West Likely to Arm Syrian Opposition

This morning's New York Times reads like a broadside for Western intervention on the side of the rebels in the Syrian civil war. First, there is C.J. Chivers' frontpage story, "Starved for Arms, Syria Rebels Make Their Own," which describes the makeshift bomb manufacturing supply line set up by the opposition. Fashioning mortars out of a sections of the main gun scavenged from government T-72 tanks, concocting RDX -- a plastic explosive -- from recipes taken off the Internet, cracking open old Soviet aircraft bombs that failed to detonate in order to extract the TNT mix inside, the rebel message is clear, "Give us real weapons and we'll win this war." 

Chivers concludes his piece with the following two paragraphs:

On a front in the arid farmland north of Hama, Khaled Muhammed Addibis, a rebel commander, pointed to a stack of rockets his fighters had tried to fire the previous day. They had failed to launch. Others had veered far off-target in flight. And none had reached their expected range. 

“All we need is effective weapons,” he said. “Effective weapons. Nothing else.”

So that's the first point in the pro-intervention broadside: let's at least get the opposition antitank and antiaircraft weapons. Next up is the story from Mark Mazzetti and Michael R. Gordon, "Syrian Forces Seen Stepping Up Air Attacks on Rebels," which can be read as a hawkish wish for a Western enforced no-fly zone. As Obama officials brute military options, intelligence reports are circulating which point to Syrian government air power as the source of rebels' woes and Assad's renewed momentum.

UK foreign secretary William Hague appeared yesterday with Secretary of State John Kerry to engage in "bosspeak" and decry the Assad regime:

“The regime appears to be preparing new assaults, endangering the lives and safety of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who are already in desperate need,” said Mr. Hague, who added that the brutality of its recent attacks “beggars belief.”

Hague says no effort is being spared to get the opposition and the Syrian government to the negotiating table. But everyone knows that this is a farce. It is the opposition that refuses to attend any peace conference. As Mazzetti and Gordon point out:

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hague emphasized that they remained committed to a political solution, though the prospects of the international conference, which was first announced in Moscow more than a month ago, have faded. General Idris had said he would not attend until the rebels received fresh arms and ammunition and their leverage in a potential peace conference was improved.

Kerry and Hague were asked about the viability of the opposition, but they responded with "bosspeak," saying Western energies were focused on a "political solution." This was repeated to the point of inducing nausea. Both Kerry and Hague blame everything on Assad and Hezbollah.

Not a word was mentioned about the massacre of Shiites in Hatlah by Al Nusra Front fighters. This is covered by Hania Mourtada and Anne Barnard in "Dozens of Shiites Reported Killed in Raid by Syria Rebels." A useful synopsis of the Syrian civil war up until now is delivered in four paragraphs:

The Syrian conflict began as a popular uprising demanding political rights, but gradually has taken on a more sectarian tone. As the conflict became militarized, with the government cracking down on demonstrators, some of its opponents, mostly Sunni army defectors and others, took up arms. 

Sunni jihadists from across the region have also joined the fight, and extremist groups have been able to count on financing from like-minded private donors, making them increasingly influential on the battlefield. 

Shiite fighters from Lebanon and Iraq have also entered Syria to defend Shiite shrines and fight alongside a government they see as protecting their interests. 

Sectarian tensions grew in recent weeks as Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, fought a full-scale battle in Syria, helping the government to recapture the town of Qusayr last week. Syrian rebels fired rockets at Shiite neighborhoods in retaliation.

David Jolly reports this morning in "Syrian Death Toll Approaches 93,000, U.N. Says" that Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, is saying that 92,901 killings have been documented in Syria through the end of April.

The United Nations study was based on reports of 263,055 killings. Any reported killing that did not fully identify the victim by name, date and the location of death was excluded to avoid the possibility of duplication.

“This extremely high rate of killings, month after month, reflects the drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict over the past year,” Ms. Pillay said in the statement, and “civilians are bearing the brunt of widespread, violent and often indiscriminate attacks.”

Ms. Pillay called for “an immediate cease-fire,” saying: “Nobody is gaining anything from this senseless carnage.”

She also urged the international community to help broker an end to the conflict, saying: “The only answer is a negotiated political solution. Tragically, shamefully, nothing will restore the 93,000 or more individual lives already lost.”

From today's stories it appears that the West will arm the Syrian opposition.War is here to stay.