Thursday, August 22, 2013

Where to with the Arab spring?

Seems that 1300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in a Damascus suburb by some sort of chemical attack, possibly a nerve agent like sarin. Western media have immediately blamed the regime of Bashar al-Assad but they cannot explain why the regime would want to use chemical weapons when a UN team is in Syria to investigate past attacks, albeit with a very restricted mandate. On the other hand it is entirely possible that some rebel group, maybe linked to Al Qaeda, such as the Jabhat al-Nusra, is responsible. Ever since the fall of al-Qusayr to the Hezbollah in April the regime has been making progress as they have been able to link Damascus to their western strongholds in Tartus and Latakia. The rebels, on the other hand, have become fragmented and are fighting with each other and also have access to chemical weapons captured from government bases which have fallen to them. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, always eager to prove that he is as macho as Margaret Thatcher was, is itching to bomb government forces in Syria, as they did in Libya, but cannot get any UN Security Council resolution in their favor as the Russians and the Chinese block any such move. Barack Obama is not keen to get involved in any offensive that would involve US military personnel and possibly result in casualties. Obama prefers to perform his murders through remote control by using drones to kill innocent children and label them as al-Qaeda fighters. Obama is also confused about what to do with longtime US ally, Egypt which has seen at least 1000 people, mostly of the Muslim Brotherhood, killed in recent weeks after an army coup. A gasbag who can mesmerise people with his oratory does not want to use the word " coup " because that will result in automatic suspension of all aid to the Egyptian army. Israel would be most unhappy if the US did that because the Muslim Brotherhood were natural allies of Hamas in the Gaza strip and would have supplied them with arms with which to fight the Israelis. Meanwhile, Tunisia, the source of the Arab spring, has seen the assassination of 2 opposition leaders, Mohamed Brahmi in July and Chokri Belaid in February. US Ambassador, Christopher Stevens was killed in Benghazi in Libya on 9/11 last year. The Arab spring has become an Arab sewer. Anyone interfering is only going to get his hands dirty.

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