This Is Why You Can't

Have Nice Guns

Syria's moderate rebels are brawling among
themselves in the streets of Turkey. And these
are the people the White House wants to arm?
B !A"#! $%&&%'()*T)B%' +,- +,./
0'1A- Turkey 2 As the sun went down on the night of Sept.
+3- a shouting mat4h in the streets of this eastern Turkish 4ity grew so
heated that residents felt the need to 4all the poli4e. The 4ause was a
dispute between two Syrian opposition groups that were supposed to be on
the same side5 .+ Syrian rebel 6ghters from brigades a7liated with the 1ree
Syrian Army 81SA9 had 4onfronted three employees from the Syrian
opposition's interim government to a44use them of stealing money.
:There were many times that we wanted to start 6ghting- but we 4ontrolled
ourselves-: said ;ohammed- a 6ghter for the 1SA(a7liated Su<oor Ali
Brigade who was involved in the 4onfrontation. The argument was only
defused after the Turkish poli4e showed up= both sides departed- with the
underlying dispute left unresolved.
As the 0nited States es4alates its 4ampaign against the #slami4 State- the
4onfrontation in 0rfa represents a mi4ro4osm of the larger struggles that
have fa4ed Washington's allies within the Syrian opposition. The Syrian
opposition 4oalition- whi4h >resident Bara4k )bama has touted as the
:legitimate representative of the Syrian people: and supported as the
opposition's interlo4utor in negotiations with the Syrian regime- has been
plagued by a la4k of funds and a 4rippling distrust among the e?iled anti(
Assad for4es.
As a result- the institutions that 0.S. o74ials hoped 4ould 6ll the va4uum in
areas abandoned by >resident Bashar al(Assad's regime have been largely
e?4luded from the international 4ampaign in Syria. Washingtonhas not
4oordinated with the 1SA= in the words of one Arab intelligen4e o74er- the
loosely knit 4olle4tion of militias :is not ready yet to 4ontrol the ground.:
;eanwhile- the Syrian opposition 4oalition 4ontinues to be hobbled by a
rivalry between its two ma@or patrons- Saudi Arabia and Aatar- whi4h have
struggled to pla4e their allies in positions of power within the organiBation.
;ost re4ently- the Syrian opposition 4oalition reappointed Ahmed Toumeh
as head of its interim government- a body overseen by the 4oalition that
was intended to provide servi4es su4h as medi4al treatment and 4lean
water- and establish nas4ent governing institutions in areas that had been
freed from Assad. Toumeh- who is said to be ba4ked by Aatar- had lost his
position when then 4oalition leader Ahmad al(Carba- a Saudi(ba4ked 6gure-
dissolved the interim government in Culy.
The work of the interim government stagnated over the intervening three
months- as international donors hesitated to give funds to an institution
without 4lear leadership.
:# would say the 4urrent situation is not very good (( it's <uite sad- a4tually-:
said Dhassan Hitto- who was appointed as the interim government's 6rst
prime minister in ;ar4h- before being for4ed to resign in Culy due to
opposition by Saudi(ba4ked 6gures. :)ur friends- those who otherwise
would want to support the government- they have put a lot of things on
pause.:
The tussle in 0rfa shows how the e?iled opposition is struggling even to win
the trust of Syrians who should be its natural allies (( in this 4ase- 1SA
6ghters from the eastern provin4e of !eir %BBor who had been driven from
their homes by the #slami4 State.The 4onfrontation stemmed from a
promise by the interim government to distribute E.3, to ea4h in@ured 1SA
6ghter in the 4ity.The rebels 4ontend that they 4ompiled F/F names of
in@ured 6ghters and gave the list to the interimgovernment. When the
government drew up the 6nal list- however- the 6ghters said that some of
those names had been deleted and repla4ed with roughly 3, people whom
they had never heard of before. They argued that the interim government
o74ials had manufa4tured those names to po4ket the money for
themselves (( appro?imately EG-3,,.
:1rom the big one to the small one- they are thieves-: ;ohammed said.
:They don't want to do anything for people= they @ust want to take the
money.:
An o74ial with the interim government- speaking on 4ondition of
anonymity- had a diHerent story. The o74ial said that the interim
government had informed the rebels that it only had enough money for F,,
6ghters- and the diHerent brigades would need to rea4h an agreement
among themselves over whi4h 6ghters would make it onto the list. The
dispute broke out- the o74ial said- when the brigades 4ould not 4ome to an
agreement over how the money would be distributed.
