Syria conflict: Isis marches further into Syria tipping the balance of power in the civil war

 Patrick Cockburn has liked to pretend that there aren't any moderate political forces all along, and that they were being backed to the hilt by Washington and Riyadh all along if they did exist. The truth of course is that they have had miserly support, and despite being the choice of Syrians far more than Assad or ISIS, are in danger because they are the only ones without a supply of weaponry, and Cockburn's opinionating is designed to obscure that at every turn.

 "The recent Isis advances in Syria, following victories in Iraq last month, are altering the balance of power in the whole region. The opposition military forces not aligned with the Syrian government or Isis are being squeezed out of existence, making obsolete the US, British, Saudi and Turkish policy of backing groups hostile to both Assad and Isis."

 Assad never bombed their headquarters in Raqqa. The signs that both Assad and ISIS are interested in fighting the Syrian rebels and not each other would be conveyed by anyone actually reporting news from Syria. Cockburn is trying not to be the complete bullshit merchant that Robert Fisk has turned into, so he concedes a little and obfuscates. The idea that Assad and the Islamic State will fight to the death when there is no competition is as doubtful a proposition as that they are doing it now, but it has been implicit in Cockburn's argument all along: there is no moderate opposition other than a few Western financed tossers in Turkey (who spread propaganda that he's not clear about the faults of), so you've got to lay off Assad or al-Qaida wins. Resembling a poor George Bush impression.

 "The Syrian opposition has always claimed that Isis and Syrian government forces have had a sort of de facto ceasefire and hinted at undercover links. This was mostly propaganda, though regurgitated in Washington, London and Paris, but it is true that since Isis helped to take Minnigh air base north of Aleppo last summer, it has mainly fought other rebel groups. When President Assad and al-Baghdadi do confront each other, the West and its allies will have to decide if they will go on trying to weaken the Syrian government."