The Sunni - Shiite Sectarian Divide Is Increasing

Power Struggles in Middle East Exploit Islam’s Ancient Sectarian Rift -- David Kirkpatrick, New York Times

RIFFA, Bahrain — Black and yellow concrete barricades block the roads entering this wealthy Sunni enclave, where foreign-born Sunni soldiers in armored personnel carriers guard the mansions of the ruling family and the business elite.

Beyond the enclave are impoverished villages of Shiites, about 70 percent of Bahrain’s more than 650,000 citizens, where the police skirmish nightly with young men wielding rocks and, increasingly, improvised weapons like homemade guns that use fire extinguishers to shoot rebar.

Their battles are an extension of sectarian hostilities nearly as old as Islam. But they are also a manifestation of a radically new scramble for power playing out across the region in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring revolts.

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My Comment: This is a 1,400 year old conflict .... attempts to resolved it in the past have always failed .... and they will fail today. The difference is that this is the modern age, and the foreign powers (the U,S. being the last one) are now vacating the region to leave these groups to themselves. My prediction .... this conflict is just starting.

U.N. Security Council Agrees On Syria Chemical Arms Measure

If UN inspection teams can remove even one of the sarin precursors they can all but eliminate Syria’s ability to launch a chemical attack even before the stockpile is completely destroyed, said Daryl Kimball. Photo: Reuters

U.N.’s Five Big Powers Agree On Syrian Resolution Wording -- Washington Post

NEW YORK — The United Nations’ five big powers reached agreement Thursday on a legally binding U.N. Security Council resolution that would require Syria to dismantle its once-secret chemical weapons program or face the threat of unspecified measures, according to senior U.S. and Russian officials.

The deal reached by Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China followed several days of high-level talks in New York. Those talks culminated Thursday afternoon with a face-to-face meeting between Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“We did reach agreement with respect to the resolution; we’re now doing final work putting that language together,” Kerry said after the meeting. “It’s our hope now that . . . this resolution can now give life hopefully to the removal and destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.”

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More News On The U.N. Security Council Agreeing On A Syria Chemical Arms Measure

Deal reached on UN resolution on Syria weapons -- AP
U.S., Russia agree on Syria U.N. chemical arms measure -- Reuters
U.N. Members Agree on Syria Disarmament -- Wall Street Journal
Key Nations at UN Reach Agreement on Syria Weapons -- New York Times
Deal reached on Syria UN resolution -- Al Jazeera
Syria chemical weapons: UN discusses Syria draft text -- BBC
UN security council agrees wording of resolution on Syria chemical weapons -- The Guardian
Russia agrees to back U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria -- L.A. Times
US, Russia agree landmark UN resolution on Syria -- AFP
Global powers agree to compel Syria to hand over chemical weapons -- MSNBC
Syrian chemical munitions can be destroyed in nine months, say officials -- Sydney Morning Herald

Could Syria Ignite World War 3?

The conflict in Syria has already claimed 93,000 lives and left 1.6million people refugees

Could Syria Ignite World War 3? That's The Terrifying Question As The Hatred Between Two Muslim Ideologies Sucks In The World's Superpowers -- Daily Mail

* Syrian conflict could engulf region in struggle between Sunni and Shia
* Already claimed 93,000 lives and made 1.6million people refugees
* UK, France and U.S. taken different side to China and Russia

The crisis in Syria may appear to be no more or less than a civil war in a country many people would struggle to place on a map.

But it’s much more than that: it is rapidly becoming a sectarian struggle for power that is bleeding across the Middle East, with the potential to engulf the entire region in a deadly power struggle between two bitterly opposed Muslim ideologies, Sunni and Shia.

Already, the war inside Syria has resulted in 93,000 dead and 1.6 million refugees, with millions more displaced internally. And those figures are escalating rapidly amid reports of appalling atrocities on both sides.

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My Comment: Another must read post on this centuries old conflict of Sunni versus Shiite is here. As to what is my take .... no one is the Middle East is interested in peace right now. The centuries old animosities and hatreds are now on full display, and unlike 2007-2008 when US forces were deployed to stop the sectarian bloodshed that broke out in Iraq, there is no such military force in the Middle East today. What we now have is the opposite .... major powers supplying weapons to their allies that are only further fueling this conflict.

I expect Syria's civil war to continue, and I also expect it to spread into neighboring states. And as the body count continues skyward in Syria, ethnic cleansing and sectarian enclaves will be the result. The only thing that I do not know for sure is if this sectarian and religious conflict will spread with the same intensity into Lebanon and Iraq. Iraq is certainly suffering a sectarian terrorism campaign that they are unable to stop, and Lebanon has a very long history of Christian-Sunni-Shiite battles. It will not take much to have these countries pushed into an implosion that will make the Syrian civil war a "walk in the park" in comparison .... and if that should happen .... all eyes will then be on Iran and on what it will then do. And if they (Iran) should become involved with boots on the ground .... expect Israel/U.S./Europe/and the Gulf states to jump in ... and jump in quickly. As to counties like Russia and China .... I do not expect them to get involved (aside from supplying weapons).

Pentagon Brass Chafes At Obama's Iraq Pullout Plan

Iraqi Army Maj. Mohammed, executive officer for 3rd Battalion, 9th Brigade, 3rd Division and U.S. Army Capt. David Myers and Capt. Alejandro Gentry, 1st Battalion, 12th Brigade, 3rd Military Transition Team discuss plans for the upcoming elections during a visit to a polling station in the Al Kudis neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, on Jan. 24, 2009. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

From The Daily Star:

WASHINGTON: CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to pullout all US combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting on January 21, sources have said.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Obama's decision to override Petraeus' recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including General Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.

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My Comment: An excellent article .... one that had to be published outside of the U.S. instead of inside. The person/people who leaked this story are obviously not happy (and/or worried) with the direction that the U.S. President is going through in regards to Iraq.

If true, President Obama has clearly overruled what all the Generals and the Defense Department want to do in Iraq. Instead, hHe wants all combat troops out in sixteen months .... the priority now is Afghanistan ..... and what the Generals want be damned.

But the part of the article that I found informative was the last half. The journalist in this article outlines his belief and the belief of his sources that General Petraeus's appointment to be head of CENTCOM was done more for political considerations in the event of an Obama win in the Presidential election than anything else.

I suggest that the entire article be read ..... it is fascinating reading.