Jihadists.
This reminds me of Winston Churcill's "You cannot negotiate with Herr Hitler".
There are those who "get it" and those who don't.
It would seem this Syrian General has insight lacking to US Admin. (And Europe).

From the novel 'Exodus', by Leon Uris.

'"..You know that even when I was a little girl in Denmark I asked myself why I was born a Jew.

"I know the answer now.

"God didn't pick us because we were weak or would run from danger.

"We've taken murder and sorrow and humiliation for six thousand years and we have kept faith.

""We have outlived everyone who has tried to destroy us...

"...this little land was chosen for us because it is the crossroads of the world, on the edge of man's wilderness.

"This is where God wants His people to be...on the frontiers, to stand and guard His laws which are the cornerstones of man's moral existence.

Where else is there for us to be?"

"Israel stands with its back to the wall", Kitty cried. "It has always stood that way and it always will...with savages trying to destroy you".

"Oh no, Kitty, no! Israel is the bridge between darkness and light".'

A desperate futile plea. Syria, like Egypt and Libya, will soon fall into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Unlike Europe, we have two great oceanic devides and a lesson well learned, on liberal European immigration.

Syria stood too close to Iran - they might have thought they were out front - but they were mostly eclipsed.

It's this versus the Islamic Sunni faction that's moved in.

It's a proxy war that could go on for years - it's too risky to stop [with western forces] and too problematic to ignore completely.

"Syrian General: We're Protecting Europe from Islamists,"

Is this guy SERIOUS? Nothing that happens in Syria will prevent Europe from being flooded with Islamists. That was set in motion decades ago. Whether Assad is replaced or not, whether the terrorists win or not, will have no effect on Europe's future. Islamists are already in Europe.

I decided over a year ago to follow Israel's lead on Syria.
If anyone knows the right course to follow with respect to Syria it is Israel.

They are all muslims and they would not keep Jihadists at bay under any regime.

Spencer says:

"Any Western analyst who takes notice of this at all will scoff at it, but actually the General is probably right."

Leaving aside for a moment that Spencer - because his hatred for every Muslim man, woman and child is so pronounced he wants them all to live under the torture kleptocracies of the Middle East forever - is a supporter of the Assad regime, the idea what this butcher is 'probably right' is laughable.

In what way has Assad protected the West from Islamism? Would Islamists being queuing at Syria's ports to go to Europe if Assad fell? It's a ludicrous image and shows Spencer's desperation to paint the Syrian uprising as a terrorist event. The desire to oust Assad is legitimate.

Second, he says to the Lebanese Christian commenter 'I don't believe you'. Why on earth not? On what basis do you not believe this person, Robert? Because, I imagine, their opinion doesn't live up to your cruel imaginings for the Arabs.

I would love Spencer to explain his comment that Syrian Christians are 'generally opposed' to what he calls the 'Islamic supremacist rebels'. Where did you get that idea? What is your familiarity with Christians in Syria? What sort of research have you done? We all know, of course, that you don't do field research in the Islamic world because learning Arabic is too difficult (or too much work - hence why you became a blogger rather than a serious academic). Aren't you at all embarrassed to use a lazy cop-out word like 'generally'?

You might also want to consider that the butcher general is speaking out of desperation. His words translate as 'protect my regime or Al Qaeda will get you!' Well, Gaddafi said something similar when his regime's days were numbered. He did, in fact, attempt to suggest that he was protecting Israel and that if his torture regime fell, Israel's security would be imperiled. Sadly for him - and no doubt for you too - the Libyans voted for the secular National Front (yes indeed! The National Front!) and the Jewish State remains. Gaddafi's other threat that Europe would be flooded with Africans coming via Libya also came to naught. He said all of this in Arabic though. And you are locked out of the field of Middle Eastern politics because acquiring the tools of the trade is too much like hard work.

Another note on the Christians: Do you seriously believe that they want to be what you hope they are? Do you really think they want to live under Assad 'safely' (whatever that means under the Assad regime) while their Muslim neighbours are tortured and raped? People like you and Raymond Ibrahim are dangerous to the region's Christians. You attempt to show them as willing accomplices to crimes against humanity. You attempt to peddle the idea that the Christians must climb into bed with any dictator. Surely they should side with the Muslims, as fellow Syrians (and Egyptians). The Christians are part of our region. And I take offense on their behalf that you should desire that they live in disgrace as whores for Assad or Mubarak.

You pose as a Catholic. But you are a man who hates the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have no regard for His message. You spit on the Beatitudes.

>ArabNationalist

Stopped reading right there.

Remember, don't feed the pedohammedan communicational sicarii.

