Syrian civilians who volunteered to join local Self Protection Units to protect their neighborhoods alongside the Syrian army attend training near a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, the late former president Hafez al-Assad, near Damascus on Dec. 5. (Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)
Washington Post: The Syrian military has thousands of deserters. New research tells us why they left
The recent series of attacks by the Islamic State in the Sinai, Beirut and Paris could well be a game changer in how the international community deals with the Syrian conflict. And yet, the Islamic State and other extremist groups are only one side of a more complex conflict pattern in the Syrian civil war. The regime of Bashar al-Assad is blamed not only for indiscriminate repression of an initially Arab-Spring-like popular uprising, but also for the vast majority of casualties, both among civilian and opposition fighters. That the regime could rely on loyal security security forces to confront the uprising and continues to do so in the context of the ongoing civil war thus significantly shaped the course of the crisis. Yet loyalty and disloyalty in the Syrian military remain poorly understood.
WNU Editor: Why do Syrian soldiers desert .... no surprises in this report .... we have covered it more than once in this blog. But it is a good summary on why soldiers desert the Syrian military .... and why rebel groups like the Islamic State are able to recruit Syrian fighters to their cause.
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