The Syrian internal conflict appears to be heading toward a much larger regional war. In the first link, the head of the Syrian opposition groups predicts that the war will expand to include five nations with 80 million people. His comments indicate that he believes (and likely wants) the war to then also expand to include Israel and the USA. It is likely that the five nations he thinks will be involved in the larger regional war are Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The article also comments that “Sunni-Shiite divisions…have been exacerbated by the role played by…Hezbollah, which experts say is fighting on the side of the Syrian regime in the western part of the country.” This action by Hezbollah has been the subject of previous posts here. The article cites Saudi Arabia and Qatar as aiding the Syrian rebels while Iran and Hezbollah are aiding the Syrian regime.
The second link relates that two recent car bombings in Turkey have killed 50 people and injured hundreds of others. Turkey will not tolerate this situation endlessly. With dead bodies piling up in Turkey and having to bear the strain of sheltering about 500,000 Syrian refugees, Turkey will eventually have to militarily act in its own interests. This article also comments on the growing Sunni-Shiite split in the region, and the first link adds that Turkey blames Assad’s regime for the car bombings in Turkey. However, the possibility of a “false flag” operation by those who want to provoke Turkey into intervening must at least be considered.
The third link reveals how close the war is to spilling over to include other nations. It states that Hezbollah has sent “up to 1000 fighters” to help Assad’s forces fight the Syrian rebels near the Jordanian-Syrian border, and that Syrian-Hezbollah forces were now crossing “occasionally” into Jordan itself. Hezbollah forces have also helped the Syrian forces recapture a strategic city near the Jordanian border, so Assad’s forces are winning some key battles. Jordan and Saudi Arabia have to be watching this situation with growing alarm, and they cannot remain idle indefinitely either.
This situation is nearing a boiling point. If the USA and NATO get involved by imposing a no-fly zone, expect Russia to likely intervene as well. Russia could send its troops to operate Syria’s Russian-made anti-aircraft defenses to shoot down US/NATO warplanes. Indeed, Russia may already have sent its specialists to man those batteries. If I were Vladimir Putin, I’d already have positioned them there. Russia can also position its naval vessels on the Syrian coast to use their anti-aircraft weaponry against any US/NATO warplanes seeking to impose a no-fly zone.
President Obama has declared a number of fuzzy “red-lines” about US intervention, but the American people (weary of endless wars under both Presidents Bush and Obama) appear in no mood to support military intervention.
However, Obama’s domestic scandals are growing more serious by the day. He may try to involve the USA in another foreign war to distract attention from the scandals threatening to rock his administration. If the USA intervenes and Hezbollah’s sleeper cells are activated to attack American targets and people across the USA, things will get very ugly…very fast—both internationally and domestically.
http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/05/20/hizbullah-from-mentoring-to-direct-combat-near-jordan-lebanon-borders/
