The First Casualty Of War

Rabid Dogs On All Sides
(PLUCK series)

'Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.' 

~Samuel Johnson, 'The Idler' 1758

It is the common narrative of those who side with the rebels, often blindly, in Syria that these gun toting militants are somehow valiant characters in the overall plot. They have been cast as the defenders of the downtrodden and oppressed Syrian civilians. They have been painted as noble warriors who arose to take a stand against the savage tyrant in command of Syria. Yet the war which they wage has been brutal in it's depiction of reality. With every massacre there comes the picture of rabid dogs surrounding the citizenry of Syria on all sides. Assad's barbarians remain frothing at the mouth as they clamor for new atrocities. And, contrary to their online propagandists, the rebels are equally savage in their attempts to assert authority in reclaimed areas.

It is the common narrative of the blind support that what you are reading here is wrong. By looking beyond the partisanship of either side we are somehow committing an offense. By sifting through the lies, often pitting them against one another, we are somehow wrong for seeking the hard facts behind the fog of war. If you believe that, if you are so vehemently biased, then this is your chance to leave and go back to the media that feeds your glutinous appetite for lies.

We don't claim to know everything. This isn't a blog to tell you what to think, we didn't start this to make you believe. This is a blog that simply exists so as to make you ask questions. Our only goal here is to make you question everything you have been told. Our mission is to create screamers by unbinding the blindfolds that have covered peoples' eyes for far too long. We don't always have the answers, but we'll be damned if we would ever cease in trying to find them.

Devoured 

Syria's crisis began when Assad violently attempted to crush the spirit which we seek for all mankind. It was in Syria's underclass that the masses began to question the legitimacy of Assad's rule. From the ground up the threat was rising to a tyrant who had held power for generations. Syria's crisis began because the leader of Syria felt his dogs were turning in upon him. 

A system in which the majority of the citizenry do not belong to the same class or religion of the ruling party, is a system that becomes to top heavy to survive. When the masses began to realize that Syria's fighter jets, it's tanks, it's helicopters, and it's savage army were no longer meant to protect them but rather to dominate them... it was already too late.

Guerrilla warfare became the only method by which the underclass could rise up to challenge the bigger dog in this fight. Through ambushing, hit and run, and by utilizing rolling battles to engage the regime; the rebels were seen as fighting for their homes and their people. In the beginning this was symbolic in the fact that it made outsiders believe that Syria's masses were in open rebellion. And yet the people of Syria were not yet ready to sacrifice everything for the whims of this ragtag band of rebels. 

Assad, in all his barbaric glory, launched all out war upon his own nation. Cluster bombs, incendiaries, mortars, heavy artillery, tanks, helicopters, and jets were all thrown into the fight to stop the rebellion his own savagery had inspired. Entire villages were laid to waste as Assad sought to bring Syria back under his control. Nothing was sacred to the now rabid leader as he challenged all conventions of warfare by openly targeting civilians. 

This is how the war began. And in it's own right, this is how Syria was devoured from within. Blood spilled on one side was immediately rectified, if ever it could be, by more blood spilled on the opposing side. And eye for an eye rapidly made all of Syria blind. 

Yet it was the bitterness of war that devoured Syria completely. Rebels who had boasted about their restraint in battle quickly gave into the temptations of war. Retaliatory attacks on citizens who remained loyal to Assad began to mount the death toll on the other side. Men that online supporters claimed were somehow noble turned out to be no less barbaric than the savage they claimed to fight. Leaving many to wonder how the rebels could be praised for fighting Assad when they have mirrored their enemies own sins.

Genocide Produces Yet More Genocides

(A History) 

Namibia, the land of the 20th century's first genocide. It is a country in which the German Second Reich began it's experiments with lebensraum and eugenic philosophies. This is the place where a modern nation imposed race laws, built concentration camps, used chemicals to kill their victims, used slave labor to cause death, and committed outright mass executions of the Herero and Namaqua peoples. All of which occurred a decade prior to the Armenian Genocide. 

Turkish leaders would look back upon their German ally's success in Namibia and learn from the Second Reich what it meant to exterminate an entire ethnicity of man. In Ottoman eyes the colonization of Namibia by Germany was seen as a success because the German people never once said a word against it. Instead the German populace was seen as supportive and as willing participants in their government's atrocities. Thus, without little questioning by Turkish citizens, the Ottomans began their genocides in an attempt to maintain their crumbling empire. 

The Assyrians, the Pontic Greeks, and the Armenians would all suffer the wrath of a failing empire. 1.5 million Armenians would perish as Turkey fought to enforce "Turkification" across their territories. There was no limit to the barbarism that the Ottomans would utilize in their attempts to either deport or kill their victims. 

“Who today still talks about the annihilation of the Armenians?”

~ Adolf Hitler, August 22, 1939

Deir-es-Zor, the Turkish death camp to which Armenians were sent, is to the Armenian people today what Auschwitz is to the Jews. The extermination of the Armenian people was so vast and rapidly committed that Hitler himself referenced it while preparing the Holocaust. It was only 24 years after the Armenian Genocide that the next dictator was preparing to unleash the hell of genocide upon Europe once again. And just as with the Turks, the Nazis were simply expanding upon what their predecessors had done before them. 

Six million Jews would pay with their lives for what Hitler had unleashed upon Europe. My ancestors were taken into the mountains and shot by Hitler's dogs in Croatia. Like the Armenians who were marched away from their homes to die, my ancestors looked back upon their village and knew that they would never return home again. From their blood, from those who clung to life in our darkest hour, I'm here today. 

