The Americans' decision
to arm the Syrian rebels represents the culmination of inter-Arab
efforts to breach the Syrian stalemate and assist the Sunni camp --
every Arab country in accordance with its particular ability. This
decision blew a strong wind back into the rebels' sails, after months of
being subjected to attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and
Hezbollah fighters and facing top-of-the-line Russian weapons and
drones.
On Saturday, the rebels
declared the launch of an operation they call the "Battle of
Qadisiyah," after a seventh century battle in which the Arabs defeated
the Persian Empire. The operation is focused mainly in the area of
Aleppo, and there is a good reason they chose this particular name for
this groundbreaking operation.
Beyond the American
promise to transfer weapons to the bleeding Syrian opposition, when it
emerged that the Sunni population in Syria had been exposed to chemical
weapons, portions of the U.S. decision and its implementation were kept
under wraps. Apparently the Americans decided to arm only the Free
Syrian Army, under the command of Gen. Salim Idris, with quality
weapons, while preventing this sophisticated weaponry from falling into
the hands of Islamist terrorist gangs also fighting against the regime.
Western suspicion of
opposition forces in Syria remains as it was. American history has seen
efforts to aid radical Islamists backfire when the American weapons
provided to these Islamists were turned against the Americans
themselves. The U.S. has no intention of letting the quality weapons
provided to the Syrian rebels ultimately fall into the hands of
extremist Islamists like al-Qaida, Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham or the
Farouq Brigades -- its biggest enemies come the day after the Syrian
civil war.
It is still not clear
which types of weapons will be sent and to whom, but one thing is
certain: The Americans have grown tired of the bloody equation created
by Iran and Russia in Syria, which are continuing to arm Syrian
President Bashar Assad and his loyalists with sophisticated weapons
while the West remains neutralized and mired in futile propositions to
end the turmoil. The U.S. made its decision to arm the rebels despite
Russian and Syrian threats to exact revenge on Europe when the Americans
realized that there was no possibility that Assad would resign and an
interim government would be established ahead of democratic elections.
So while Assad's
Alawite coalition, together with Shiite Hezbollah fighters and Iran's
Revolutionary Guards, continues to strike at Syria's civilian Sunni
population, the opposition and the urban infrastructure, the Arab
world's Sunni leaders are joining together in one, vocal, united front,
without any of the squirming diplomatic posturing. The religious "fitna"
(civil war), they say, is now clear and visible and an all-out civil
war between Sunnis and Shiites. It is no longer limited to Assad vs. the
rebels. Outside Syria, there are now clashes in Lebanon and Iraq and
the Sunni countries bordering Syria, like Turkey and Jordan, are bracing
for an outbreak of violence.
By calling their latest
operation in Aleppo the "Battle of Qadisiyah," the Sunni Syrian
opposition is pointing to Shiite Persian Iran as posing a threat to the
entire Middle East from within Syria, and as having declared war against
the Sunnis. It is as though the historic Battle of Qadisiyah in 636
C.E., the decisive engagement between the Arab Muslim army and the
Sassanid Persian army during the first period of Muslim expansion,
didn't happen over a thousand years ago.
This battle serves as a symbol of
an Islamic victory and a humiliating Persian defeat, from which the
Iranians have not recovered to this day. Now they are trying to change
history.
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