Why the West is wrong to support the Syrian rebels

The Syrian civil war has reached its nadir with rebel groups using sarin against fighters of the Syrian army. Whilst Assad's regime is also nothing short of cruel and inhumane treatment of the civilian population, given the horrendous level of brutality meted out by the rebel fighters, it is time for the West to disengage from this conflict.

The latest incidence of a Syrian rebel fighter committing gratuitous violence to a body of a Syrian soldier is just one in a long list reflecting the Islamist radicalisation of the rebel forces with strong sectarian undertones. It seems to me that Russia has been right all along to insist that arming the rebel forces is tantamount to arming the most extremist wing of Islamism. Anybody who hopes that the sectarian hatred which has become second nature to the rebel forces bodes well for a liberated Syria is mistaken.

We should remember that Syria can never be Iraq, not least because no Western country, including the US, would ever want to commit ground troops to police a post-Assad Syria. That leaves one brutalised faction of Syria against another in the current scenario. It is time Western powers pull back from the brink and cease their support for the Islamist extremist rebel forces.