Syria Still Struggling

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “A Year In, Deep Divisions Hobble Syria’s Opposition,” shows just some of the many difficulties involved in helping the Syrian rebels meet the onslaught of force from President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr. Assad has now resorted to bombing his own cities, including the beleaguered city of Homs, where civilians are struggling to survive. Outrage has grown from other nations including the Arab League, and the United States is also casting about looking for some sort of organization to funnel medical aid and weapons for self-defense.

The problem is that the grassroots activists on the ground have little-to-no connection with the so-called leadership in exile. The largest of these organizations, the Syrian National Council (SNC), only represents about 70 percent of the groups, and it was slow to adapt to the transformation of the movement from peaceful demonstrations to military overthrow of the government.

The mostly helpless Syrian citizens look with scorn at the exile organizations, stating that they are “swanning” from luxury hotel to luxury hotel while the Syrians on the ground are struggling to survive. But even the rebel Syrian military is vastly outnumbered and outgunned, so some way must be found to funnel assistance to them.