A day after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared that a No-Fly Zone for Syria is not on the front burner, a fighting unit in Deir El-Zoor in Syria, headed by a fighter named Abu Allawi, downed a Syrian MIG-23 and captured its pilot. This was the first jet to be downed by the rebels in the long 18-months revolution. The news echoed around the world.
In the aftermath, Abu Allawi declared that al-Muhassan (موØسن), the area over which the MIG was downed, is now a No-Fly Zone.
Syrians know how to take care of themselves when cornered and they certainly know how to adapt to the harsh environment rendered more so by the ineptitude of leaders unwilling to lift a humanitarian finger between Golf outings, trail speeches, and cocktails parties.
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