US proxy war in Syria spreads to Lebanon and Iraq
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
other press 
Sunday August 19, 2012 17:21
by pat c
Al Qaeda, the US lead contractor in its proxy war in Syria is causing the war to spill over into Lebanon and Al Qaedas campaign in Iraq is intensifying. Full text at link.
The intensifying proxy war in Syria is causing increased anxiety throughout the Middle East, where the specters of sectarian war and Western military intervention loom large. A series of kidnappings threatens to drag Lebanon deeper into the 17-month-long civil war in neighboring Syria, while 93 people were killed in Iraq on Thursday.
Al Qaeda’s role as a partner in a US-led Sunni sectarian war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is apparently strengthening its operations in Iraq. Some 190 people were killed by Al Qaeda attacks in Iraq over the last two-and-a-half weeks.
“The religious legitimacy of the Syria war and the increase of funding and fighters almost unquestionably benefits Al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Seth Jones, an Al Qaeda expert and counterterrorism expert with the RAND Corporation. “It is heavily involved in overseeing the war in Syria.”
Hundreds more Iraqis were killed in June and July, making the last three months the deadliest in over a year. Two weeks ago, over a dozen neighborhood officials resigned their posts in Baquba, citing fears that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cannot prevent a resurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2Right, this seems to be popping up all over but it won't be a US proxy war. I don't mean to say that the US will not be involved but that they won't be the prime movers in it.
Going back to Libya, the US did a good show of flag waving but at the end of the day did very little. The NATO forces that did the fighting and supplying where mostly from France (which flew 35% of NATO's strikes, Denmark close behind with 17%).
Right now there are CIA weapons specialists and tech advisers there but German has had people there longer and Ruters has it that the SAS has been running ops there.
After the debacle that was the Second Gulf War the US does not want to get into any other land war, mostly with the chance of one in Iran in next year. Air and Black Ops and other Cold War tactics though are fine for them but this NATO campaign will be lead mostly by European counties. It is though the old European superpowers of France, UK, Germany etc are trying to reestablish their Post War zones of influence in Africa and the Middle East. Were as the people of the Middle East view the Arab Spring as the chance for freedom against oppression, Europe see's it as a chance to regain control.
Because we have become so use to US waging regime change throughout the last 50 years and leading NATO, we jump and go "Yep, another US proxy war" but this one is going to be lead by Old World powers. Trust me, when the dust settles France, England, Germany etc will be the ones reaping the lions share of the rewards.
America will probable try to reestablish its zone of influence in South America via Colombia Proxy.
..to consider it in any sort of nationalist terms is off the mark.
Nato is the instrument alright, but the operators are post-national corporations stashing the liquidated resources and sweat of the global productive economy in off-shore tax-vaults..while their executives have a selection of passports and residences to fall back on if the water gets too warm at any particular location.
You'll find the services advertised in such publications as The Economist or Financial Times. A useful map of locations and activities is provided by Nicholas Shaxson's 'Treasure Islands'(Bodely Head 2011), or
http://www.treasureislands.org
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