The suffering of my people was the playbook from which dictators like Idi Amin and Pol Pot took their instructions. Acting in the same savage spirit that had inspired hellish acts like that of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, these modern heathens unleashed genocides across the world. In Cambodia about a quarter of the population would perish as Pol Pot recreated the crimes committed by the Germans in Namibia. Idi Amin, who admitted to adoring Hitler, attempted to recreate the Holocaust as he plunged Uganda into a hell from which it has yet to recover from. 

Genocide has been looked upon by governments as the perfect crime because it is supposed to destroy the "problem" at it's root. Yet there are always those who survive. There are always those who watch the crimes and record them in their hearts and souls. These survivors and onlookers are the ones who refuse to let the sins of the past die in the killing fields. And thus, genocide for all it's absolutes, is never a crime that is easily forgotten. 

It is a crime that breeds more of it's own horrific acts in every generation to follow. In cases like that of Rwanda there is the immediate threat of the victimized community retaliating, and thus perpetrating genocide, once the killing stops. The bitterness that remains once the killings end is the seed that genocide sows wherever and whenever genocide occurs. If it does not obtain fruition in one culture it will seek out another in which to grow. It knows and respects no borders society has attempted to create. Every society is vulnerable to it's lures. 

And this is where we are today in Syria.

The brink of allowing one genocide to breed another. 

A War With No Victors

Assad watched other dictators across the Middle East get away with the very sins he has committed. It was only in recent history that Assad has seen tyrants fall to the hangman's knot. And therefore it may be this reality of repercussions for his actions that keeps the dictator clinging to power. He has nowhere left to run. His followers have nowhere left to cast their support. The battle lines are so deeply drawn that there is no crossing over. There will be no forgiveness, there will be no repentance, this is a fight to the death.

It is in the rigidness of Syria's war that the end has already been made clear. An end that will find both sides defeated in their own ways. Syria has no prize for the conquerors. It has nothing left to offer the side that claims victory. For this is a war that will have no victor. 

Far too much blood has been spilled by the true owners of Syria, it's citizenry. Too many young lives have been altered so drastically that there is no walking their hearts and minds back to civility. Young Syrians will now watch as others return home to families that they no longer have themselves. They will be left with the bitterness that comes with seeing a world move on as they remain in hell. Far too much has been taken from the true owners of Syria's hope... it's youth has been bled out. 

The rebels may be the lesser of two evils in this fight. But they are not the heroes. That is a title that they will never be able to claim. For there have been far too many innocent lives lost as their militants pulled triggers and planted bombs that should have never been. Their excesses have stripped them of any praise that civilized man could have ever offered. It is in their sins that they have been found unworthy of any support.

This brings us to the final point of this long winded method of asking...

If the rebels in Syria do manage to win their war and commit even more retaliatory reprisals against the Alawite minority, will their supporters call these acts genocide?

Just as not all Sunni Muslims have offered their support to the rebels (thus marking themselves for reprisals too), not all Alawites have offered their support to Assad's regime. Yet the genocide that has seen Assad targeting Sunni civilians has bred deep animosity against the Alawites as a whole. And it has already been made clear that the rebels exercise little restraint when claiming Alawite areas. They have often been recorded as targeting Alawite civilians trapped by the sudden shift in power. 

In areas where the population is considered traditionally loyal to Assad, the rebels have done little to stop elements of their forces from savagely attacking the unarmed populace. This occurs in all wars as attacking soldiers take casualties and find themselves unable to directly attack the enemy soldiers. It has always been the civilians who suffer the hatred that feeds the will to fight on both sides. Yet when it comes to the rebels these crimes are rarely admitted by their fiercely loyal followers and supporters online. 

Thus we ask once again... If the rebels do win, and they begin targeting supposed supporters of the old regime, will there be the same "humanitarian" outcry by supporters? 

The ground has already been prepared for the next genocide in Syria. Rebels, engulfed by bitterness and hatred, stand ready to commit massacres of their own in the absence of an enemy regime. Civilians who have been told that their neighbors supported the man who killed their families stand prepared to accept that these traitors deserve to die. All the elements are there. The ground has been salted in such a way that nothing but more genocidal acts can grow here. 

So when the rebels, who many of you reading this have so adamantly supported, do openly commit crimes against humanity... will you scream?

“…the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it… the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense…”

~ Theodore Roosevelt, 1918 

In 1918 Theodore Roosevelt pointed out to the world what they all seemed to be missing as the fog of war began to clear. For all the deaths that had occurred there were still those that the world was ignoring. For all the governments that the world was punishing after the war, there was still one that remained free of society's outrage for it's crimes against humanity. 

In Syria there are still deaths that remain unanswered for. There are still factions within this war that remain free from the outrage of civilized society for their crimes against all of humanity. This is not a war where there is anyone left untainted by the blood that has been spilled. Each and every war criminal deserves to be dragged out and punished upon the world stage. And the fact that anyone who claims to be a "humanitarian" would turn a blind eye to one side while being so partisan as to attack the other... that is why genocide and crimes against humanity go unpunished today. The apathy of good men.

Preying Upon The Weak

Children Targeted By Rakhine Nationalist
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

In every genocide the weakest and most vulnerable are the most likely to be targeted for extermination. For those communities that find themselves the target of ethnic cleansing their children are preyed upon without mercy. The aim of this merciless method of slaughter is aimed at depriving the targeted community of their next generation. It is a tactic that is employed to ensure that the "undesirables" have not opportunity for a future.

