Hamas, Abbas and the Lack of Peace

 

Hamas and Abbas have more in common than the fact they rhyme. Hamas insists that any peace which they will accept will have no Jews living in Palestine and that Palestine replace all of Israel. The average person, were they to actually analyze things, would realize that Palestine replacing all of Israel and their insistence that there be no Jews leaves a problem, what will happen to the over six-million Jews currently residing in Israel. The average protester will provide an easy answer which should, according to the average uninformed protester thoughts, solve everything. Their response is so simple that it actually makes sense to much of the uninformed public. This solution is for the Jews to return to the country from which they, or their parents or grandparents arrived. This is not anything even close to a viable solution and would only be put forth by those who have no idea of the history of Israel. To those behind such a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict by sending Jews back to the source of their roots; so, are Germany and Poland actually ready to accept much of the Israeli populations of Jews? Add to this the need for numerous Islamic societies to take back the Jews and their progeny from the over eight-hundred-thousand Jews they expelled. Even the United States would seek a means for refusing to permit Jews who made Aliyah from the United States from returning just as they not only refused to permit any of the Jews from the Motorschiff St. Louis to reach the otherwise open borders of the United States. The State Department assured that these Jews, who once refused were to be taken back to Nazi Germany, were not to make it to the American shores and the MS St. Louis was provided Coast Guard escorts to prevent anyone attempting to swim to the American shores. So, there should be a precondition as a caveat that if these nations, organizations and other elements desire replacing Israel with an Arab country, they need first arrange for a new location which will accept the Israeli Jews. If this location chosen to take the Jewish refugees, it should also be prepared to take twice the number of Israeli Jews as the developed world prepares to expel their Jews or find some other variation of a means to be rid of the Jews.

 

One can check these protests against Israel, which is actually a protest against Jews, and the one item completely lacking their solutions is anywhere that the Jews can rule themselves. Many of the protesters will actually claim that whatever happens to the Jews is something they deserve. Does this sound at all familiar? Probably not to most of us but we can tell you that this was the attitude of the United States, British and all the remainder of the allies during World War II. Very few nations were willing to take in Jewish refugees during World War II. The British and United States governments both were completely aware of the Concentration Camps and the reality that the Jews were being exterminated with the intent of murdering every single Jews on the Earth. They refused to take any action to protect the Jews even going to the extremes to prevent disturbing the Nazi extermination processing of the Jews. There existed a junction of railway tracks which could have been bombed in either of two locations less that ten miles apart. Both the United States and Britain refused to strike the closer of the two junctions concentrating on bombing to further location. What could be the difference and why was it important that they only bombed the further junction of train tracks. The answer is uncertain as it is impossible to prove, but the circumstantial evidence is damning. The second junction mostly prevented trains from heading eastward, the closer junction also would have blocked train traffic resupplying the eastern front. The junction which the allies ignored carried the trains to Auschwitz Birkenau carrying the Jews to their deaths. That set of tracks were not to be bombed, only the junctions which, though preventing the same train traffic, had nothing to do with the transport of the Jews to the camps was bombed and the one used to transport Jews were left intact. What is the most surprising thing is that Japan provided safe-haven for Jews refusing Nazi demands that they turn over their Jews which Japan refused to comply protecting their Jews. The Japanese protected the Jews residing on the Japanese Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, the Philippines and to a lesser extent in other regions under Japanese control. Yes, we know the Japanese were the enemy to the United States and the forces fighting the Nazis. True as that may be, the Japanese refused to allow the Nazis to touch their Jews, and that is something potentially more admirable than the acts of the allies when it came to rescue of the fated Jews.

 

Now let us look at the present. Mahmoud Abbas has already decided that the “Deal of the Century” being proposed by President Trump is to be refused in its entirety. Hamas, well, they simply refuse any peace because they simply refuse to recognize that Israel exists because the Jews are presumably incapable of performing the necessary tasks to actually rule. They know this as it is written in the Quran, or at least that is their theory as they believe that only Muslims are permitted the luxury of assuming positions of rule and power. The Quran states this as a reality by which the followers of Islam are to believe and live and imprint upon their world, the entirety of their world, which just happens to include all of planet Earth. The Quran tells that the followers of Islam are destined to rule over mankind and be the sole religion followed on Earth. This is something which has become believable as the most likely result of the current world situation, at least to many who follow the Quran. This is the basis under which the Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader of Iran Khamenei and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and other Islamic groups fighting around the globe such that they will prove victorious and rule the planet. This is an inevitability which many Muslims believe must be the future as the Quran is infallible in their beliefs. The only question is which form of Islam will rule the Earth.

