Al-Qaeda in Syria

by Farid Ghadry

The events unfolding in Syria over the last 12 months have led anyone with their uncles to meddle into its affairs. But one meddler we can do without are the inescapable tentacles of Islamic terror, which, now that it is obvious the west is not about to stop Assad from killing, may plant new and dangerous roots in Syria no one, including a weak Assad, will be able to stop.

The worst part is the very western policies for Syria that have created the conditions for extreme Islam and awakened a gigantic religious conflict are the same reasons western policy makers are citing today not to arm the Syrian opposition.

To many, al-Zawahiri’s pronouncement of support for the Syrian Revolution provided an opportunity for Assad to scare the west with. This begs the question: What did the west expect will happen if it just kept to the sidelines and never even moved a finger to help Syrians defend themselves with real weapons? Syrians that view this war as Alawites killing Sunnis (2m Arab Alawites vs. 250m Arab Sunnis)? That somehow this conflict will have no dangerous consequences for the region? Did Bahrain not ring that alarm for a wake-up call but instead of helping its citizens, the west just let Saudi Arabia stifle their liberties, which only stoked further the regional religious war coming?

The US is viewing the al-Zawahiri message in terms of al-Qaeda planting roots in Syria when it should look at his interference in terms of their shortcoming to help the Syrian opposition free Syria from Assad. This goes to show that the Obama administration and the Assad regime are engaged in a friendly game of tennis with each making the other partner’s job easier to explain through either apathy or massacres.

The best planned wars can produce bad losses as much as the best planned diplomatic efforts can produce even worse losses. If Iraq went awry, as the Democrats so claimed, their diplomatic masterpiece in Syria is about to produce the worst losses ever in the region. Iraq will be a cakewalk as compared to Syria because US apathy towards Assad has already sparked a Sunni-Shiite war capable of consuming the whole region.

Why is it that the worst enemies of the US always come to power during the term of a liberal US President? Khomeini under Carter, the Muslim Brotherhood and keeping Iran strong by letting Assad off-the-hook under Obama? What is the use of killing Bin Laden if your policies just opened the door for his replacement while simultaneously paralyzing US military capabilities?”

The US contained the Iraq-Iranian war and it had total control of Desert Storm and the Liberation of Iraq. But who will control this new religious war capable of destroying the whole region? Its repercussions from West N. Africa to the eastern shores of the Near East will send one tremor after another rippling all the way to Foggy Bottom. It will touch everyone and every economy in the Near East.

Syria has become a cesspool of violence and death ushering the possibility for a regional religious war. If the west wanted to destabilize the region any further, it could not have done a better job.

The worst part? The next president of the US will have no choice but to send US troops to the region because the cancer of Islamic terror will simply get out of control.

Do you really think Sunnis will just be obedient to al-Saud or abide by any 9/11 instituted laws in the Kingdom? Do you think young Arab Muslims will just turn a blind eye to Assad? Or their imams will not take advantage of the opportunity to harden few souls? Extremism in the region just got a shot in the arm thanks to Obama.

So kudos to all those who stood by watching Syria bleed to death. You have just facilitated a religious war no one will be able to escape and added another $2trillion worth of US debt to save $10billion.

Farid Ghadry

Source: http://ghadry.com/2012/03/02/al-qaeda-in-syria/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.