[Peace-discuss] US & Syria

[Carl G. Estabrook]

"...the decades-old but escalating struggle against Iran by the US,  
its Nato allies, Israel and the Sunni states of the Middle East. But  
the last few years have shown the limits of effective action against  
Iran, short of war, which, for all the bluster from Washington and Tel  
Aviv, they are wary of fighting. But Syria is a different matter. 'If  
you can't beat Iran, the second best option is to break Syria,' says  
the Iraqi political scientist Ghassan Attiyah, who points out the  
absurdity of Saudi Arabia presenting itself as a defender of human and  
democratic rights in the Middle East.

"The US has been carefully keeping in the background, although one  
senior Arab official says that Damascus had sent emissaries to talk to  
the Americans to see if Washington would ease up on the campaign  
against it. The US price was that Syria must break with Iran, but the  
Syrians were dubious about what exactly they would get in return for  
giving up their sole ally. 'We are being asked to jump into a swimming  
pool with no water in it,' they said.

"The struggle for Syria is the latest arena for the sectarian conflict  
between Sunni and Shia. Its modern origins lie in the Iranian  
revolution of 1979, deepened during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, and  
reached new depths of hatred in Iraq during the Shia-Sunni civil war  
in 2005-07..."

 From <http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-compared-to-syria-the-fall-of-libya-was-a-piece-of-cake-6264952.html 
 >.


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