 

Sunni representing ninety percent of Muslims or Shiite which represents much of the remainder of believers in Islam. Many think that Shiite Islam, representing merely ten percent of Muslims, could never become the main player amongst the players of the Islamic world. This would mean that Iran should not be considered a threat as they are Shiites and thus far too insignificant to rule Islam. Iran knows a little secret, that in Islam the followers are told to follow the strong horse. Iran believes that they will be that strong horse and that if they can wipe out the Jewish State, then they would become that strong horse. Add to this their conquest of the Saudi oil fields and take the strip along the Red Sea which would include Mecca and Medina and then after taking the Gulf States and their oil fields, then Iran would become the strong horse of Islam and the ruler of the two holy cities. Iran already is establishing their Shiite Crescent across the Middle East and surrounding Saudi Arabia from the north and south (see map below). Even the green star is part of the hunger of Iran as they cover the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. They also will control the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb which controls the southern exit from the Red Sea and controlling the southern exit of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal as well as blocking the only Israeli maritime route to the rest of Asia and the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Iranian plans for conquest are currently likely going along perfectly as they had hoped. The question is what is the next desire by Iran, once they finish reestablishing Bashir al-Assad as ruler of all of Syria, take control of Yemen through their Houthis and complete their control of Lebanon and Iraq, the next question is which way will their appetite turn.

 

Shiite Crescent including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran

 

So, how does Iran fit in on the questions over Israel and the Palestinian Arabs? Iran currently is doing what they are able to arm Islamic Jihad and Hamas who together rule Gaza. Iran is seeking inroads to the Palestinian Authority but have thus far been rebuked by Abbas as he refuses to share his power with anybody, even Iran. Further, Hezballah is about as close as any terrorist army could come to being an offshoot of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) which is tasked with running the Iranian worldwide terror forces. Iran takes in any terror outfit which it is able to bribe or otherwise cajole into allowing Iran to arm them. There is a future price which will be required when the crucial time arrives, that they follow and join in the Shiite push to rule the world. Hezballah are assisting Iranian forces in Syria and Yemen while still working on expanding their threats upon Israel from Lebanon and Syria where they border Israel along the north and the Golan Heights. Add in the Iranian influence over Hamas and Islamic Jihad and it should be realized that Iran can order violence on either the northern or southern borders of Israel and if they manage to gain control over the Palestinian Authority, they will also have another front along the eastern regions of Israel. Iran has already boldly stated that should a war break out between the United States or other Western nation, then Israel will face destruction within a matter of hours if even as long as a single hour. Their threat implies that upon any violence breaking out between Iran and the United States, Iran would immediately call for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah, and the IRGC forces assisting in Syria to all attack Israel with barrages of rockets. Hezballah has at a minimum one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles with numerous, if not the majority, being guided and sufficient range to strike anywhere within Israel and numerous are able to strike Saudi air fields and even Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt and all of Jordan. Iran and their developing Shiite Crescent are becoming a hegemonic military force in the Middle East with designs on much far beyond just the Middle East, they view the world as eventually becoming their own personal apple in their eyes. The Iranian leading Ayatollahs also have almost no care about the use of nuclear weapons or of Iran being destroyed in an Armageddon style conflagration as such would simply be a step upon the way to the return of the Twelfth Imam who is destined to lead Shiite Muslims to ruling the world at the end of such a world at war. They believe this will start with the destruction of Israel.

