Monday, December 23, 2013

local governance of Syrian rebels

"As Vassar College's Zachariah Mampilly pointed out, rebels have a strong political incentive to demonstrate that they can provide services and stability in areas they control -- while the regime has just as strong a reason to undermine those efforts through indiscriminate rocket fire, denial of humanitarian aid, and other seemingly irrational military acts."  Oh, quite the contrary.  The rebels have been able to show us the features of their future government by establishing Shari`ah courts and councils in all "liberated" areas.  Of course, unlike the regime, the rebels only use "rational" military acts.

PS Rational military acts are those that are consistent with US foreign policies. Irrational are those that are inconsistent.