[dabigv13]

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/wh...i-9b157eff

Not sure if I posted this yet. Profile on Jawlani.

Born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, he adopted the nom de guerre of Jawlani, a reference to his family’s roots in the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. The militant leader broke with Islamic State in 2012. He cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016, and since then he has fought both organizations in bloody campaigns. 

In doing so, he steered the HTS away from the transnational jihadist movement that is more interested in waging war on America and the West—and that sees national borders in the Muslim world as an artificial construct imposed by the infidel colonialists.

“His and his group’s break with Islamic State and al Qaeda is very genuine. They haven’t been part of these entities longer than they were with them, and it’s now been essentially 8½ years that they have forsworn global jihad,” said Aaron Zelin, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of a recent book on HTS.

Instead, Jawlani has turned HTS—which has run a statelet of its own in Syria’s northern Idlib province since 2015—into a well-disciplined force that focuses squarely on Syria, a blend of Islamism and nationalism that is closer to Afghanistan’s Taliban and the Palestinian Hamas. Instead of the banner of Islam, HTS troops choose to fight under the Syrian flag that dates back to the republic that existed before the 1963 Baath Party revolution that eventually brought the Assad family to power.

They seem to so far be living up to their promise of tolerance, though early days. The more firmly Turkish backed SNA seems to be making trouble with the Kurds however.

All of these guys are better than Assad. It might be wise for the US to more forcefully support the rebels with air strikes against certain Assadist targets. It looks like the rebels will win, wouldn't hurt to have some influence there. But reticence to more deeply involve ourselves in a middle east conflict is understandable given our history.

[dabigv13]

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/wh...i-9b157eff

Not sure if I posted this yet. Profile on Jawlani.

Born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, he adopted the nom de guerre of Jawlani, a reference to his family’s roots in the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. The militant leader broke with Islamic State in 2012. He cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016, and since then he has fought both organizations in bloody campaigns. 

In doing so, he steered the HTS away from the transnational jihadist movement that is more interested in waging war on America and the West—and that sees national borders in the Muslim world as an artificial construct imposed by the infidel colonialists.

“His and his group’s break with Islamic State and al Qaeda is very genuine. They haven’t been part of these entities longer than they were with them, and it’s now been essentially 8½ years that they have forsworn global jihad,” said Aaron Zelin, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of a recent book on HTS.

Instead, Jawlani has turned HTS—which has run a statelet of its own in Syria’s northern Idlib province since 2015—into a well-disciplined force that focuses squarely on Syria, a blend of Islamism and nationalism that is closer to Afghanistan’s Taliban and the Palestinian Hamas. Instead of the banner of Islam, HTS troops choose to fight under the Syrian flag that dates back to the republic that existed before the 1963 Baath Party revolution that eventually brought the Assad family to power.

They seem to so far be living up to their promise of tolerance, though early days. The more firmly Turkish backed SNA seems to be making trouble with the Kurds however.

All of these guys are better than Assad. It might be wise for the US to more forcefully support the rebels with air strikes against certain Assadist targets. It looks like the rebels will win, wouldn't hurt to have some influence there. But reticence to more deeply involve ourselves in a middle east conflict is understandable given our history.