On ISIS, the Assad regime, and “pure evil”

This is what Assad does to political prisoners. A defector code-named Caesar smuggled this and thousands of other photos depicting the systematic slaughter of over 11,000 detainees in Assad's prisoners. He asserts that over 150,000 detainees are at risk of liquidation. The State Department has independently verified Caesar claims and its officials compared Assad's atrocities to Nazi policies. — This is what Assad does to political prisoners. A defector code-named Caesar smuggled this and thousands of other photos depicting the systematic slaughter of over 11,000 detainees in Assad’s prisoners. He asserts that over 150,000 detainees are at risk of liquidation. The State Department has independently verified Caesar claims and its officials compared Assad’s atrocities to Nazi policies.

The Islamic State is evil returned – The Washington Post

Why are so many people waxing philosophical about ISIS and its evil when the Assad regime has been doing worse things for the last four years and when the industrial-scale slaughter reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps is being carried by its security apparatuses, with little philosophization on anyone’s part? No, I am not trying to deny, justify or minimize the atrocities committed by ISIS, I am just wondering why the soul-searching is only happening now and in its regard, not years earlier in connection with the mass atrocities perpetrated by Assad. I am wondering why some people can even stomach advocating cooperation with Assad against ISIS, even though the latter is obviously a symptom of the disease that is Assad. I am wondering about the selective nature of our moral outlook on things. Is morality meant to be so cynically utilitarian, just another means towards achieving a coveted material end regardless of any human cost? Isn’t morality supposed to set up guidelines for our behavior, rather than offering justifications for it? What is wrong with this world? No. Don’t talk to me about God and Satan, Santa Clause or the Evil Wizard. Life is nothing more than fucked up peopled doing fucked up things, as they try haplessly to fill the emptiness they nourish inside, to give meaning to who they are, while fear of the unknown surrounding them and constantly closing in on them gnaw at their minds and souls. We are all so pitiful, so disgustingly pitiful.

Obama has ignored Syria for too long: it’s the rise of Isis, stupid – now help

Blanket, cold-hearted realism doesn’t work when networked, cold-hearted terrorism does. Photo ilustration: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative Commons

Comment is free | theguardian.com.

This column was ranked one of the five best columns for Monday August 25 by thewire.com.

It’s time for him to do the right thing by arming moderate rebels, imposing a no-fly zone and expanding military action beyond Iraq

Barack Obama is embarking on a global course correction, if not an outright reversal: the policy of “don’t do stupid stuff” – the non-interventionism so praised by the Farid Zakarias and Tom Friedmans of the world – is getting forced out, albeit in the typical Obama fashion of admitting nothing and never going fast or far enough.

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Thank you for being “rational,” “realistic,” “coldhearted” and “canny” Mr. President

Some of the children killed in the chemical weapons attack launched by the soldiers of Bashar al-Assad in August 21, 2013.

Stephen Walt wonders: “Is Barack Obama More of a Realist Than I Am?” While Stephen Kinzer praises his “canny anti-interventionism,” and Syrian prodemocracy activist, Qusai Zakaria, assails him for his failure to punish Assad back in 2013 for launching the notorious chemical weapons attack against the civilian populations in the Damascene suburbs of Moadamieh and Ghoutah.

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Making Love to Satan

Numbers written on the bodies and on white cards told regime bureaucrats the identities of the deceased, when they died and which branch of Syrian authorities had held them, according to a Syrian military-police photographer now outside of Syria. Faces have been obscured at photo source's request. — Numbers written on the bodies and on white cards told regime bureaucrats the identities of the deceased, when they died and which branch of Syrian authorities had held them, according to a Syrian military-police photographer now outside of Syria. Faces have been obscured at photo source’s request.

10,000 Bodies: Inside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Crackdown – WSJ.

Caesar’s revelations referred in the WSJ article might seem old by now to those following developments in Syria at it has been reported months ago, but now, it is the U.S. official investigators who have examined the evidence supplied by Caesar and who are corroborating his story. Indeed, an Industrial-scale campaign of mass slaughter is being conducted by the Assad regime against his opponent, a campaign that was unleashed soon after the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, even in its year-long nonviolent phase.

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