The article generally echoes Anne Barnard and Eric Schimitt's New York Times' piece I linked to previously, with three interesting additional pieces of information.
First, Sly cites an anonymous Lebanese security official's estimate that at least 17,000 foreigners have joined rebel forces in Syria. This is less than the 130,000 claimed by Ibrahim Talib of the Center for Strategic Studies in Damascus, but still more than the U.S. counterterrorism officials' estimates of 6,000 cited by Barnard and Schmitt. By comparison, it is estimated that there were never more than 2,000 "Afghan Arabs" fighting the Soviets in the 1980s at any one time, although Ahmed Rashid estimates in his book Taliban that the total number who fought at some point in Afghanistan was 35,000.
Given Syria's strategic location, and the fact that the Syrian civil war does not appear likely to end anytime soon, Sly quotes terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman as saying: "There are a lot of reasons to worry that Syria will emerge as an even more powerful variant of what Afghanistan was more than 30 years." Similarly, Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation notes that one reason for the ISIL's resurgence is that there are no U.S. forces hunting them down, hence "They can plan better and discipline better, and that is dangerous." Ap Apparently, neither of them read Paul Pillar's assurance that it really doesn't matter if Syria becomes an al-Qa'ida haven.
Finally, Sly notes both ISIL's brutality and their determination not to make the same mistakes in alienating the local population that turned Iraq's tribes against them. She notes that as a part of their "hearts and minds" campaign they distributed toys, including Teletubbies, at a gathering in Aleppo to mark the Eid al-Fitr. No word as to whether this included any Tinky-Winky dolls, or whether those were taken away to have a stone wall toppled on top of them.
 |
| Apparently the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant does not have a strong sense of irony. |
No comments:
Post a Comment