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Should We Use Sunnis Against the Shiite Ayatollahs?
...Many Sunnis feel that a new Shiia crescent is emerging that will span Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, a development which the Saudis wish to counter. Earlier this summer, the Gulf monarchies were noticeably silent during the early weeks of the conflict in the Lebanon because they wanted to give Israel time to knock out Irans proxy, the Shiite terror group Hezbollah. It was only when it became apparent that Israel was incapable of doing so that they joined in the criticism. I have become convinced that Shiite power must be destroyed, and that we have no alternative but to play the Sunni-Card. I am aware of Sunni support for al-Qaeda in Iraq, but I believe that a majority of Sunnis will turn on the terrorists once they have no use for them. .JPG) A further sign of changing times came with a meeting between Israeli and Saudi Arabia to discuss the Iranian threat in September. Bizarrely, this went almost unnoticed in the West, despite its huge significance. Some Israeli strategists now speculate that Israel, which is also desperate to prevent the Iranian regime from getting the bomb, and Saudi Arabia, which shares the same goal, could even form an anti-Tehran alliance. That is probably far-fetched but the fact that it is even being discussed is a stark illustration of the extent of Saudi fear at the thought of an Iranian nuclear hegemony. Any Middle East intra-Islamic war of religion, if it comes, would be a horrific, bloody and protracted affair. In Iraq, the Shiite- Sunni divide is already on display at its most brutal. Sunni terrorists bomb Shiite Islams holiest places; Shiite death squads torture and murder as many Sunnis as they can get their hands on. Shia hardliners believe that the only way to break the historic Sunni stranglehold on Iraq is with genocidal violence. Even in majority Sunni countries, such as Pakistan, communal violence is worsening despite government crackdowns. As Sunni-Shia ethnic cleansing grimly gathers pace in Iraq, Saudis worry about the concentration of its Shiite minority in the oil-rich east of the country (concerns heightened when Shiite turnout in the recent municipal elections was double that of the Sunni)... Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2006-12-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=174475 |