When Stalin wanted to weaken his imagined foe in the Ukraine he commanded his forces to work the adults to death while starving the children. In doing this Uncle Joe damned an entire generation to a fate worse than death. He desired to starve them slowly as they watched their parents wither away and their grandparents perish. Stalin's long term goal however was to wipe out the children by taking the food right out of their mouths.

In Nazi Europe the children, especially the youngest, were often told to go off to the other line than their parents. It was a long and painful line that wandered off to the gas chambers or to freshly dug mass graves. Many SS soldiers took pride and using infants and babies as target practice or bayonet training. Hitler had set this part of the Final Solution in place so as to kill off the "undesirables" both here an now and in the years to come. Without children the "lesser races" could not raise up a generation that could be used to resist the Nazi cause. 

The Ustase behaved like rabid wolves when it came to the children of Jews and Roma in Croatia. Entire campaigns were launched to round up the vulnerable children into massive groups so that they could be led off like sheep to the slaughter. Ustase troops picked young children up by their limbs and bashed their heads onto rocks and concrete so as to save bullets. Roma children were held down while Ustase SS slit their throats. As with the rest of Hitler's followers, the Ustase knew that their actions were designed to slaughter the last hope of their victims. 

Burma has followed in Hitler's footsteps as they target the Rohingya of Myanmar. In Sabbay Goong, Northern Maung Daw, the Nasaka took into custody the mother of four children who were slaughtered by Rakhine extremist. Instead of going after the killers the Burmese security forces have decided to further degrade the mother. Once again Myanmar's government shows that they are willing to prey upon the weakest and most vulnerable of the Rohingya. 

The four children were;

• Noor Semon, 10 year old girl.
• Abdur Rahman, 8 year old boy.
• Rabina, 5 year old girl.
• Yasmine Ara, 2 year old girl. 

Their lives were ended simply because they were born Rohingya instead of Rakhine. Their assailants, thought to be members of the radical Rakhine terrorist group Arakan Liberation Party, are still free even as their little bodies remain unclaimed and most likely buried in unmarked graves. Their mother remains in captivity in a Burmese prison even after having been attacked and tied up by the men who killed her children.

This is what justice looks like in a government that openly practices a campaign of genocide against the Rohingya people. The slaughtered are blamed, the survivors are made to live in hellish conditions, and those who try to flee are killed without mercy.

So once again Alder's Ledge will ask... how many more need die? Why is the world remaining silent as innocent people perish every day?

Blacked Out In Hell

Assad Guarantees No Syrians Will See This Post
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Internet Shut off at 10:30am Across Syria) 

With the war in Syria grinding its way through the 20th consecutive month the Assad dictatorship has apparently become desperate to stop the uprising from having access to its lifeblood... the outside world. In a move that has drawn harsh criticism Bashar al-Assad has shut down the Internet within Syria. It is not clear if the services will return under foreign pressure. But it is clear to human rights observers as to why Assad has taken this dramatic action in his attempt to smash his opposition.

Media blackouts have been common when it comes to Assad and his massacres. Before the last two massacres there were minor interruptions in communications with the outside world. In the last pogrom Assad interrupted the Internet surrounding Houla in an attempt to black out any videos arising from the area. These attempts to stifle the truth from flowing out of Syria failed. So now we must ask if this new nationwide black out is a smoke screen like it had been back in Houla?

We do know now that Assad is fighting fierce battles in and around Damascus. The war for Aleppo was lost to a stale mate for Assad's forces. Now the war is coming with even more ferocity to the capital city. Car bombs rack the Syrian army every time they try to rush off to a new guerrilla street fight. Planes that had ruled the air around Aleppo are now being brought down by Free Syrian Army surface to air missiles. And yet the fighting seems to still be stuck in grid lock as Russia and China continue to poor money into Assad's reserves. 

With Russia printing Assad's money for him the dictator can continue to pay off Iranian mercenaries and Shabiha thugs. The flow of cash means that Assad can continue to pay for his secret prisons and purchase new tools with which to torture his own citizens. These billions of dollars means that Assad can use his own money, thus keeping Russia's hands clean, to purchase more Iranian weapons and Chinese ammunition. It also means that Assad has the money to fund an all out push for wide spread atrocities across the country.

In addition to cutting Internet services Assad also cut cellphone services in the country. This makes it appear that the dictator has admitted that cellphone pictures have been the leading source of "eyewitness testimony" against his war crimes. After all, it was the cellphone videos uploaded to YouTube that first alerted the West to the horrific war crimes committed by the Shabiha in Houla. It was the images of children having been bound and executed by Assad's thugs that first raised concern amongst governments in Europe and the Americas. So once again we must pose the question of whether or not Assad is preparing to launch an all out push against his opposition across the country? And how far will Assad take the country before the lights come back on? 

Some outside sources have suggested that the cutting of communications was an overreaction to the car bomb attacks that rocked suburbs of Damascus earlier this morning. Around 50 people were killed in the attacks. Yet it is hard for Alder's Ledge to buy into this excuse since the car bombs were set off in Christian and Druze neighborhoods. A fact that rules out any sympathies an Alawite Islamic leader might have for the dead. In addition the very leader that cut the communications is the same leader that began targeting Christian and Druze Syrians shortly after the uprising began. 

