Commander of a unit of the elite Republican Guard defects to Paris as Syrian Ship of Assad is sinking?

Syria 'defector' heading to Paris : A Syrian general from a powerful family close to President Bashar al-Assad has defected and is on his way to Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said. Mr Fabius described it as a "hard blow for the regime" that showed Mr Assad's entourage was beginning to realise the regime was unsustainable. Brig Gen Manaf Tlas fled Syria via Turkey, his family confirmed.

"[Mr Assad's] close entourage is beginning to understand that the regime is unsustainable," he added. "Even those close to Assad have begun to understand that one cannot support a slaughterer like Bashar al-Assad." Brig Gen Tlas, believed to be in his mid-40s, is a commander of a unit of the elite Republican Guard. As a young man he attended military training with President Assad. For decades, the Tlas family has given support to the Assad family, helping to ensure Bashar al-Assad's succession to the presidency 12 years ago. Despite Syrian efforts to make this appear insignificant this is huge and proves the Syrian Ship of Assad is sinking!

The defection of a Syrian general who is a personal friend of President Bashar al-Assad gave a huge boost to anti-government rebels as Western and Arab states met them in Paris on Friday to help prise Assad from power. In some of the strongest U.S. remarks yet on a crisis that has divided the United Nations Security Council along Cold War lines, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Paris conference that Russia and China must "pay a price" for blocking U.N. sanctions that might press Assad into stepping down.

As she spoke, Manaf Tlas, a brigade commander in the Republican Guard who attended military college with Assad and fled to Turkey this week, was on his way to Paris, where his father, Assad's father's defense minister, has also taken up residence, a close family friend told Reuters. There was no immediate sign that Tlas would throw in his lot with the rebels and an opposition source said he had no plans to attend Friday's meeting. But his defection is the clearest signal yet that some in Assad's inner circle think his days in power are numbered, as an uprising that began in March 2011 with a groundswell of peaceful protest turns into a civil war with strong sectarian overtones.

Syrian soldiers are being killed and defecting in larger and larger numbers causing the Military to lose morale. Think about the large scale slaughtering of civilians seemingly sanctioned by China, Russia, and Iran with their keeping the West from helping the people and their supplying of arms and ammunition and high tech weapons to slaughter them and as we are led to think, be used to keep foreign Nations from interfering with what has developed into a civil war thanks to Assad.

You have to be more concerned than ever about the huge "wide spread land air and sea military "exercise" Iran, Syria, Russia, and China are preparing for in July. Putin may back Assad's removal or Assad may be killed otherwise he and the Alawite's and their allies are going no where. Russia just sent in marines and 2 war ships to Syria to supposedly aid in evacuation of necessary. Russia and China are not going to allow themselves to be kicked out of Syria as would be the case if the opposition gained power.

Likewise, there is also no way Iran is going to let her ally and guard 'Syria" fall to the opposition or more pointedly Democracy and US and Western influence. With that said Iran, Russia, China to stage massive joint military drill in Syria: Iran, Russia, China and Syria are planning to hold joint military drill in Syria in early July, according to a report published Tuesday morning by Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.

Citing "informed sources," Fars reported that the four countries will conduct war games on land and at sea, with the participation of some 90,000 soldiers, 1,000 tanks and 400 aircraft. According to the sources, Egypt has agreed to allow 12 Chinese warships passage through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria. Iranian battleships and submarines, along with Russian nuclear submarines, warships, aircraft carriers and mine-clearing destroyers will also participate in the exercise.

This is no frigging game, this is no frigging joke. Under the guise of a war game I do not believe we have a choice but we are preparing to allow the 4 players to set up and have on station all the military equipment, hardware, and personnel, they will need when this "blows" even if they instigate it when "dragged into this" because "free Syrian Army" attacked one of their interests.

Any way you look at it, 1000 tanks, 400 aircraft, 90000 soldiers, 12 Chinese war ships, that is not an exercise that is a task force a staying force. If the Government somehow falls there is no way in hell that Russia and China are just going to go home and sulk. They are going to stay whether the people like it or not and make this their stand in the middle east.

Putin and China have had enough. They are going to make a stand. If you have not noticed they have chosen to make it here on the backs of the Syrian people. I do not like what I see! Syria is China and Russia's last real foot hold in the middle east they and Iran are not going to give this up easily. This is going to take a hell of a long and deadly fight. I fully expect Russia and China to be drawn into this and then the entire middle east will take sides and of course it will be blamed on us. I hope we can avert WW3 but I would not bet on it!



James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com