 

Meanwhile, Hamas, which rules in Gaza, is threatening Israel with increased violence along her southern border should Israel annex even an inch of the disputed territories. By disputed territories, in this case Iran means the region liberated from Jordanian occupation during the Six Day War of 1967 where Israel also liberated Gaza from Egyptian occupation, the Golan Heights from Syria and took the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. Israel has returned the Sinai Peninsula when making a peace with Egypt and later reached peace with Jordan but both Egypt and Jordan released any claim to the lands they formerly occupied. This should have signaled the end of the conflict except that Jordan and Egypt refused to allow their Arab brethren from moving with the changed borders forcing them to remain on the lands surrendered to Israel. That is what has perpetuated the conflict and has been invigorated by the Arab League, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran because these and other followers of Islam refuse to allow the Jews self-rule. The Quran explains that the Jews and Christians require the guidance and rule from their betters, the followers of Islam. Other religious people are considered to be either idolaters, polytheists or other various forms of heathens all of which must be brought into the fold believing in Islam or death. The Jews and Christians are permitted to live providing they adjust their belief from their erroneous and contaminated beliefs caused by their following their mistaken and mistranslated bibles which are different than the only valid word given as the Quran. They believe that the Jews and Christians were originally given the word as in the Quran but strayed from the proper path changing and polluting the original word. They believed that the Quran is the final word from heaven given through Mohammad. The means that this works is actually simply. The Quran was originally given to Adam, the first Muslim according to Islam. Abraham received the Quran as it was provided again but Abraham and his progeny made changes which invalidated their bibles. Then Moses again misrepresented the true Quran at Mount Sinai. The Jews continued to change the word until it was unrecognizable. The Christians added to the Jewish text with a New Testament which replaced the Jewish Bible. Christianity also claimed to have replaced Judaism and the Protestants replaced the Catholic Church as well as leaving the Jews further separated. When Islam came into being in the Seventh Century, they claimed not only to be the replacement for both Judaism and Christianity, they did not leave any chance for another word from heaven by claiming that theirs was the final word. The Quran is what both the Jews and the Christians had an opportunity, according to Islam, to follow and if Jews and Christians would simply return to their original word, which is presumably the Quran, then they will be considered to be good Jews and Christians when in reality a good Jew or Christian, by their definition, is actually a Muslim. Should Jews and Christians refuse to become followers of Islam and take the Quran as their holy book, then they are considered to affirmed that they are apostates from the only true faith, which they presumably originally were to supposed to have believed, and as apostates they would be sentenced to death.

 

Hamas has made a number of recent threats against Israel with the most recent coming less than a week after Hamas reached an agreement through Egypt with Israel presumably ending their violence including launching rockets and incendiary balloons and kites along with the border riots. The morning after the agreement was reached, Hamas permitted thousands of Gazans to riot along the border thus ending any sign that they might actually curtail the violence. These riots included launching incendiaries into Israel sparking twenty or so fires across southern Israel. Hamas also almost immediately demanded that Israel provide them with five-million dollars which would presumably be provided by Qatar. Since 2012, Qatar has provided Hamas with over one-billion dollars, all of which has been used to pay for terrorism. They have used this money and the provisions provided for rebuilding their infrastructure for the building of tunnels and bunkers within Gaza which includes hidden rocket firing positions as well as infiltration tunnels under the border into Israel in order to use them to kidnap and murder Israeli civilians. These are the investments which Hamas and Islamic Jihad believe are the most important areas for their budgeting for actions beyond lining the pockets of their leadership. The same is true for the Palestinian Authority, which is actually a domesticated PLO in theory, where they actually pay their citizens, and Israelis if they can be bribed (see image below), to murder Israeli civilians or enforcement and IDF personnel (see table below) with bonuses for multiple murders and other specifics. This has made terrorism and the murder of Israelis by far the highest paying employment the Palestinian Arabs under their rule can find. Murdering Israelis pays even higher than the Palestinian Authority Security Forces salaries except for the top officers and the group, Force 17, that protects Mahmoud Abbas.