(Syrian Neighborhood Rocked By Explosions This Morning)

We do know that Assad had already made plans to make a push somewhere around the international airport where rebels had been attacking for days. And shortly after cutting communications Assad did in fact start such a push against the Free Syrian Army. And in an effort to get planes back in the air and landing at the airport Assad has begun shelling civilian areas nearby. In this assault to reopen the airport Assad has sent the bulk of his forces into the villages of Babila and Hujaira to the south and Harran al-Awamid to the east. These are also areas where the cellular communications were slashed ahead of the military's arrival. 

If this is a new push to kill off as many "rebels" as the Assad regime can dig up or gather from the civilian population the West may never know. The fact is the lines of communication with the rebel militias are now cut. Outside of the foreign governments supporting the uprising, the rest of us will have to wait till information leaks out over the border into Turkey or Lebanon. What little news reporters are on the ground will also find it hard to get their reports out of the country. 

When the next massacre occurs we will have to wait to hear about it. When the next batch of children are sent off to an alleyway to be gunned down we will never be able to bear witness. When the next wave of Shabiha enter Syrian homes in the middle of the night the world will not hear their screams. This is precisely what Assad wants. The genocidal regime he has led now has all it has ever needed. A vacuum in which to operate. 

It is time for the world to wake up and take action. The darkness that has been covering Syria for nearly two years has now descended into pitch black. The monster in power now has the ability to operate without impediment. The people of Syria are now at risk of suffering far worse than they already have.

Source Document 

World Magazine

 http://www.worldmag.com/2012/11/deadly_twin_car_bombs_explode_in_a_christian_and_druze_suburb_in_syria

Forbes 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/11/29/syria-shuts-off-internet-but-can-they-really-block-information-flow/

Voice Of America 

http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-pushing-back-as-rebels-advance/1555248.html

BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20547799

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20493687

(note that not all documents used are listed)

Land Of The Fallen Sun

Japanese Atrocities Rehashed

Last week Japan claimed to have purchased a series of islands in the East China Sea. These islands are in dispute due to China's historical claims to them. And it seems that this purchase has only served to highlight a day that China has never forgotten.

On September 18Th, 1931 when the Japanese decided they would invade main land China. This was the day that the Japanese Imperial Army set into motion a long brutal and barbaric occupation of Manchuria. An occupation that would peak with the Rape of Nanking.

For the last 70 years or so the Japanese have received a horrible review in the eyes of history for their actions in World War Two. In Southeast Asia the Japanese built the rail line from hell upon the backs of prisoners of war and indigenous slave labor. On the coast of Australia and New Zealand the Japanese made it a habit to bomb civilians and sink noncombatant ships. Then in Pearl Harbor the Zeros were launched to commit a savage attack on a nation that had no dog in the fight till that day in December.

For us here on Alder's Ledge this image of a blood thirsty war machine of heartless barbarians is well deserved. We do not make an attempt to distinguish between the soldier and the master he served. For it was the soldier who willingly risked his life for a cause he could not deny nor be ignorant of. It would for me be the same idiotic view to say that the German people had no idea what the SS was actually doing than to say that the Japanese people had no idea what happened in Nanking.

On December 13Th, 1937 (just over 6 years from the initial invasion) the capitol of the Republic of China fell to the Imperial Army of Japan. For the next six weeks the Japanese army released its soldiers, all the way from the grunt to the commanding officers, to commit some of the worse atrocities of World War Two. The hallmarks of the following six weeks were beheading, executions, immolation, molestation, infanticide, and the ever present rape.

Upon capture of Nanking the Japanese ordered that all Chinese women were to "provide comfort" to the ruling Japanese soldiers. To achieve this all girls from around 8 years of age to their late 20s were dragged out into the streets and escorted to areas where the Japanese soldiers could gang rape their captives. When traditional rape lost its appeal the soldiers resorted to sodomy and sadism to continue their savaging of Nanking's female population.

Those not subject to rape were taken to the killing fields. There men and children were subjected to shootings, beheading, and babies were often thrown into the air for target practice. In Japanese culture the bayonet was traded in for the sword of the Samaria. The killings were so common that within days the city was littered with corpses and decapitated heads.  In all around 300,000 Chinese citizens were slaughtered by the Japanese in Nanking within those six weeks.

The man with whom the most blame for the massacre rest is without a doubt Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. This member of the imperial court was sent from Tokyo to the front lines just as the Japanese forces approached Nanking. It was under his command that the 10Th Army of Japan began implementing mass rapes and massacres while on approach to Nanking. And it would be Prince Asaka who would give the command to kill all Chinese soldiers captured and to massacre the population of Nanking once the city is under Japanese control.

Once in the city the Japanese soldiers were let loose like dogs. The initial attacks did not need much encouragement seeing as how the Japanese soldiers appeared far more than willing to slaughter and rape the Chinese civilians. However within a short period of time the commanders in the Japanese Army decided they needed to implement "killing contest" to drive up the death toll. These "games" would result in some of the most sadistic acts of the entire war.

Japanese soldiers were often ordered to have Chinese men dig mass graves in which the Japanese would bury the Chinese alive leaving only their heads exposed upon the surface. It was at this point that the Japanese would let loose their dogs, war animals trained to attack men, so that the hounds could finish the job. At other times the Japanese would force their horses to charge over the graves so that the horses hooves would crush the Chinese civilians' heads.

