” The crisis in Syria may appear to be no more or less than a civil war in a country many people would struggle to place on a map.
But it’s much more than that: it is rapidly becoming a sectarian struggle for power that is bleeding across the Middle East, with the potential to engulf the entire region in a deadly power struggle between two bitterly opposed Muslim ideologies, Sunni and Shia.
Already, the war inside Syria has resulted in 93,000 dead and 1.6 million refugees, with millions more displaced internally. And those figures are escalating rapidly amid reports of appalling atrocities on both sides.”
The history of strife between the two factions of Islam goes back nearly 1400 years and is not likely to be solved by a meddling west .
” Sadly, it is an all too familiar story in a religious conflict that dates back to the 7th century.
After the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632AD, there were four candidates vying to succeed him.
One group, which would become the Shia (or Shi’ite) sect, favoured the claims of the Prophet’s grandson Ali, but he was passed over three times before eventually taking on the mantle, only to then be assassinated.
An irrevocable split between the Shia — which is run by a clerical hierarchy — and the group that became the Sunnis came after a battle in 680, when Ali’s grandson was killed.
Today, in Syria and across the Middle East, the divide is a gulf in which theology plays an important role.”
This situation is all the argument one needs to follow George Washington’s sage advice :
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in
extending our commercial relations to have as little political
connection as possible… Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of
any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalships, interest, humor, or caprice?… It is our
true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of
the foreign world.”
Of course George’s quote mentions Europe by name and leaves out the middle east but that is only because at the time the middle east was of no great consequence in the matter of foreign affairs .
Today is really no different . If it wasn’t for oil nobody in the West would give a second thought to whether the Muslims wanted to spend their time killing each other . As a matter of fact , from the West’s point of view as long as they are killing each other they are too busy to be killing us .
Let us begin to exploit the newly found energy reserves discovered in our own territories , achieve much needed energy independence and abandon the Arabs and Persians to their own chosen orgy of death .
—