 

Palestinian Authority Remunerations for Terrorists

 

There is one final reason why the leadership of all the various groups who rule the Palestinian Arabs, be they in Gaza or under the Palestinian Authority or even as Hezballah in Lebanon, that provides them with such a reward that making peace would deny them the millions upon millions of dollars and Euros they skim from the investments made by the United States, United Nations, European Union and numerous European governments in addition to the monies coming from Qatar or even other Arab governments and Iran. Mahmoud Abbas and his sons have all made hundreds of millions over the years with much of their wealth well hidden in Swiss numbered accounts or in other secure, hidden and untraceable places to stash excess personal money. Some of the former leaders of Hamas have retired with billions of dollars at their disposal and are living the good life in some of the Gulf States. The old adage that terror does not pay apparently never took into account the terrorism conducted against Israel, as this appears to be very profitable for those in the highest positions. Add in the Iranians providing the necessities for producing rockets and the other tools for terror, there is almost immeasurable amounts provisions and funds providing the target of your terrorism is Israel. Apparently killing Jews is one thing which apparently will never go out of fashion and might be one of the eternals which will only be terminated by the arrival of the Messiach. The world will be so far better off once the Messiach arrives and sets straight exactly what the words from Hashem are and then we can all possibly agree on the truth, whatever truth the Messiach brings us. We realize that the Messiach can arrive either as a reward for mankind living in peace and harmony or as the avenging angel sent to settle all the differences and reasons we have used to remain apart and fighting each other and finally bringing a permanent peace for those who survive. We really hope the Messiach comes peaceably, but that will require ending the continuing war again Israel and the Jewish People. That does not leave us with much faith for peaceable and really emphasizes our fears that the Messiach will come as an avenging angel and will bring the legions at their sides overpowering any and all forces of mere humans and settling every conflict. There is still time for the world to find a means for reaching understandings of acceptance of each other before a force arrives to do this for us and not be polite about their corrective efforts. That should be sufficient to cause all to pause, but then we remember the Iranian leadership who would welcome an Armageddon sized conflagration as they desire inviting the Messiach as the avenging angel as that is the form of their savior. Well, that might make peaceable an impossibility as it only takes one to spoil this cake.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

What if ISIS Terrorists Have Access to a NATO Country’s Passports?

What would be the response from the leadership and citizens of the other NATO nations say if they realize that it would take only a small amount of effort for terrorist fighters while training to enter Syria could be granted passports from the NATO country where their training was conducted? This is not just some silly figment of an overactive imagination but an actual potentiality which may have already been realized. One must consider that one of the aims of ISIS and those assisting their Jihadist nightmares is to implant sleeper cells within European nations and especially within the United States. ISIS had made repeated references and threats to carry out attacks on the United States even more deadly than the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Towers, Pentagon and a foiled assault brought down by the actions of the passengers in a determined and desperate breaching of the cockpit over a field outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ISIS Leader and self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was a former prisoner held in the United States run Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in Iraq released by President Barack Obama in 2009. His release was likely part of the winding down of the United States efforts in Iraq and simply part of the preparations for the closure of the detention facilities. Still, there are those who claim that his time spent in United States custody is behind his deep seated hatred and is what had fueled his burning desires to take revenge against his captors and the entirety of the American people. But how does al-Baghdadi’s hatred for the United States and the West in general translate to the possibility that ISIS trainees were possibly provided with passports from a NATO nation which would make their entrance into any European NATO country and from there possible ready access to the United States? That is where things get interesting and also affirm those who have suggested that Turkey’s membership in NATO be revoked as Turkey appears to have joined the jihadist efforts and turned against the core beliefs and mutual interests of the rest of the NATO alliance members.

 

The proof comes via evidence produced proving that Turkey has acted as a clearing house and operated training centers for future ISIS members and new recruits. Walid Shoebat has posted a video “showing the ISIS training centers in Turkey” on August 20, 2014. <a href=http://shoebat.com/2014/08/20/leaked-video-isis-training-center-turkey/</a> Walid Shoebat reported that “as far back as March,” there existed ISIS “training centers in Orfa, Ghazi Antab and Antakia (Antioch) set up by the Turkish government for more terrorists to be sent to Syria.” Within the video one hears the speaker calling to “Destroy and blow up our enemies, victory is near…young men, enroll, land and win…young men it’s our religion attack with your weapons and win…spread throughout the earth and raze the strongholds of the unbelievers.” This video makes a mockery of the claims by United States, European and other Western leaders who have yet dared to identify ISIS threats by their proper title, Jihadist terror. The most egregious example of oversimplification and missing the mark was the recent statement by President Obama stating, “The ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just god would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings…people like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy.” Additionally, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey stated that, “ISIS will only truly be defeated when it’s rejected by the twenty-million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad.” Such a naiveté which completely ignored the hundreds, if not thousands, who have flocked to the rallying cry declaring ISIS to be the new Caliphate and their apparent invincibility presupposes that a sizeable number of those twenty-million Sunni living between Baghdad and Damascus have not already joined ISIS if for no other reason than to survive and follow what they perceive as the strong horse. The few bombings which have assisted the brave and seasoned Kurdish Peshmerga Militias gain a routing to relieve some numbers of the besieged Yazidi and to retake the Mosul Dam has at least made a small start at turning the front around but it will take far more of the same continuing over a prolonged time-frame, something which President Obama may shy away from with the midterm elections approaching this fall.