Another game often involved wrapping a Chinese captive up so that the civilian could hardly stand let alone run. The Chinese captive was then told to run as the dogs were sent out after him/her. If the dogs did not kill the captive the Japanese soldiers would savage the animal then force the Chinese captive back at the abused dog. This would often lead to the dog mortally wounding the Chinese victim.

In another recorded case the Japanese soldier recorded that he had enticed a dog to bite off the genitals of a Chinese man. His torture of the Chinese victim was only outdone by another Japanese soldier who reported that his unit had gotten a dog to rip open the abdomen of a Chinese man. The dog was said to have run off with the Chinese victim's entrails dangling from his mouth.

These forms of savagery were all to common. And sadly children were not spared the wrath of the Japanese Empire.

Children were often tied to poles and used for bayonet practice. Babies were flung into the air as Japanese soldiers lined up for target practice. Older children were not spared as they were often told to run only to be gunned down or charged by soldiers on horseback. The treatment of these most innocent of lives shows that, at the time at least, Japanese viewed the Chinese as less than human.

This is why the Chinese, from all over the country, came out to protest the Japanese Embassies. The wounds that Japan inflicted upon China have never truly healed. And the collective heart of China has never forgotten the atrocities Japan unleashed upon its people. These islands are historically Chinese. And this purchase appears, to China at least, to be Japan spreading its imperialist will upon the Chinese once again. 

Hundreds Dead... Assad Still Lives.

The Lion Strikes Again.
(part of The Darkness Visible post)

As the world grumbles about the unjustifiable attacks Assad carried out over the weekend the death toll keeps ticking upward. The Syrian Free Army claimed that there were over 400 dead in Daraya, Syria after the regime blitzed the town. Now we know the death toll in this latest massacre is at the very least 200 but most likely closer to the 400 mark. This was yet another hunting trip for the lion of Damascus.

Sending his shabiha door to door once again the beast reaped his reward as the butchers murdered scores of innocent Syrians. Men, women, and children were all taken out into the streets and beaten to death then shot to finish them off. Those who dared to fight back were shot down where they were found. Anyone who cooperated was treated as a friend at first... then shot in the back.

This is how Assad works. This is how a genocidal maniac kills his victims as the world watches from the sidelines. And all we can do is watch as the dead scream out for help.

Bed sheets become burial shrouds as Assad's bloody footsteps encircle the Syrian capitol city. Daraya is just southwest of Damascus. It was under the Syrian army's guns for weeks as the artillery threatened to wipe the town off the map. Helicopters appeared as the night began. Then the blitz. People's homes became their coffins as Assad's forces entered the city.

Abu Kinan told the Guardian, "One of the massacre survivors told me that when the Syrian army stormed their alley, they put more than 50 people up against the wall.

"As they began spraying them with bullets, he threw himself to the floor. He was covered with blood though he was not shot. He pretended that he was dead. Four of his family were killed."

So where is the outside world as Syria suffers yet another crushing blow from the mad man of Damascus? Where is Obama and the White House, with its professional mourners? Where are the big hearted Europeans when yet again more Syrian children are put against the wall and shot between the eyes?

It is clear now that the world has stopped paying any attention whatsoever to Syria's pain. Images of butchered children and blood splattered woman have left us callous. The sights of war torn cities and smoldering villages have left Europe numb to the suffering of Syria's vulnerable. Videos of bloodied bodies laying in the streets as rag tag soldiers tip toe between them has taken to its toll on American sensibilities. Yet despite all this... those we have turned our eyes away from still suffer regardless of who is watching.

This is not the time to turn our backs on the Syrian people. This is not the time to grow weary in the face of such despicable acts as these. We must once again raise our voices and clearly state our demands that the Western world act and act now to stop the killings in Syria. We must demand that our leaders take all necessary actions to put an end to the madness Assad has unleashed upon Syria's innocent civilians. And most of all, we must demand that those in the outside world who supported Assad be punished for their support of crimes against humanity.

Because when we fail to act...

.... this is what happens.

With The Dawn Of A New Day

-
News of Another Massacre
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

As Aleppo's battle rages the government forces in Syria have taken to spreading out their forces across the country. It appears that Assad's regime is attempting to force the rebel forces to fight a war on multiple fronts. And in Syria, this war seems to be being fought on countless fronts. It's wildfires pop up in nearly every city, town, and village. Not a single person's house is safe as the two sides are forced into combat in people's backyards and living rooms. All the while Assad's forces commit massacre after massacre where ever they go.

In Harbnafsa, in Hama province, the forces loyal to Assad are reported to have laid siege to the town for five hours. Troops and shabiha surrounded the town while artillery and tanks were ordered to fire upon the neighborhoods. The 8,000 plus citizens of the town were trapped as shells and bombs fell on their homes, schools, and businesses. And when the bombs stopped, the shabiha came storming into town.

Local citizens who fled the town were the first to report that around 40 innocent citizens were killed and over 120 more had been wounded. Those who fled reported that shabiha had chased citizens out of town while firing upon them and running them down with knives. Troops loyal to Assad tried to turn fleeing citizens back into Harbnafsa where they would face certain death.

By luck, through hiding, and by the grace of G-d the number of dead seems to be hovering around 40 and 120 wounded. But the terror that was spread over Harbnafsa will not clear any time soon. It is not clear to those who survived whey the government attacked. And it remains to terrifying for many to return home.

