The Anti-Syrian Cocktail By Ghassan Kadi 9 June 2011

The Anti-Syrian Cocktail

June 9, 2011

THE ANTI-SYRIAN COCKTAIL

By Ghassan Kadi, 9 June 2011

*Editor’s Note: the contents of these first three essays and a number of others were, at the time of writing rather novel, written “before their time” and of things that were not known or accepted. Now in 2016, the contents of this essay and others published here, have proven themselves and become part of the commonly held views and narrative of the analysis of the “War On Syria”.

Prince Bandar Bin Sultan is the son of the Saudi crown prince, but he seems to run his political life on the basis of having a state within a state. He is a rogue prince, but with a flavour that suits the American agenda.

Just like America supported the rise of Bin Laden back in the eighties because his rogue nature had an anti-Soviet flavour, the USA is now supporting Prince Bandar because of his anti-Iranian flavour.

Bandar is in essence a Sunni fundamentalist from the Wahhabi sub-sect. His sworn enemies are the Shiites for no reason other than sectarian prejudice.

He is terrified by the regional rise of Iran (Shiite state). Many moderates share those views, but Bandar is prepared to go to extremes in fighting the Iranian rise. He found a good ally in Saad Hariri of Lebanon. Saad Hariri accuses Syria of killing his father Rafiq Hariri and is a sworn enemy of the Shiite Lebanese Hezbollah.

Bandar and his ally Saad see more danger in Hezbollah and Iran than they see in Israel. Syria, being an ally of Iran becomes then the natural enemy of Bandar and is already the personal enemy of Saad.

It is important to note that the stands of Bandar and Saad are not based on strategic political alliances and/or on principles. Rather, they are based on mere sectarian bias and fanaticism.

Saad in his turn, turns to his home-grown fanatics to do his dirty work. He has been personally responsible for funding and training two ultra-fundamentalist Sunni groups in Lebanon; Fateh Al-Islam and the Salafists.

The former group (Fateh Al Islam) had to be quelled violently by the Lebanese Army in the Palestinian Al-Bared camp north of Tripoli (Lebanon’s second largest city). The battle was bitter and left the camp in total ruin. Thousands of Palestinian refugees had to be relocated. Ironically, that battle took place in 2007, at a time when the Lebanese government was headed by Fouad Seniora (a Saad Hariri man).

What is more ironic is that the USA supported the Lebanese Army to fight the very group it had helped establish. The Lebanese Army appealed to the US for assistance and America could not be seen in the international arena to refuse this, but at the same time, it was under the blessing of the USA that the Sunni fundamentalist alliance between Bandar Saad and Fateh Al Islam was forged.

Little is known about the fate of the Palestinian, Shaker Al Absi, the leader of that group. All that is known about him is that he is on the “wanted” list and at large. However, Dai’i Al Islam Shahhal, the Tripoli-based leader of the Salafists is Lebanese and he gets the full support and cover from Saad Hariri.

The Salafists' main agenda item is the destruction of Shiite Islam, but they are an Al-Qaeda type organization in every respect possible. Yet, they get the blessing of the USA via the tiered Saad Hariri Prince Bandar alliance.

As hard as it may be to believe, but the USA is in fact supporting a Sunni fundamentalist Al-Qaeda type organization in Lebanon.

Why would the USA do this, one may ask. The answer is very simple.

The USA ranks its enemies in reference to their threat to Israel; not to the USA itself. So while America’s biggest current enemy is Al-Qaeda, Israel’s biggest current enemy is Hezbollah.

Hezbollah gets its arms from Iran via Syria. Syria and Hezbollah are the natural enemies of Sunni fundamentalists. If weakening Syria and Hezbollah means having to forge an alliance with Al-Qaeda, then the USA will do it for as long as this serves Israel.

Whilst the USA is fighting against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and NATO nations are losing young men and women in this war, the USA is in fact engaged in supporting a subsidiary of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon.

The Prince of Qatar is playing a big role in the anti-Syria alliance. Al-Jazeera (the Prince’s pet newsagency) is fuelling the “uprising” in Syria.

Syria needs reform, and President Bashar Assad embarked on the journey of reform soon after he took office. Admittedly, he did not manage to control the corrupt old guards. That said, Syria has flourished and became a haven of peace, security, and secularism.

Syria however has three groups of enemies. The Israeli-American alliance is the natural enemy.

Within Syria, the fundamentalist Sunnis want to see an overthrow of the secular regime. Their slogans are to kill the Alawites (Shiite sub-sect to which President Assad belongs) and to evict the Christians to Lebanon. Those groups found a field day in the “Arab uprising”. Under the guise of a democratic movement, they are stirring up sectarian divisions and targeting Alawites.

Just outside the Syrian borders in Lebanon, there are many anti-Syrian Lebanese groups. It is as if the freaky USA/Al-Qaeda alliance is not weird enough, in Lebanon, the fundamentalist Sunnis (Salafists) found a good ally in the ultra-right wing Christian Lebanese fundamentalists (Lebanese Forces). What unites them is their hatred towards Syria.

If Assad falls, the USA/Israel alliance hopes to have him replaced by a fragmented and weakened Syria. This is a possibility, but that alliance fails to realize that some Syrians are now perhaps perplexed by what is happening, but once they realize the enormity of the conspiracy, they will unite under Bashar Assad. They will not allow fragmentation.

The worst scenario for all involved, including the enemies of Syria, would be if the country falls under the rule of the Sunni fundamentalists. If this happens, Syria will suffer greatly in the short term. But the biggest loser in the short and long-term, will be Israel.

Anyone who cannot believe that such strange alliances can exist can go to Lebanon or Syria to find out the hard way. Any person or organization supporting the so-called Syrian revolution, believing that this would be tantamount to supporting freedom and democracy, should stop to have a second look. There is much more to this than meets the eye.

Originally published on Ghassan's Facebook page 9 June 2011
https://www.facebook.com/notes/ghassan-kadi/the-anti-syrian-cocktail/135957233147099/