 

As far as the distant future of ISIS one can only believe that they have overstretched their ability to hold supply lines and command and control coordinating their forces and thus will not be able to push further in the immediate future and may even face serious pushback providing Western nations, especially the United States, will continue to provide air support and provisions to keep the Kurds and potentially the Iraqi forces capable of continuing to operate at their full potential. For such a sustained effort it will be necessary for President Obama to face both the Congress and the American people and give a full accounting of the extent and the reasoning for the partial return of United States military efforts in Iraq even if these efforts are restricted to only air support and provisions to arm those fighting ISIS on the ground. Should there not be an effort by President Obama to express the United States intentions to fully support the forces engaging ISIS in Iraq to the American people then it is very probable that he does not intend to continue with the air strikes for much longer which would place the entire weight of support most likely on French and British air squadrons and the resupply might prove to be beyond anyone other than the United States to provide thus very possibly stymying any efforts by both the Kurds and the new Iraqi government. Such a failure would prove short-sighted and would lead to a disaster in the making. ISIS received a huge logistical advantage when they swept into Iraq and the Iraqi forces fled the battlefield leaving their supplies and literally tons upon tons of United States front line weaponry including armor, assault rifles, trucks and munitions enough to keep ISIS supplied for a respectable period probably extending a few months into the future. This is the minimal period for which those fighting against ISIS will need to be furnished with weapons, munitions and air support. Should ISIS not be contained in Iraq then the future of the region will be questionable and something the Western nations should be motivated to avoid. Further, it should become a top concern for Western intelligence resources to investigate whether any ISIS or other jihadists who were given training in Turkey by the Turkish government were provided with Turkish passports and if so, the names on the documents would be critical need to know information in order to protect their borders and homelands. This will be made all the more difficult as the United States as well as much of the rest of NATO have very poor and shallow intelligence within the jihadi ranks and even less human intelligence operatives in place and infiltrated into the ranks of ISIS. Further, relying on Turkey to be forthcoming would be a fool’s errand and a waste of Western efforts and resources. NATO should operate under the assumption that Turkey has joined with the jihadist forces and is no longer a reliable ally. Their membership in NATO needs to be reviewed and probably suspended for the safety of the rest of the NATO nations.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Ready for Iraq War III?

As many other than just we here have noticed, Iraq has started to come unraveled and violence has risen to levels rivalling or exceeding those from before the surge brought relative calm to the country. There has been a resurgence of al-Qaeda with car-bombs and suicide-bombers, many of whom have targeted the police and security personnel and government offices in particular. There are a number of reasons which we will discuss but the overriding reason which has exacerbated all of the others increasing their deadly effects and that was the inability of United States President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to reach an agreement which would have permitted American forces to remain in Iraq and assist in establishing and maintaining tranquility. Many of the other problems are persistent throughout the Middle East and derive from the culture and manner in which the area has been ruled since the Biblical era. That is what made the United States presence so vitally necessary because the United States personnel and leadership were able to propose compromises and make such compromises acceptable solely because a third party was making the proposal and was responsible for any compromises that were required. Without the United States as mediator these compromises became impossibly difficult to arrange as neither side was able to culturally accept anything less than victory over any adversary and is culturally unacceptable. This has been evident throughout the so-called Arab Spring (we like to call it Arab Winter) especially in Egypt where this week the trial of former and now deposed President Morsi was to be tried for his role in the deaths of protesters but he refused to recognize the court’s authority as he still claims to be the rightful elected President of Egypt and refuses to accept any other reality.