So the general is probably right says Robert. C'mon mate - get real! Are you seriously suggesting that ANYTHING claimed by a commander of Assad's despicable Republican Guard is credible? Really? Because when you think about it - it's EXACTLY the sort of half-arsed claim that any murderous Alawite Shia general with his neck on the line would say, with just enough 'truth' in it to give it much, much more credibility than it deserves. Don't fall for it!

I'm one of those 'Western analysts' you suggest would scoff at this remark - but not for the reasons you state. In fact I agree that having Islamist governments across the north of Africa and the Middle East will only exponentially increase the threat posed by Islam and the Muslim infiltration of Europe. But Syria being a major part of this is still not a done deal just yet.

For starters what RR claimed about the start of the uprising against the Assad regime is true - jihadis and AQ affiliates we NOT involved. That they HAVE become involved as the uprising drags on has become apparent to any observer.

The truth of the matter is - for now at least - that the main armed opposition is the Free Syrian Army, a hotch-potch of of opposition groups which includes just about everyone but two conspicuous groups: the Shia Alawite minority and the (Sunni) Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. The former of course form the current ruling clique represented by the Assad family but the latter are Sunni fundamentalists who were at the heart of the last (failed) rebellion against the Assad regime in the 1980s.

Probably due to their experience then (where they were virtually wiped out) they have generally been keeping their heads down in the current rebellion while at the same time constantly trying to infiltrate, influence and ultimately control the Syrian opposition, in particular the most powerful bit, the FSA. The FSA is mainly lead at the moment by secular Sunnis (plus a few Christians & Druze) - most if not all of the FSA's military commanders are officers defected from Assad's army.

The rest of the armed opposition is, as suggested, various Islamic militias, a among the most effective of which are associated with - you guessed it - the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood AND the largely Iraqi version of al-Qa'ida.

The longer the uprising continues and the more the FSA gets hammered by the Syrian army the greater the role and control of the armed opposition will fall into the hands of the Brotherhood and AQ.

The Syrian army is itself still majority Sunnis but the most effective bits for Assad are the Alawite-led and dominated Republican Guard and 4th Brigade - including the Special Forces - and not forgetting Syrian Air Force Intelligence, also largely Alawite led and composed. So in fact it is better off for all the Sunni and Christian officers in the Syrian army to defect to the opposition FSA sooner rather than later.

Virtually every analyst - Western and Middle Eastern - agrees that the Assad regime will eventually fall, its just a matter of when. The longer it takes and the bloodier the process, the worse the mess AND thus the easier for the jihadis to take control of what comes afterwards. That is one scenario and is by no means an assured outcome.

Syria's Sunni majority form a very tribal society and the leaders of all the major tribes met recently in Cairo to discuss how they were going to get rid of Assad. Although they argue endlessly among themselves they all agreed on two things: they hate the Shia Alawites with a vengeance and they decided to join with the Syrian opposition FSA based in Turkey. This is quite crucial as they are very opposed to AQ and generally distrustful of the Brotherhood. If the latter were to seize power in a post-Assad Syria, as you suggest, they would first have to win over all the Sunni (and Druze for that matter) tribal chiefs. The Druze hate the Brotherhood only second to AQ and are at best ambivalent to other Sunni fundamentalists (OK - mostly hating!) There will be no Islamic government in Syria without the support of the tribal leaders AND the Druze. At this stage that is not a realistic possibility.

If the Assad regime survives for another six-twelve months (unlikely, but possible) that will change things for the worse. In fact it would only really benefit the Islamists and in THAT case, what the Syrian general suggests may well come to pass. But there is a long, long way to go before then.

Just and OT head-up, people, but look what turns out to have a connection to You-Know-What:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/06/4-year-old-girl-found-alive-after-hiding-under-corpses-for-8-hours-in-french/#ixzz25frOKchE?test=latestnews

It takes 8 paragraphs for the payoff, but at least FOX is ahead of CNN, which is still identifying the victims as "Britons".

(My suspicions were aroused upon reading that a traumatized 4-year-old hid under the skirt of one of the victims for 8 hours. How many women wear skirts that long and concealing in late-summer Switzerland?)

RR and other Lebanese Christians which they rely blindly on Samir jeajea who is a Lebanese Christian politician a pathetic man who never learned for more than 30 years of a political career the origin of the real danger to the region and specially for the Christians of Lebanon “it’s the Quran you stupid”!

So, who do we believe?

Who-ever or what-ever the source du jour is...... has his(its) agenda, invariably being their ascendency.

Here's where the most sensible straddling-strategy appears yet again:

Isolation and containment of this troublesome cauldron calling itself Muslim-Islam or Islamic-Muslim-ism. The labels we attach are in themselves just labels....the reality is that these Muslims are trouble wherever they penetrate and infiltrate to the point where they become a pressure group.

Stop our politically correct hand-wringing....isolate these malignant cells.

