ASSAD WILL NOW BE PLAGUED WITH GUERILLA WARFARE AND TERRORISM
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian Army overwhelmed the main rebel stronghold in the embattled city of Homs on Thursday, setting the stage for its elite soldiers to turn their attention — and superior firepower — to other insurgent redoubts farther north, despite the increasing international pressure for a cease-fire and humanitarian access.
In announcing their “tactical withdrawal” from the Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs after enduring a pounding by artillery, tank and sniper fire for nearly a month, the rebel Revolutionary Brigades of Baba Amr said in statement that they were both heavily outgunned and unable to justify keeping thousands of civilians marooned under dire conditions. In a quarter where most buildings are pockmarked by shell blasts, residents lack food, medicine, water and electricity, and are cut off from the outside world.
I do not favor the U.S. intervening in Syria only to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power. It seems a most unworthy expenditure of both lives and capital to replace a brutal dictator with a new “democratically elected” government that continues to favor oppression of women as well as persecution of religious & ethnic minorities.