Iraqi soldier killed in clash with Syrian rebels

[progree]

3. Yup, its a DEFACTO regional Sunni vs. Shiite war

Last edited Mon Jul 15, 2013, 06:28 PM - Edit history (6)

I was distressed to read how many countries and how many factions inside and outside of Syria were taking sides in the Syrian civil war, and realizing that all the Sunni countries and factions were siding with the rebels, and all the Shiite countries and factions were siding with the regime (Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite which is a Shiite sect. Syria has a Sunni majority).

Iran, Iraq (despite what the article says), Hezbollah, Shiites in Syria supporting the regime. All mostly Shiite.

Saudi Arabia, several Gulf states, Turkey, Iraq's Al-Qaeda affiliate, Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon supporting the rebels. All mostly Sunni.

I suppose this is all coincidence and actually the rebels are all backed by freedom-loving democracy-loving wonderful wonderful people and the other side are a bunch of Dick Cheneys who love dictatorship and oppression. Like the Arab Spring or something.

At first that's how I saw it - wonderful wonderful people throwing off an evil dictatorship. Just like the Sunni v. Shiite civil war in Iraq in 2005-7 or thereabouts wasn't really about Sunnis and Shiites, but rather freedom fighters vs. brutal dictatorship. NOT.

By the way, the mathematical probability that this alignment of factions and countries in the Syrian civil war is just coincidence is less than 1 in 1,000.

I was also impressed by a PBS documentary where they had camera crews embedded in different units of both sides of the Syrian war. A lot of it was the rationalizations by the ordinary fighters for why there were fighting. It was very little about the economy or democracy and freedom of expression and equality for women and all that other goo goo stuff, but almost entirely about those Shia dogs or those Sunni dogs.

Another thing from the documentary was that virtually all the minority sects in Syria back the regime -- not out of love of Assad or his style of government, but out of fear of being dominated by the country's Sunni majority and fearing an imposition of Islamic law by the Sunnis.