[Marxism] Fwd: A closer look at Jabhat al-Nusra | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect]

On September 27th I tweeted this in response someone else’s 140 
character revelation that American-trained “moderate” rebels had traded 
weapons to al-Nusra in exchange for safe passage into Syria: “Good. I 
hope they use it to blast the Syrian military to hell.”

As some of you may know, I have little use for Twitter except as a place 
to forward links to my blog. It is simply impossible to express complex 
ideas in 140 characters. My tweet was nothing much more than a wisecrack 
but some like Jacobin’s David Mizner interpreted it as me “celebrating 
the delivery of US arms to Al Qaeda.”

For Mizner, Patrick Higgins, Adam Johnson, Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn 
and David Bromwich, there is a prima facie basis for lumping all those 
who fight against Assad as “jihadist”. Since the FSA has collaborated 
with al-Nusra against the Baathist military, this is proof positive that 
it is an accessory after the fact. Of course, you will find no 
acknowledgement in all of their writings that the FSA and al-Nusra have 
done more to combat ISIS until the more recent period. In a May 2015 
al-Monitor article, the conflict between Nusra and ISIS was clearly 
established:

	Several areas of West Qalamoun have been witnessing since two days, a 
fierce wave of raids conducted by Jabhat al-Nusra against IS strongholds 
and checkpoints, and clashes erupted between both groups.

	As a result of the campaign, dozens of IS members, including leaders 
and emirs, were arrested. On the first day, about 47 members were 
detained, according to sources.

For many in the Baathist amen corner, there is an incentive to put Nusra 
in the foreground since any identification with al-Qaeda is bound to 
summon up images of 911, bin-Laden, shoe bombers, Sharia law, forced 
wearing of the hijab, bans on smoking and drinking—in other words all 
the things that get the vigilant attention of Richard Dawkins, Bill 
Maher, and Christopher Hitchens when he was alive.

full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/10/05/a-closer-look-at-jabhat-al-nusra/