For the Free Syrian Army it is a little more obvious just why Assad attacked Harbnafsa. The town is mainly Sunni and is thus assumed to be loyal to the rebels' cause. Yet no weapons were in the town and rebel fighters had not been near the town for some time. So for those working with the rebellion it is obvious that the Alawite militias wanted to drive out the Sunni population. After all, this is a civil war based on Assad's hatred for Sunni Muslims and his desire to keep the Alawite establishment in power.

In this campaign to spread the battle across the country Assad has claimed victory in Damascus even as rebel bombs continue to explode in Damascus. He has spread the war from Lake al-Assad in the East to the Mediterranean Coast in the West. Yet the rebel movement has shown this fight can't be drawn into battles on Assad's terms. This fight will continue to be played out on the terms drawn up by the Free Syrian Army. This will continue to be a guerrilla campaign in which Assad's forces will be made to defend their strongholds.

In the meantime the massacres continue. Assad's militia thugs spread the fear and terror they claim their opponents stand for. The hatred for Assad only grows as the blood continues to flow. And in all this we still wait to see what will come of Aleppo. Will the main battle field of a city turn into a massacre of unprecedented proportions? Or will the Free Syrian Army be able to hold out against unbelievable odds?

Please continue to put pressure on your state representatives in Washington to get the United States government to act more directly in Syria. The people of Syria are fighting for their lives. And we need to act now to help save those still trapped under Assad's tyrannical rule.

A View of Shabiha Slaughter

-
First Hand Account
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

Bound with zip-ties like so many others who came before him, Mahmoud was taken from his cell with ten other men. None could be directly linked to the rebel movement. None had any crimes for which a death sentence was usually applied... that is until now.

Assad's feared shabiha have been using the technique Mahmoud suffered. Blindfolded, Mahmoud was taken with his comrades in a truck to a contested neighborhood of Aleppo. It was there that the shabiha unloaded the men and lined their prisoners up against a wall. Put on his knees Mahmoud could hear his captors cock their weapons. And for a moment the shabiha's victims there is silence.

Then all hell erupts.

Mahmoud felt the shabihas' bullets rip into his feet and legs as the bullets climbed up his body. When Mahmoud felt a bullet hit his head he told the AP that he thought right there that he was dead. But by a miracle the bullet did not kill him.

When the shabiha left they thought they had sent a message to the rebels. It had been their goal to use this tactic to demoralize the rebel forces ahead of the planned "massive assault" on Aleppo. Mahmoud's would be killers didn't realize that they had left a witness.

Now the world knows that Assad's forces are using war crimes to try and break the rebels' fighting spirit. Now we know that Assad's forces are killing prisoners of war. Yet it seems only the rebels are learning from this new revelation.

Western media seems reluctant to post stories like this one. Some post it with the safety words like "not independently verified" to cover their butts. Others try to speculate while the facts lay right out there in the open. But most just simply hide the stories from Syria behind everything else from the Olympics to Obama.

For Mahmoud the story of Syria's conflict are far to real. The tales of war crimes are now permanently engraved in his flesh. The abuses of Assad will forever be with him whenever he looks in a mirror. And for his family... the horror of Assad's wrath is still a reality as the shabiha continue to threaten their lives.

It is time for us here on the opposite side of the world to act. We need to speak up and tell our representatives in Washington that we don't want people like Mahmoud to die at the hands of Assad's thugs. We need to put pressure on Obama's White House to do more than just use tough talk when dealing with Assad, Russia, China, and Iran. We don't need a boot licking president bowing down to Putin and Assad. We need a president that speaks softly but carries a big stick. We want action when it comes to Syria... the Syrians need action from the West right now.

Another Massacre... Another Day in Syria

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Shabiha Go Door To Door In Damascus
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

In a town on the outskirts of Damascus, Jdeidet Artouz, the Shabiha have committed yet another massacre. Nobody knows if this is in response for the rebels' killing of four police officers yesterday. But what is clear is that the "ghost" went door to door to round up what they called "terrorist". And as a result somewhere between 30 and 60 innocent civilians were butchered so that Assad's regime could satisfy its need for fresh blood.

In addition to the tension in the capitol of Syria another massacre was carried out in a neighboring suburb of the city, Yalda. In this slaughter the Shabiha again were seen going door to door looking for their "terrorist". And again the innocent civilians who happened to still be in their homes hiding were rounded up and taken away. Lined up in front of brick walls the 20 to 30 men, women, and children were shot and left to rot in the summer sun.

All the while the nearly hundred dead bodies in these too attacks are supposed to be ignored because some human rights groups were "appalled" by the four dead police officers the rebels produced. Nobody seems to be able to realize that the four police officers were armed and fighting back before they were captured. Nobody seems willing to admit that the four officers were used by the Assad regime to oppress the people of Aleppo. But we can't deny that the civilians butchered at the hands at the Shabiha were unarmed and no threat to Assad's tyrannical rule.

Not to argue that the crimes of the rebels is justified by the deaths of the innocent. But how can we compare the beating, tormenting, and killing of four police officers (most likely loyal to their government since they were still armed and fighting when captured) to the savage massacres of innocent civilians?

The answer is that we can't.

As the fighting in Aleppo heats up we are almost guaranteed that we will be seeing more massacres and more humanitarian crises coming out of Syria. The fact that food and water are becoming scarce in the embattled city isn't helping the civilians trapped inside to stay out of the crossfire. Taxi service is actually still up and running in Aleppo as the cabs charge around five times the usual fare. Citizens scramble across streets and flee inside as bullets zip down the streets. Children search for food as jets dive bomb their neighborhoods. And all this happens as the death toll ticks upward despite the fact nobody is counting it.

