Repeat verse, same as the first. Again, as in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria..... I. told. you. so.
And still the West self-deceives on the jihadic doctrine, the bedrock of Islam.
"Islamists Gain Momentum in Syria" Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2013
After U.S. Efforts to Bolster Moderates and Subdue Extremists, Terrorist-Designated Group Gains Ground
BEIRUT—Extremists intent on establishing an Islamist state in Syria have gained power within the rebel insurgency, while moderates have lost clout since moves by Washington late last year aimed at the opposite result, U.S. officials and rebel fighters say.
On the eve of the most recent gathering of the Friends of Syria international opposition support group in December, the Obama administration designated Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization, and on the same day, officially endorsed the moderate face of the rebellion, the umbrella Syrian Opposition Coalition.
Around the same time, the administration stepped back from the hotly debated idea of arming the rebels, partly out of concern the weapons would fall into extremists' hands.
Power Shift
How rebel fortunes turned
Dec. 7, 2012 Free Syrian Army meets in Turkey, renaming itself the Supreme Military Council. In the days that follow, Islamist rebels also meet in Turkey, forming Syrian Islamic Front coalition and discussing political goals
Dec. 11 President Barack Obama publicly endorses Syrian Opposition Coalition as 'legitimate representative of the Syrian people.' U.S. designates Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist group.
Dec. 12 Friends of Syria group recognizes Syrian Opposition Coalition.
Jan. 11, 2013 Jabhat al-Nusra fighters take over the Taftanaz air base in Idlib, one of largest in northern Syria.
Feb. 10 Islamist coalition leads the takeover of Tabqa dam, giving them control over power supply in east and north.
Feb. 12 Jabhat al-Nusra fighters take over the Jarrah airfield outside Aleppo.
Feb. 27 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says U.S. is devising new ways to hasten the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Feb. 28 Friends of Syria to meet in Rome.
As the Friends of Syria prepares to meet again in Rome on Thursday with renewed hopes of accelerating the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Islamist fighters, working in a newly formed coalition, have been behind some of the most dramatic assaults.
Jabhat al-Nusra fighters after seizing the Taftanaz air base in January
In the two months since the U.S. designation of Jabhat al-Nusra, the group's fighters took control of one of the Taftanaz air base in Idlib, one of largest government air bases in northern Syria, where they seized tanks, helicopters and ammunition. They also took over the Jarrah airfield outside Aleppo, which gave them access to dozens of warplanes, according to rebels who took part in those battles.
In northern Syria, the Syrian Islamic Front coalition, alongside Jabhat al-Nusra fighters backed by Tunisian, Libyan, Iraqi and Chechen jihadists, continue to score the biggest gains, rebels and U.S. officials said.
The Islamist coalition led the takeover of Syria's largest dam this month, giving them control over the electricity supply to the rebel-held east and north.
Jabhat al-Nusra, with its own fighters and the foreigners it has attracted, is now seen as the most powerful force in these rebel areas, along the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
"The Syrian conflict is going to be as big, if not bigger, than Afghanistan was in the 1980s in terms of mobilizing jihadi fighters," said Aaron Zelin, an expert on jihadist groups at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Jabhat al-Nusra, which the U.S. said is an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, has built a field hospital in Aleppo, even as the secular, civilian-led Aleppo Transitional Military Council says it has struggled to raise funds to do relief work.
Jabhat al-Nusra has also established a civil-works office and runs bakeries in what local residents said has become the most efficient bread-distribution network in the city. The Syrian Islamic Front, meanwhile, has opened up civil reconstruction and education branches.
Factions of the coalition are also carrying out attacks on checkpoints and government buildings around Damascus, according to fighters in and around the capital.
Jihadists have grown in strength since foreign fighters began arriving in Syria in late 2011, experts tracking the insurgency and rebels said.
But a significant shift in the balance of power among insurgents came in December 2012, after President Barack Obama, and then the international Friends of Syria group, recognized the moderate Syrian Opposition Coalition as representative of the Syrian people.
That month, a few days after the military wing of the moderate coalition met in the Turkish resort town of Antalya to reorganize under a new chief-of-staff, Islamist factions convened a rival meeting to the south, in Turkey's Hatay province, according to Islamists who organized the rival meeting.
The Antalya meeting saw the rebirth of the Free Syrian Army—now renamed the Supreme Military Council—a group of senior military defectors and their battalions that is effectively the military wing of the Syrian Opposition Council.
