See the video here. I was and continue to be very sympathetic to the Syrian people’s uprising against the Ba’ath dictatorship in Syria. But I also agree with Professor Abu Khalil, the “Free Syrian Army,” which is bankrolled by the counter-revolutionary dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has hijacked the uprising. Analysts have also posited that many of these fighters are Salafi veterans of the Iraqi war. What’s more, if you’ve noticed, there has been a gradual upsurge in bombings in Iraq. I fear that with the unraveling of Syria, Salafi fighters are better able to stage al-Qaeda-style bombings both in Syria and in Iraq. In the past, the Ba’ath dictatorship would try to prevent Salafi fighters from going into Iraq to fight the occupation – at least it did so in the latter stages of the war. But now that the regime is disintegrating, you see a corresponding uptick in this style of bombings both in Syria and in Iraq. Syria may well be turning into a staging ground for attacks in Syria and Iraq. This may be the initial stages of a wider war that has long been in the making in the region.
As for regimes exploiting the conflict in Syria for their own benefits, the Persian Gulf countries, the same ones who militarily opposed the nonviolent uprising in Bahrain, are not the only ones making strategic gains in Syria. Take the Israeli military regime as a case in point. Netanyahu won’t stop talking about the Syrian regime’s brutality, as if the regime’s severity in Syria excuses the way in which Israel colonizes the West Bank, lays siege on the Gaza Strip, and generally destroys the Palestinian presence in Palestine. The Syrian regime should be held accountable for its massacres as well as the FSA, and the Israelis are far from excused for their neverending illegal military occupation.
