The Game Changer in Syria

IVAW, we need to be alert.  The US decision today to officially send arms to the Syrian rebels, who are from various factions and no one really know who they are,  has a lot to do with the fact that government forces are reclaiming grounds lost to these rebels. This opens up a whole new can of worms! The US has been tacitly supporting the rebels via Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Turkey, a NATO member, has also been giving aid to rebel forces and has supplied them with arms. Hezbollah has entered the mix to ensure their survival. If Damascus falls their lifeline goes with it which means standing up to the Israeli military will be difficult in the future. Israel has not forgotten it’s lost to Hezbollah a few years back and will strike the minute it feels the organization is weak. With the fall of Assad, Iran looses an ally in Arabia, the Russians loses its foothold in the Middle East, China looses a partner that is not under US control in the region, and the US completes hegemony in what many call the most vital strategic place on earth. It is the hope in Washington that with the fall of Damascus, Tehran will follow.  So, Syria is just a stepping stone for something else. Let’s not forget, that since its independence from France, Syria has been a multicultural, multi religious, secular socialist state. The current sectarian strife seems to be more by design and manipulated from abroad for political reasons. Also, Syria was the first place that the newly created CIA orchestrated its first coup in 1949 to oust a democratically elected government. The 'crossing the red line' rhetoric looks more like a ruse by the right and left hawks in Washington, who are so drunk on war that to them every problem is an opportunity to show off the US military war machine. They have completely ignored the recent UN findings that states that there are no confirming data to suggest that chemicals have been used in the battlefield and continue to push their claim of chemical weapons being employed by the Assad regime. To me, the situation in Syria looks awful a lot like Spain in 1936 and not just an isolated case where people are standing up to tyranny.  And just like the Spanish civil war of '36, where it was an orgy of competing interests among foreign powers intervening in Spain's internal affairs, and a prelude for a second world war, the outside actors of today are playing with fire the same way they did back then.