And the elites wanted us to get involved in this? Thank goodness "We the Unwashed" sounded off: Rebel-on-Rebel Violence Seizes Syria

If you are not familiar with the phrase "We the Unwashed," you owe it to yourself to do so by reading Dick Yarbrough's weekly column.  He is always great, but truly has been on fire lately.

I read him in my local paper which picked him up following the retirement of my friend Bill Shipp, but prior to that read him in the Athens Observer.  You can read the column I am referring to here.  My local paper's -- The Douglas Enterprise -- column entitled his article "Why We the UnWashed Won't Help Either Side in Syria."

Since I posted the below a couple of years ago I am happy to be able to note that I spoken with Mr. Yarbrough.  We still plan to meet at Saint Simons, but haven't connected yet.  I hope we will one of these days.

I wrote the following about Mr. Yarbrough in a 7-27-09 post:

Unfortunately for me, I have never met Dick Yarbrough. I am familiar with his extremely successful journey through life so far and his accomplishments. They are many.

Do we see eye-to-eye on everything? No, but unlike the result when party affiliaton dictates so much as with the late Sen. Jesse Helms, former Rep. Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (whose intellect, unlike his tactics, I respect), being in another party does not mean someone cannot be my friend.

Besides, I admire Dick Yarbrough's writing, his style, his ability to say what I wish I had said.

And know this: Dick Yarbrough is one of us; he understands us. Remarkably, many politicians do not.

One of these days I do hope that our paths will cross.

One of my readers and friends who is wise beyond her years once informed me that "Dick Yarbrough is a great source for understanding southern culture. I'm not saying you have to agree with him, but understanding him is key."
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From The Wall Street Journal:

An al Qaeda spinoff operating near Aleppo, Syria's largest city, last week began a new battle campaign it dubbed "Expunging Filth."

The target wasn't their avowed enemy, the Syrian government. Instead, it was their nominal ally, the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army.

Across northern and eastern Syria, units of the jihadist group known as ISIS are seizing territory—on the battlefield and behind the front lines—from Western-backed rebels.

Some FSA fighters now consider the extremists to be as big a threat to their survival as the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

 

"It's a three-front war," a U.S. official said of the FSA rebels' fight: They face the Assad regime, forces from its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, and now the multinational jihadist ranks of ISIS.
 

Brigade leaders of the FSA say that ISIS, an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit whose formal name is the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, has dragged them into a battle they are ill-equipped to fight.
 

Some U.S. officials said they see it as a battle for the FSA's survival.
 

In recent months, ISIS has become a magnet for foreign jihadists who view the war in Syria not primarily as a means to overthrow the Assad regime but rather as a historic battleground for a larger Sunni holy war. According to centuries-old Islamic prophecy they espouse, they must establish an Islamic state in Syria as a step to achieving a global one.
 

Al Qaeda militants from central command in Pakistan and Pakistani Taliban fighters have also set up operational bases in northern Syria, people familiar with their operations said.
 

The spread of ISIS illustrates the failure of Western-backed Syrian moderates to establish authority in opposition-held parts of Syria, some of which have been under rebel control for over a year.
 

The proliferation of the Sunni jihadists and extremists has brought a new type of terror to the lives of many Syrians who have endured civil war in the north. Summary executions of Alawites and Shiites, who are seen as apostates, attacks on Shiite shrines, and kidnappings and assassinations of pro-Western rebels are on the rise.