Dear Mr Spencer,

If you don't believe me that's your right.

But you are being FOOLED by the lies of the Syrian regime. All successful lies have an element of truth and you are focusing on that small truth and then swallowing the big lie hook line and sinker. YES there are jihadists. But that fact is being used by Assad to deceive the world.

Case in point:

In Lebanon, all of Syria's allies have for months been screaming on the airwaves that Sunni Jihadists are about to target the christians in northern Lebanon. There were anti-christian flyers distributed at churches signed by Sunni jihadists.

Then suddenly, a Lebanese intelligence branch (that is anti-syrian) captured ON VIDEO a pro-syrian terrorist who smuggled bombs from Syria, with orders from Ali Mamluk, to bomb targets in the north. His name is Michel Samaha, a Christian. He used to be on TV all the time screaming and warning that the Sunni Jihadists are about to attack the north. It turned out to be a Syrian trick, which he was part of.

Question for you: What would you have said if that plot succeeded? Wouldn't you be writing "i tried to tell you, i tried to tell you" on this blog?

DON"T BE FOOLED BY THE SYRIAN REGIME. it knows your weakness and uses them agaisnt you.

I very forcefully agree with Robert Spencer here

The writer above:

"DON"T BE FOOLED BY THE SYRIAN REGIME. it knows your weakness and uses them agaisnt you"

Nobody is being fooled by the Assad regime. The Assad regime has been in the forefront of spreading Antisemitism. On that basis it created an alliance with the Iranian Mullahs, even though that conflicted with its relative Secularism. In other words Antisemitism was stronger than its Secularism.

But I think you are wrong and Robert Spencer is correct. I go a step further. I say that Assad must be defended against the Muslim Brotherhood. I also said that Mubarak, Gadhafi, Gaghbo and Saleh plus others also must be defended against the Muslim Brotherhood, because the latter was the Islamist origin for even Al Qaida.

It is a temporary and tactical alliance. It does not entail political agreement with Assad's programme, just that it is necessary to stop the extreme Islamists as a matter of extreme priority. It does not entail dropping the defensive guard of Jews against Assad etc.

It was a similar situation against Hitler in Germany 1933

Especially considering...in the case of Mubarak the Christian Copts were in jeopardy, in Libya the black African Workers were in jeopardy, and in Syria the Christian Churches in extreme jeopardy.

This paste from the title here seems to be a self serving gross-overstatement.

"Syrian General: "Don't they understand that we are the last dam that is holding back the flood of Islamists in Europe? What blindness."

These Muslims rebelling inside Syria can't really be that "last dam" at all, as the flow of Muslims into Europe and America is sloshing around, underneath, and over the top of any "dam" of a Syria.

If readers here will forgive a terrible pun, let's say that that Syrian General has "chutzpah".

[....I'm ducking under the table, avoiding all those shoes...]

I say leave these muslims along and let them kill themselves.

To all the trolls and doubters who have posted here against Robert Spencer's view that "The Christians in Syria are generally opposed to the Islamic supremacist rebels."

Morsi supports the 'rebels' in Syria. And when the Syrian 'rebels' yell Allahu Akbar every time you see them on a video, isn't that enough to tell you whose side they're on, and whose side they're not!

The 'rebels' read the same Al Qur'an as Morsi and his Brotherhood supporters and so think in exactly the same way. They share the same world view.

So, what's Morsi doing to Christians in Egypt? Killing and kidnapping. So, what d'you think is happening in Syria to Christians?

It's not rocket science, guys!

“I don't wear that (huh) pin on my chest”

Obama speaking in Iowa (video on you tube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28

(Also referred to today on www.israpundit.com)

The pin to which your Muslim Prez was referring to was the American Flag pin and was worn by all main American political leaders following 9/11...

Now look carefully what America under Obama is doing in Syria, and sadly history teaches us that it could well be the Republican party too.

In Yugoslavia America made a big pretence of being reluctant to intervene against the Serbs. It appeared that it was Germany, Britain and France that wanted oh so badly to intervene on behalf of Islam against Christianity as represented by the Serbs

However within 20 minutes of the ITN picture being flashed across the screens of a skinny Muslim in Bosnia (The “picture that fooled the world”...google that and “Penny Marshall”) Bush Snr. had launched American jets to bomb the Christians on behalf of Islam.

Over recent months one would have been forgiven for thinking that America was not going to intervene militarily against Assad on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood Fascist Christian haters. Once again it seemed that those nasty Europeans were alone wanting to bomb Assad.

But wait! Quel surprise!

