This is no doubt interesting, but it's very obviously a PR piece written to subtly engender American support for arming Syrian Rebels. This chaotic conflict is making for very strange bedfellows of the United States and certain extremist groups.
There was a nearly identical article in The Atlantic a few months back, Edward Bernays would be proud!
An easy way to determine if the US supports a group is to look at the language used to describe that group. Are they "freedom fighters" or "terrorists"?
France is fighting "terrorists" in Mali, not "freedom fighters". The US supports the Syrian "rebels", not the Syrian "terrorists".
I think its fine to say the piece is biased (even though you haven't given any evidence despite the fact that "its very obvious"). However, saying an article by the free press was written for a specific political purpose requires some backup.
I could accuse you of trying to engender support against the rebels, but that would be a distraction that moves the conversation nowhere.
Couldn't agree more. The Syrian rebels are a loosely associated group with several elements who are radical Islamist and Al Qaeda. This could have easily been titled "DIY Terrorism".
But is it really terrorism at this point? It's a civil war. Just because some groups that use terrorism to further their goals are participating doesn't make it any less of a war.
If the residents of New York City rebelled, and managed to take control of 2/3rds of the city, that would be a civil war (or at least I would classify it as such), even if Al Qaeda showed up to participate.
> But is it really terrorism at this point? It's a civil war.
Civil war distinguishes context of conflict independent of methods, terrorism distinguishes methods of conflict indepedent of context; they aren't mutually exclusive categories.
Equally inaccurately, though. Both "freedom fighters" and "terrorists" are marketing terms. "Rebel" is accurate since they're fighting the government; that's definitely a rebellion.
There was a nearly identical article in The Atlantic a few months back, Edward Bernays would be proud!
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/diy-weapons-of-th...