Now we will have to wait to see what happens next. While it hurts to hear of another massacre... let alone two... we are waiting to see what happens in Aleppo. All the hallmarks of a humanitarian tragedy are there. All the parts for a massacre are lining up. So let us pray that what appears to be just over the horizon does not come. Pray for Syria.

Falling Away Into The Night

How Many More Have To Die?
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

This morning Assad's death squads waited to move in for the kill. Ahead of the Shabiha came the artillery barrage. Then came the helicopters. But the siege was not enough to satisfy the beast. Assad needed to send in his "ghost" to finish off the so called rebels.



Tremseh is a small Sunni village surrounded by Alawite villages. It is obvious why Assad targeted this village. This is just more evidence that Assad's regime is exercising a genocidal philosophy to push their version of Islam onto the masses. As an Alawite himself, Assad has shown no mercy for the Sunni majority in his country. And it is becoming more blatantly obvious that he believes that the Sunnis are the reason for his imminent demise and fall from power.

The villagers of Tremseh had no way of defending themselves. They could only hide and wait for the bombs to drop. One by one they were picked off as the artillery laid siege to their humble homes. Then came the death machines from above. There was no running away. This was murder... genocide.



So where the hell was the precious UN? Is it supposed to be acceptable to those who died that we only document what happened to them? How the hell do observers stop this bloody mess? Perhaps it would have made the victims of the Nazis more comfortable if a UN observer had been at the doorway to the gas chambers? At least then the UN could pat them on the back and tell them everything is going to be alright.

Come on you bloody idiots... wake up! No amount of smurfs on the ground in Damascus is going to stop the killing unless you put guns in their hands and tanks at their backs. Let the "peace keepers" use whatever force is necessary to stop this damned mad man from repeating the same bloody sins you let happen time and time again. Did your precious observers do anything to stop Sarajevo? No! And they aren't helping here.

More than 200 hundred dead in one attack is more than 200 hundred than needed to die. But I digress...

The fact is that Syria had already begun making promises that it would stop the use of "heavy weapons" (artillery, attack helicopters, and tanks for example) in populated areas. It now has shown the UN that it has no fear of violating such agreements even as its government was setting down to discuss a peace plan with Kofi Annan. Yet the United Nations has failed to use any real measures to put an end to 17 months of brutal government oppression.

It took the UN less than a month to start putting pressure on Gaddafi and less than two weeks to use military force when it looked like Gaddafi might win. So where is France and Obama now that it has been made obvious that only minimal military intervention can topple Middle Eastern dictators?

The fact that Iran sets right next door seems to point to the reason why Obama and his spineless European companions lack the guts to fight Assad's weakened regime. It appears that the UN is far too afraid of making the "Syrian question" into a regional war. Yet in doing so it also goes to prove that Obama and his tin hat smurf friends willingly forget that Ahmadinejad isn't all that well loved in his own country either.

After all, Ahmadinejad had to use snipers to put down the last protest the outside world was able to see thanks to YouTube.

Then once again we must face the fact that Russia has been allowed to gain far to much control over UN policy even despite the fact that Russia violates human rights across the globe. Chechnya being the easiest case of this such violation. And then we have to consider the fact that it is Russia who has been selling arms all around the globe to dictators and terrorist (Assad being the latest of many).

So what needs to be done to fix the incompetence and help make us more readily capable of living up to our promise "Never Again"?

We need to cut countries such as Syria (who was recently considered for a position with the UN's Human Rights committee), China, Russia, Myanmar, Iran, and other well known violators out of the process. We can not stop genocide if we are letting those who commit it define how we combat it.

Next we need to stop believing the outdated ideal that a nation can do whatever it wants to its own people as long as it keeps it within its own borders. This was the exact reason that Cambodia was able to be taken to Hell and back while the West closed their eyes. It is not reasonable to assume that people like Assad or Pol Pott have the best interest of their citizens at heart when massacres are occurring within the nations borders.

But first, before we can get our countries to agree to these two major points, we need to get our nations to wake up. We need to get our leaders to sit up straight and start acting like men rather than mice. It is never acceptable for those in command to bow their heads to tyrants and tell us to do the same.

If we accept the weaknesses in our system... in our leaders... in ourselves... this is what happens.



The time to act is now. Do your part and help save Syria.

                 "Execute the President".... not her.

Till The Cup Spills Over

The Creeping Darkness
(Part of The Darkness Visible Series)

               (Lebanese Child Injured in Syrian Artillery Attacks)

Assad's regime of thugs and criminals began shelling the northern border of Lebanon overnight in attempts to stop the flow of refugees into Lebanon. Soldiers, and what is presumed to be Shabiha, patrolled the "illegal crossing" points where refugees have been fleeing to safety. The armed men opened fire on anyone they presumed to be "rebels" or just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This occurred just as the Lebanese military began building up its presence along the border with Syria. Several Lebanese soldiers reported being fired upon and returning fire on the sources of the attacks. Yet none dared to cross the border to route the attackers.

Checkpoints set up by the Lebanon government were also fired upon by both armed infantry and artillery. Fortunately the failed attacks did not manage to wound or kill any Lebanese soldiers. But the attacks do constitute legitimate acts of war... acts of war that Lebanon has been to timid to call out Assad on.

