Iraq Stands Up To Syria More Than U.S.

FrontPage Magazine ^ | September 1, 2009 | Ryan Mauro

[TDCAnalyst]

While the Obama Administration has decided to send an ambassador to Syria, the Iraqi government has withdrawn theirs. After seven years of Syria supporting the insurgency, deliberately contributing to the deaths of Iraqis and Coalition soldiers, the al-Maliki government is standing up against Assad’s terrorism in a way the U.S. is currently failing to.

The diplomatic crisis began shortly after twin bombings in Baghdad on August 19. The attacks occurred across the street of the Foreign Ministry and at the Finance Ministry, killing over 100 people. This was the deadliest incident since U.S. forces were removed from the cities, handing control over to the Iraqi Security Forces on June 30. Although the Islamic State of Iraq, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed credit for the attacks, the Iraqi government does not believe they are the only ones responsible.

The al-Maliki government, realizing that it must confront its terrorism-sponsoring neighbors as U.S. forces leave, threw down the gauntlet with Syria following the attacks, accusing the Assad regime of harboring Iraqi Baathists who ordered them.

“Our relations with Syria have reached a crossroads of whether they choose to have good relations with Iraq, or whether they choose to protect persons who attack Iraq,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesperson. Among these, al-Dabbagh said, are Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan.

Syria is not only supporting the Baathist element of the insurgency, but is also supporting

Al-Qaeda, which has disregarded its theological differences with both the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists in order to destabilize the region. The Italian press has reported that in June, Sheikh Issa al-Masri, a high-level Al-Qaeda terrorist, left Pakistan and arrived in Syria via Iran. He is currently in Damascus, protected by Syrian intelligence, and is suspected of having a role in the twin bombings...

[boomop1]

The evil one is for our enemies.

[MissesBush]

I said all along the key to ending the insurgency in Iraq was to hit Syria and hit them hard. Then maybe they’d think twice about being a transit and staging ground for terrorists. But we won’t. So people die because Obama needs to be worshipped.

[Captain Kirk]

This is better described as a Shi’ite v. Sunni conflict, hence Maliki as shut down opponents of the Shi’ite Iranian government while he is saber rattling against the Ba’athist secular (though Sunni controlled) regime in Damascus.

[MissesBush]

The Syrian regime comes out of the Alawite minority in Syria which is a sect of Shia, not Sunni, Islam. From Wikipedia “ Alawis are self-described Shi’i Muslims, and have been called Shia by other sources[6][7] including the highly influential Lebanese Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr of Lebanon.[14] On the other hand, conservative Sunnis do not always recognize Alawi as Muslims.” Remember, Assad’s father Hafez wiped out something like 10,000 Sunnis during a rebellion in Northern Syria in the early 80s.

[Captain Kirk]

Thanks for the useful information. As Johnny Carson once said, “I did not know that.”