“Gas is a sickening weapon. Yet, there is no evidence thus far that Assad ordered its use. Rebel elements are said to have been found with sarin. As for Americans who tend to prefer white phosphorus, napalm and cluster bombs, upon what lofty moral ground do we stand?”
http://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2013/09/03/no-syrian-war-to-save-obamas-face/
“An unclassified version of a French intelligence report on Syria that was released Monday hardly cleared things up; France confirmed only 281 fatalities…t is harder to sell a war of choice to the American public and to Congress if the death toll is 281, or 350, than if it is 1,429, “including 426 children.””
http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/09/03/is-the-death-count-in-syrias-sarin-attack-phony/
“A co-ordinated wave of bombings tore through Shia Muslim areas in and around the Iraqi capital early today, part of a wave of bloodshed that has killed at least 66 people”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/wave-of-bombings-in-baghdad-leaves-66-dead-8788436.html
“At least 60 people have been killed in a series of car bomb attacks and shootings in mainly Shia districts of Iraq’s capital Baghdad,”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23949659
The situation in Iraq is crazy. Since the beginning of this year more than 3800 people have died in Iraq, almost all regular shiites. The jihadists responsible for these crimes mostly target markets in shiite neighbourhoods and shiite mosques. It is hardly to believe that the reasons for these killings are not just sectarian, just because some fashists think that all shiites are infidels and deserve to be killed.
The rise of the killings is highly connected with what happens in Syria. The unconditional support of shiite hating jihadists in Syria by Saudi Arabia and Katar with weapons leads to a higher flow of these same weapons and jihadists to Iraq were they contribute in killing innocent people just because they do not accept them having another faith.
The patience of the Iraqi shiites who build the majority of the country and still hold back with retaliating is in my oppinion just impreessing. Unfortunatley the jihadist fashists seem to not reconsider their approach, and news agencies like Al Jazeera (that now officially is owned by the king of Katar) and other arabic language agencies do not stop encouraging this poisonous sectarianism that has till now only served external powers aims in the region. Playing off Shiites and Sunnis served US interests as a “divide and conquer” strategy in the uprising following to the invasion of Iraq. What was seen as the success of George W. Bush’s “Surge” was more the success of this divide & conquer strategy.
What was a “good” shortterm strategy for the US army in Iraq, is now endangering the whole region more than ever. What is happening in Pakistan and Iraq is almost a genocide. Still the world does not want to pay attention as it did not pay attention when shiite iran was attacked daily with chemical weapons.
To serve its partners, the gulf states (the biggest importers of US weapons) and to hurt it’s “enemy” Iran, the U.S., is helping the same Jihadists (Al Qaida) that attacked the U.S. on 9/11 to gain more power in the region.
This strategy seems to be made up because of the current situation but was actually described by the award winning Journalist of the New Yorker Seymour Hersh in 2007:
http://radioyaran100words.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/seymour-hersh-revealing-saudi-american-anti-shiaanti-iran-plans-back-in-2007/