Hello dear reader,
My name is not not important. But the subject matter of my blog is. Today, the Middle East stands on the brink of oblivion. From Iraq to Egypt, the fires of sectarianism are burning. Sunnis and Shi'a, on and off again enemies for over a thousand years since the death the fourth Khalif, Ali, now stand opposed to one another on a national scale in way they have not stood for hundreds of years, and armed with all of the weapons of the modern age, each side allied with different global power blocks. In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and now even Egypt blood has been spilled in increasingly disturbing amounts over the question of sect. Why?
More than two years ago, a revolution started in Syria, Carrying forward the momentum of the "Arab Spring" from Tunis and Egypt, this revolution promised to the people of Syria a freer future without the reign of the tyrannical Bashar Al-Asad and his Ba'ath party. More than two years later, Asad is still president of Syria and his country is embroiled in a brutal civil war which can only recall the black memories of the worst days of the US's war on Iraq in 2007, when Sunni and Shi'a militias (often with US/puppet government backing) rampaged through the streets of Baghdad and Iraq's other metropolises, murdering thousands of people a month. The vile propaganda which this has spread, and the international scope of the Sunni response, has sparked sectarian killings even in places where few Shi'a exist such as Egypt. Iraq and Lebanon are once again looking down the terrifying barrel of civil war and sectarian mayhem, and the rest of the Middle East (and the world) is bracing itself for the fallout of the radical Sunni extremist ideology which this is sure to release.
So why is this important to you, my dear reader, who is most likely neither Arab, nor Sunni, nor Shi'a, nor an inhabitant of the Middle East? The simple answer is that because if you are a Westerner or, particularly, an American you are entangled in not only the results but the causes of this fractious conflict. Only two weeks ago, after immense pressure from the like of US Senator John McCain and like minded hawks, US President Barack Obama pledged open material support of the Syrian Sunni rebel forces, the so-called "Free Syrian Army." Despite the misgivings of US leaders, such as Senator Rand Paul, and US citizens, who are more than 60% opposed to providing aide to the rebels, who believe that the aide will end up helping extremist groups such as the dangerous Jubhat-al-Nusra and Ahrar Ash-Shams (violent Sunni "takfiri" groups which have executed civilians, beheaded Christian priests, carried out suicide bombings against non-military targets, eaten the hearts of dead Syrian soldiers, and massacred entire Shi'ite villages), the US will now be arming and training in an official manner the FSA, a rag-tag assortment of different groups with varying ideologies which despite being in existence for almost two years has completely failed to form and cohesive command and leadership structure. Less than a month before Obama's announcement, the EU had already announced that it would allow arms sales to the FSA.
Despite the obvious dangers of arming the rebels, the US, Western, and Gulf media (think Aljazeera) continue to portray supporting them as a moral imperative, offering the more popular view (at least in the US and Western Europe) that the rebels are a dangerous band of Islamic extremists at least as bad as the government only as maverick "opinion" for the sake of appearing unbiased. The goal of this blog will be to highlight certain pieces of news media, in English and Arabic, from both mainstream Gulf and Western sources as well as from Shi'ite, Syrian government, Russian, and alternative sources, in order to provide the reader with a more clear and balanced view of the present war. As every source of course has its own biases, I will offer up my own commentary in an attempt (however ineffectual) to elucidate points which I believe are being lost in the "fog of war." I hope you find my selections and commentary to be edifying and illuminating, and I hope that they clarify your view of this very important issue and allow you to make better decisions about who you support in your government in relation to this important issue. Thank you.
My name is not not important. But the subject matter of my blog is. Today, the Middle East stands on the brink of oblivion. From Iraq to Egypt, the fires of sectarianism are burning. Sunnis and Shi'a, on and off again enemies for over a thousand years since the death the fourth Khalif, Ali, now stand opposed to one another on a national scale in way they have not stood for hundreds of years, and armed with all of the weapons of the modern age, each side allied with different global power blocks. In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and now even Egypt blood has been spilled in increasingly disturbing amounts over the question of sect. Why?
More than two years ago, a revolution started in Syria, Carrying forward the momentum of the "Arab Spring" from Tunis and Egypt, this revolution promised to the people of Syria a freer future without the reign of the tyrannical Bashar Al-Asad and his Ba'ath party. More than two years later, Asad is still president of Syria and his country is embroiled in a brutal civil war which can only recall the black memories of the worst days of the US's war on Iraq in 2007, when Sunni and Shi'a militias (often with US/puppet government backing) rampaged through the streets of Baghdad and Iraq's other metropolises, murdering thousands of people a month. The vile propaganda which this has spread, and the international scope of the Sunni response, has sparked sectarian killings even in places where few Shi'a exist such as Egypt. Iraq and Lebanon are once again looking down the terrifying barrel of civil war and sectarian mayhem, and the rest of the Middle East (and the world) is bracing itself for the fallout of the radical Sunni extremist ideology which this is sure to release.
So why is this important to you, my dear reader, who is most likely neither Arab, nor Sunni, nor Shi'a, nor an inhabitant of the Middle East? The simple answer is that because if you are a Westerner or, particularly, an American you are entangled in not only the results but the causes of this fractious conflict. Only two weeks ago, after immense pressure from the like of US Senator John McCain and like minded hawks, US President Barack Obama pledged open material support of the Syrian Sunni rebel forces, the so-called "Free Syrian Army." Despite the misgivings of US leaders, such as Senator Rand Paul, and US citizens, who are more than 60% opposed to providing aide to the rebels, who believe that the aide will end up helping extremist groups such as the dangerous Jubhat-al-Nusra and Ahrar Ash-Shams (violent Sunni "takfiri" groups which have executed civilians, beheaded Christian priests, carried out suicide bombings against non-military targets, eaten the hearts of dead Syrian soldiers, and massacred entire Shi'ite villages), the US will now be arming and training in an official manner the FSA, a rag-tag assortment of different groups with varying ideologies which despite being in existence for almost two years has completely failed to form and cohesive command and leadership structure. Less than a month before Obama's announcement, the EU had already announced that it would allow arms sales to the FSA.
Despite the obvious dangers of arming the rebels, the US, Western, and Gulf media (think Aljazeera) continue to portray supporting them as a moral imperative, offering the more popular view (at least in the US and Western Europe) that the rebels are a dangerous band of Islamic extremists at least as bad as the government only as maverick "opinion" for the sake of appearing unbiased. The goal of this blog will be to highlight certain pieces of news media, in English and Arabic, from both mainstream Gulf and Western sources as well as from Shi'ite, Syrian government, Russian, and alternative sources, in order to provide the reader with a more clear and balanced view of the present war. As every source of course has its own biases, I will offer up my own commentary in an attempt (however ineffectual) to elucidate points which I believe are being lost in the "fog of war." I hope you find my selections and commentary to be edifying and illuminating, and I hope that they clarify your view of this very important issue and allow you to make better decisions about who you support in your government in relation to this important issue. Thank you.