Assad's regime seems to be willingly ignoring the fact that Lebanon's armed forces were attempting to stop the flow of illegal weapons and armed combatants from flowing into Syria... not out of Syria. This was the mandate set up by Beirut when it beefed up its presence on the border with its neighbor. Unlike Turkey, Lebanon is not about to use its military to stop the massacres happening just on the other side of its border.

All the while a new ally has tossed its support to Assad and his criminal recklessness. Hugo Chavez announced that his regime in Venezuela will be sending diesel and other fuels to Syria. This fuel is meant to keep the Syrian military up and running. It is meant to help keep Assad's genocide grinding along as the Syrian people suffer under the mad man's boot.

Chavez appears to know about the murdering of innocent children, the beating of women, and the butchering of Syrian men. But once again the tin hat dictator of Venezuela seems ready to support tyrants if it will gain him the attention of governments he says he hates. So it only seems appropriate that one narcissist would pat the back of another.

And all this occurs as the UN keep running around toting its "peace plan" to the West. This is a peace plan that continues to loose its teeth every time Kofi Annan opens his mouth. It was meant originally to remove Assad and help obtain the rights the rebels are fighting for. Now it has been scaled back to only address the "most violent" areas in Syria and does not fully demand Assad to step out of Syrian politics.

To add to the growing problems in and around Syria, Putin is beginning to demand that Russia be allowed to hold the "peace talks" in Syria. This flies in the face of reason when one thinks about just how much money Russia has been making by selling Syria weapons. Then to add to the tilt in the scales this arrangement would cause... Russia just sent warships to help the Syrian Navy in "patrols" along the coast of Syria. So how can Putin's regime honestly claim to be impartial when it comes to Assad and his policy of murder and mayhem?

It is time for the West to wake up... if not long past the time to do so. We can not let this creeping darkness continue to spread. We must remove Assad and make him an example for all those who would exploit the innocent. We must save Syria. 







Source Documents Used (note that not all sources used are listed)

The Daily Star Lebanon
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jul-10/180011-shells-from-syria-hit-north-lebanon-border-towns.ashx#axzz20FU2SbtH
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jul-10/180051-lebanons-hrc-halts-syrain-refugee-aid-for-lack-of-funds.ashx#axzz20FU2SbtH
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-10/180056-france-condemns-syrian-shelling-in-lebanon.ashx#axzz20FU2SbtH

Khaleej Times
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2012/July/middleeast_July118.xml&section=middleeast

The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303292204577517041523762940.html

Naharnet
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/46073-syria-targets-wadi-khaled-with-shelling-again-3-killed

AFP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h3-IQ0PJuwzOcOU9dz3SckrTrb9Q?docId=CNG.8f0c4738dfd49a20ec83df63b9f407a3.371

How Syria's Bad Reputation Hurts The Innocent

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No Sympathy For the Faceless

Over the course of my lifetime I have always been told bad things about the Syrian government and its people. Being a Jewish man and having obvious sympathies with Israel doesn't help the matter. But no matter what I have been told, or even if they were true, I know in my heart that no people anywhere on the planet deserve to be butchered and oppressed. And that is exactly what I am seeing as I watch Syria burn before my eyes.

In the west there is little sympathy for a country that has been made a pariah by its government. People here in the Midwest don't think of Syria and immediately think happy thoughts. So it is understandable to me in one manner of speaking that those around me seem less than interested offering any form of support for the Syrian people. On the other hand it is a bit disheartening that people today still seem to think in the same way the German people did when it was the Jews being slaughtered.

Recently Alder's Ledge put up a video on YouTube that was meant to help raise awareness of the massacre Assad is implementing across Syria. It joins a shockingly small number of such videos on the worlds largest host of web videos. Thus making it clear that even those in countries nearby Syria are less than willing to help the Syrian people fight back against Assad's regime.

On social network sites I have run into screamers from across the globe. They are trying everything within their power to gain attention for the Syrian people. Pictures of the atrocities are making the rounds from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram. Yet people are still reluctant to offer any support for these screamers' cause.... the dead and dieing in Syria.

When it comes to the governments of the West the desire to stop the killing seems even less genuine than one might assume to find amongst the peoples of the West themselves. President Obama was more than willing to offer his support to Egypt (a revolution that has led to an even more dangerous regime than the last) and Tunisia (same results as Egypt). Obama was happy to send blood, gold, oil, and sweat to the fight to oust Gaddafi in Libya. But when it comes to a country Russia supports... Obama's spine goes limp. As does the remaining world leaders in Europe and the Middle East.

So what are we, the screamers, trying to raise awareness of? Well, take a look for yourself.





This is why we do not sleep, we do not rest, we do not remain silent. No man should be allowed to rule if this is all he has to offer his people. Assad has become a lion out to kill the old, the sick, and most of all... the children of Syria. We will not rest till Assad has paid for his sins.

Find not sympathy for these people's cause if you can not understand it. Find not sympathy for their suffering if your heart has grown so callous if can not feel empathy. Find not sympathy for their dead if you could not care for them while they were living. But for the love of G-d, look into the eyes of their children and tell you can not find sympathy for those who are about to die!

May G-d have mercy upon those who have bore witness to these sins against all mankind and yet remain silent. For we here at Alder's Ledge believe that this... this unending, relentless, and unholy silence in the face of genocide... this is the greatest sin of all.

Help Save Syria

A Video by Alder's Ledge.