Week after week, no matter what is happening on the ground in Syria, the Economist produces an article in which it asserts--against all evidence and facts--that the Syrian rebels are making progress. It is starting to sound like Bush on Iraq. "A VIDEO aired on May 12th shows the 13th Brigade, a rebel group in northern Syria, destroying a government tank with an armour-piercing missile known as a TOW. Dozens of these weapons, supplied across the country under a beefed-up Saudi-American plan, are said now to be in the hands of nine groups friendly to the West.
They have helped to stem recent advances by government forces into parts of two northern provinces, Aleppo and Idleb. On May 8th rebels tunnelled under and blew up Aleppo’s Carlton Hotel, a base for President Bashar Assad’s troops; they have cut nearby government supply routes. The rebels have also gained ground in the south, on the Hauran plain close to Jordan." You read this and wonder: so is it a matter of weeks before Bashshar falls? Also, how come the Western governments themselves are not making those grandiose claims of the Economist? Furthermore, if the rebels are doing so great, why the urgent meetings in Western capitals to try to salvage them?
They have helped to stem recent advances by government forces into parts of two northern provinces, Aleppo and Idleb. On May 8th rebels tunnelled under and blew up Aleppo’s Carlton Hotel, a base for President Bashar Assad’s troops; they have cut nearby government supply routes. The rebels have also gained ground in the south, on the Hauran plain close to Jordan." You read this and wonder: so is it a matter of weeks before Bashshar falls? Also, how come the Western governments themselves are not making those grandiose claims of the Economist? Furthermore, if the rebels are doing so great, why the urgent meetings in Western capitals to try to salvage them?
