Tar Baby news

Reuters reports that Pakistani Taliban are setting up training camps to support rebel forces arrayed against the Syrian government;

On Sunday, Taliban commanders in Pakistan said they had also decided to join the cause, saying hundreds of fighters had gone to Syria to fight alongside their “Mujahedeen friends”.

“When our brothers needed our help, we sent hundreds of fighters along with our Arab friends,” one senior commander told Reuters, adding that the group would soon issue videos of what he described as their victories in Syria.

The article goes on to mention that the Sunnis are fighting against their Shi’ite oppressors in Syria, so it seems to be entirely intramural. But it still seems to be a mistake for the US to arm either side of the battle of the battle, lest we want to arm people we’re going to end fighting sometime in the future, because no matter how this Tar Baby turns, it’s going to be our fault.

Meanwhile, Russia TV reports that miraculously, the Russians, contrary to what the rest of the world believes, have discovered that it was the rebels and not the Russians’ allies, the Assad government, who used chemical weapons on the town of Khan al-Assal earlier this year.

The United States cast doubt on the Russian analysis. In response, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that the samples of the chemical weapons had been taken at the very place where they were used and were delivered by Russian experts rather than passed through third-party hands.

“We submitted a full set of documents [to the UN]. That’s over 80 pages, including photographs and precise geographic coordinates [of places where samples were taken], procedures and results,” Lavrov pointed out. “We also guarantee that the samples were taken by experts who did not let go of them till they were delivered to the laboratory.”

Yeah, this is totally looking like something we want to get involved in.

The New York Times reports that Israeli strikes into Syria earlier this month were targeted towards anti-ship missiles that Russia had supplied to the Syrian government for some unknown reason. The Israelis were concerned that the missiles would end up in the hands of Hezbollah;

American officials did not provide details on the extent of the damage or the number of missiles struck.

Israeli officials have said they would not take sides in the civil war in Syria, but they have made it clear that Israel is prepared to carry out airstrikes to prevent sophisticated weapons from being diverted to Hezbollah.

The strike near Latakia, first reported by CNN, was the fourth known Israeli air attack against targets in Syria this year.

Israel has a longstanding policy of silence on pre-emptive military strikes.

There are no good guys in this civil war, there is no one that we can help to end up in charge in Syria. If we ever do more than help bordering states contain the violence, every politician responsible should be removed from office – I’m looking at you, John McCain.

Category: Terror War