As news emerged this week that the Free Syria Army (FSA) was harboring vendettas against Lebanon's Hezbollah and threatening to expand its battlefield to another country, some could no longer ignore the sneaking suspicion that things were not quite right with Syria's opposition. The crisis-ridden country's best bet out of the regime's stranglehold was starting to give off a stench of something rotten about the state of the FSA, and more widely, the Syrian National Council (SNC).
Complaints were piling up against the amateurish rebel group, who displayed a record of less than exemplary conduct, war crimes and motivations that undermined their clean cause to challenge Assad's regime.
"But to equate the mistakes of FSA fringes with Assad's systematic killing machine is outrageous" tweeted one voice, reminding us that while doing down the opposition, one shoud not forget who they were up against: the historically repressive and brutal killing regime of the Assad family.
Yet they were doing a fine enough job of doing themelves down, and out of, the role for viable alternative to the regime and future leaders of what was turning into a very dirty revolution.
Accusations levelled at the SNC included the charge of jumping in bed with fanatics, and playing into the hands of foreign jihadi or salafist agents, as well as committing summary executions of civilians and public figures.
It wasn't long before people were questioning the legitimacy of the FSA - the military wing of the rebel opposition- who were coming a cropper with every new reported incident of looting, civilian abuse and
dead body hurled off a roof top. In this cross-section, above, of their worst bits, a picture emerges of them as hardly the paragons of virtue for a better Syria.
Who was running the show and had it been hijacked by less credible groups of scattered agendas? It is tempting to hold the opposition to higher standards than the status quo since they represent a hope of turnig their back on the old already familiar rotten regime.
Internally displaced civilians are now pleadig with members of the opposition to spare them the violence that they fully expect them to leave behind. No different to the brutal crackdown of the President, really.
What do you think? FSA or bust? Where should Syria rest it's hopes now? Is there still a chance to repair the FSA and preen them for leadership?