 

One of the primary problems that face any governing body in the Arab world is that compromise is interpreted as a weakness and that the customs dictate that one is wise to follow the strong horse over the weaker horse. When a leader or government makes a compromise then those with whom they made an accommodation as being in a stronger position and the government is diminished as they were forced to make accommodations instead of forcing their will upon the situation as they are expected by the population to have done. The area has been under the leadership of Kings, Caliphs, Dictators, Emperors, Warlords, or other totalitarian or monarchial governance and this has produced a history and culture which values strength and dominance and seldom if ever compromise and acquiescence. This culture makes the governing forms of such as democracy, republic, parliamentary representation and other governances found throughout the industrialized world virtually impossible to have leading these nations in the Middle East and Northern Africa as these systems work on reaching accords through debate and compromise. The people other than a percentage of the youth find debate a weaker and untrusted manner to resolve differences when it is much preferred to simply demand and threaten and use brutish force in order to implement whatever position the leadership desired without regard for the ideas and concerns of the opposition. The question is how this caused the apparent breakdown in Iraq.

 

The problems came when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki no longer had United States officers who would have enabled differences to be solved through compromises which the United States personnel would suggest and as the United States with its military victories was unmistakably a strong horse so their suggestion being implemented was seen as their dictating their desired solution despite that it was actually a compromise worked out between all the parties with the United States moderating. Without the ability for moderation the government returned to the norm for the culture which led to the Shiites who were in the majority and had the power eclipsing the Sunni who were now in the weaker position. This was aggravated and made worse as after the decades under Saddam Hussein and Sunni dominance many Shiites were ready for some serious payback. Early after the United States withdrew the vast majority of personnel and the remaining troops were placed in a base outside of the cities out in the desert, the Shiites led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began removing many of the Sunnis in positions of power. They even placed a number of the Sunni leadership on trial for charges of crimes against the government where the charges were irrelevant as the verdict was predetermined. This led to the Sunnis returning to their position of weakness and under dire threat by the Shiite majority. So what do you think the Sunni did? They turned to the same people who had caused the United States to commit more troops in a strategic move named the Surge where the Shiites were made to accept Sunni near equal participation in government and the Sunni allowed and some even aided the United States in clearing out the elements from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, the same al-Qaeda now invited to return by the Sunnis as this provided the protection and power necessary to blunt and possibly turn around the Shiite dominance and oppression. Now there are bombings and shooting and the beginnings of a war which will be every bit as destabilizing and deadly as the civil war is raging in Syria. The results of the renewed violence has murdered over thirteen thousand people with over one thousand in October alone.

 

Currently, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in Washington conferring with President Obama and other government officials. The rumors are that al-Maliki may be requesting that the United States intervene and provide some answers to the situation that the mismanagement of having the dominant position of power in ruling the nation and refusing to compromise or do anything that might appear as showing weakness leading to the disasters now befalling Iraq. By providing answers al-Maliki means troops, at least sufficient troops to make al-Qaeda think twice about continuing the violence. The problem is the American people very likely do not care or would even permit without large protests for troops to be retuned into a war situation in Iraq. The problem for President Obama is that the al-Qaeda difficulties in Iraq are directly tied to the violence in Syria and in Syria al-Qaeda has been somewhat on the same side against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad but are fighting against what is the presumed United States ally in Iraq, al-Maliki. With the mishandling of Syria from the very beginning President Obama is now in the unenviable position of being for and against the same people as along with al-Qaeda working to aid the Sunnis in Iraq there is also their allies the Muslim Brotherhood, which also was the father organization from which al-Qaeda was spawned. So, will President Obama be supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia while being sort of supportive of them in Syria except when they attack the pro-democracy minority called the Free Syrian Army, and dead against the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq? Add to this that the Shiites in Iraq have also cozied up and become very close to the Ayatollahs in Iran and have aided the Iranian efforts to preserve Bashir al-Assad in power in Syria by allowing overflights and transport across Iraq for Iranian supplies, weapons, materials, and troops mostly from the IRGC who are fighting against the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army and anybody else not aligned with al-Assad. So, will President Obama decide to engage in Iraq War III and who can he blame it on this time, certainly no George W. Bush, thinking on it some more, maybe we should not rule that out.

 

Beyond the Cusp