Debkafile today has this amazing couple of paragraphs:

“Despite fairly large-scale defections, the bulk of the Syrian army still maintains its allegiance to the Syrian ruler and doesn’t appear ready to turn against him. The rebels therefore face a long, arduous and hazardous haul before they can secure a substantial safe haven – unless it can be shortened by a step now under consideration in Washington, London, Paris, Ankara and at least two Arab capitals: aerial bombardment of the Syrian army’s toughest backbone, the 9th Division commanded by the Syrian ruler’s brother, Gen. Maher Assad. .

The same treatment could be meted out to smash Hizballah bases and strategic centers.

The thinking in some circles in Washington is that Russia’s disengagement from its support of the Assad regime and cutoff of essential weapons, have opened the way to severing the military bonds tying Assad, Hizballah and Tehran together. As long as those bonds are viable, it will be that much harder to bring Assad to heel and subjugate his armed forces.

http://www.debka.com/article/22344/Chemical-threat-is-back-Hizballah-Israel-close-to-clash-

Repeat and focus: “ unless it can be shortened by a step now under consideration in Washington...”

WOW...those reluctant Americans, trying so valiantly to keep to “keep the peace!”

Note also how Debka spots some of this additional thinking going on in Washington. "Sever the ties between Assad and Iran." In other words destroy Assad but conserve Iran. Ah you really think like the Fascist Leftist Dullards it is destroy Assad to destroy Iran and Hamas? Start growing up!

But we all know, or should know, that the Iranian Fascist regime was cultivated by the US CIA and France from the earliest stage to overthrow the Shah.

And we all know or should know that the American Governments have nourished the Iranian Fascist regime which the American Government (of Carter but followed on by Reagan) created in the first place.

Why though? The answer is very, very simple. America, and I mean not American people but American Governments, are in alliance with The Muslim Brotherhood and with all forms of authentic Islam, that is Islamic Jihad, violence the only real quality of Islam, in order to subjugate the Muslim poor and hungry, becoming hungrier as the crisis deepens.

And American power elite stir up Antisemitism as a weapon to use against the working class and progressives like Spencer who even at this early stage is having to employ guards.

Israel is on its own. The Muslim Obama has engineered a situation that if Israel defends itself against Iran Israel will be seen by the world as a basket case.

America wants dominance and it cannot have dominance in the world without the Jews stripped of their defensive Nuclear weapons. THAT is what the US is after.

Note also that Russia and China opened the way for the Muslim Brotherhood before...in Libya with the UN Resolution of 2011 which opened the door to the bombing of Libya. Now have they done it once more. The collaborationist with Imperialism Joseph Stalin would be proud of these Stalinists.

There is a long history to this issue and I refer to a comment I made on the Caroline Glick website a year and a half ago. Caroline unfortunately did not understand my point then and still does not.

We were discussing Mubarak and Egypt:

{http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/03/the-new-middle-east.php}

“They seem unable to see that if you do not defend Milosevic against Fascism then there are results. Similarly if you do not defend the outstanding propagandist Glenn Beck against the charge of antisemitism there are results. If you do not defend Mubarak in time, the same. And now of course we have Gadaffi.
This is a principled tactical position. You maintain your independence in every situation. Against the main enemy the defence is unconditional but it does not imply agreement with the person or thing in question.

I am always drawn to the reworking of the Aesop fable by Leon Trotsky. In this he expressed the essence of the 1933 period which laid the basis for the Holocaust which so damaged your people:

AN AESOP FABLE
From What Next? Vital Question for the German Proletariat, 1932
* * *
A cattle dealer once drove some bulls to the slaughterhouse. And the butcher came night with his sharp knife.
"Let us close ranks and jack up this executioner on our horns," suggested one of the bulls.

"If you please, in what way is the butcher any worse than the dealer who drove us hither with his cudgel?" replied the bulls, who had received their political education in Manuilsky's institute. [The Comintern.]

"But we shall be able to attend to the dealer as well afterwards!"

"Nothing doing," replied the bulls firm in their principles, to the counselor. "You are trying, from the left, to shield our enemies -- you are a social-butcher yourself."

And they refused to close ranks.

That is from

http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm#p4

By Felix Quigley on March 6, 2011 6:27 AM

If your worried about Jihads, let's look at the source of the problem, Israel. We send arms and full support(more money/weapons than to any other country) to a zionist extremist group that conquered an area in 1948 that was previously Muslim for one thousand three hundred and something years. That's why the twin towers were blown up, that's why we had the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I for one don't like seeing americans die for Israel's sins. Let's cut all support off from Israel and let them pay the price ALONE holocaust they've made on Palestinians. The Jews left "Israel" nearly 2,000 years ago. That's when it stopped being "Israel". Just letting them have it is like letting saddam Hussein take Quwait because his people used to rule it in biblical times. The most militant, extremist religious fanatics in the middle east with the least legitimate claim to the land are the zionists. Israel=your Jihad.