When Hitto 4ame into o74e- he had ambitious plans to transform the
interim government into an institution that 4ould administer freed areas in
northern Syria. However- those plans were soon dramati4ally 4urtailed
under his su44essors- while the 4oalition's internal politi4al battles
prevented the emergen4e of strong leadership that 4ould drum up
signi64ant funding. As a result- the interim government is a body that is still
almost entirely based in Turkey.
:# believe one of the errors that were made by the interim government was-
for some odd reason- that they thought they 4ould have an eHe4tive
government outside of Syria-: said Hitto. :#f you go Ito the 1SAJ and tell
them- 'Kisten- you go 6ght Assad- you go prote4t our 4ities- and we're going
to take 4are of all the 4ivil work-' that'll work. # went inside Syria and # tried
this several times (( every 4onversation- not a single time people resisted.:
Hitto said that a properly funded and supported interim government 4ould
have been a tool in the international eHort against the #slami4 State- by
providing an alternative to the @ihadist groups. What's more- he argued- it
would have given the anti(Assad for4es leverage in their negotiations with
the Syrian regime- by showing that !amas4us is not the only authority
4apable of administering territory. :Having an interim government gives the
opposition not a set of teeth- but it gives them a tooth or two-: Hitto said.
:At least something to get a negotiation started.:
Some of the opposition 4oalition's forays into providing humanitarian
support in Syria- however- have only 4aused more problems. Kast month- at
least .3 4hildren died after re4eiving va44inations for measles that had
been distributed by the opposition 4oalition. The va44ine had been
improperly mi?ed with mus4le rela?ant= the World Health )rganiBation
blamed :human error: for the mistake. The 4oalition responded by 6ring
6ve o74ials- in4luding Suheir al(Atassi- the head of the 4oalition's
Assistan4e *oordination 0nit- whi4h is 4harged with distributing
humanitarian assistan4e inside Syria. Atassi hit ba4k with a lengthy
1a4ebook post arguing that her dismissal was invalid- and a44used the
opposition leadership of :e?ploiting the death of inno4ent 4hildren in the
internal struggles within the 4oalition.:
While the 0nited States 4ontinues to des4ribe the e?iled Syrian opposition
as a partner in its war against the #slami4 State- former 0.S. o74ials are
more 4andid about the limits of its inLuen4e. 'obert 1ord- who served as
the 0.S. ambassador to Syria- said that his e?perien4e as a 0.S. diplomat
during the #ra< war made him skepti4al of the e?iled opposition body's
weight on the ground. :They need to get themselves out of #stanbul- and
instead get themselves installed in Syria- with or without a no(Ly Bone-: he
said. :And we've raised that with them.:
)ther former 0.S. o74ials- however- suggest the opposition's
ineHe4tiveness should have been e?pe4ted after Syria's long bout of
authoritarianism. :Kook- Syria and Syrians were 4oming out of a 3,(plus(
year politi4al 4oma Iwhen the opposition bodies were formedJ-: said 1red
Hof- a former spe4ial advisor on Syria at the State !epartment and
4urrently a senior fellow at the Atlanti4 *oun4il.
:!id we really e?pe4t opposition politi4s to be 4hara4teriBed by trust-
openness- loyalty- and selLess teamwork?:
Hof said that rather than fo4using on the Syrian 4oalition's failings-
>resident Bara4k )bama's administration should be asking whether it did
everything possible to give the moderate opposition a 4han4e to su44eed.
:#f we want the Syrian &ational *oalition to be an eHe4tive part of the anti(
#S#K 4oalition- we'll help it get into Syria-: he said. :#f we want to bind anti(
Assad Syrians to our anti(#S#K eHorts- we'll engage #S#K elements atta4king
nationalist for4es and we'll ground Assad's air for4e. The 4hallenge is less
one of opposition dysfun4tion than it is our own.:
Whoever is to blame for the state of the o74ial anti(Assad opposition-
however- few deny that its inLuen4e in Syria is vanishingly small. And that
has left the 0nited States in the unenviable position of working for the
removal of both the #slami4 State and the Assad regime- while having few
viable partners to 6ll the va4uum left in their wake.
Posted by Thavam