Syria Debate: Does the "Free Syrian Army" Exist? (Lund and Debeuf)
Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 6:01 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran General Salim Idriss, head of the insurgent Supreme Military Council, addresses Syrian expatriates, 24 February 2013
One of the themes in our daily coverage of Syria is the state of the insurgency, from the ideology and organisation of different factions to the supply of weapons to the efforts to declare an umbrella leadership such as the "Free Syrian Army".
Last week, Aron Lund brought these issues into stark relief with a post on Syria Comment questioning if one could even speak of an FSA. Days later, Koert Debeuf replied on the website with a vigorous defence of a leading group directing the
EA's James Miller comments:
Lund made some important points in his initial article. To criticise it by saying that it was an oversimplification would be unfair. After all, nothing is more complex than the "Free Syrian Army", and Lund has produced an impressively concise summary.
Debeuf, however, makes a more important point. The "Free Syrian Army" has never had any meaning more than it does todayinsurgency.
The opening and closing sections of the Lund and Debeuf articles....