Weaponized Islam

"It's too early to know exactly what happened. We are doing our own investigation and the results will be released when we have more information."
Ahmad, Syrian opposition activist, North Lebanon

"The attack shows that someone, it doesn't matter which side, has decided to play fast and loose with a very dangerous weapon. The way Israel sees it is that at one point or another, either accidentally, or on purpose, those weapons will be turned on Israel."
Israeli security council spokesperson

It has not yet been proven that either the regime nor the rebel side in the Syrian conflict was responsible for the use of chemical weapons. On the other hand, it has also not been proven unequivocally that such an attack took place at all.  There are those knowledgeable observers who claim that the distinct evidence of chemical burns and other identifying characteristics were absent on the bodies of those whom it was claimed died, or were injured through the use of deadly chemicals.

There is speculation that the regime has issued a formal alarm to the United Nations, asking for an enquiry, because the government of Syria is convinced that "terrorists", aka rebels -- although admittedly among them there are indeed terrorists -- have launched a fearful chemical attack upon Syrian citizens. The rebels respond as might be anticipated, with the claim that it was the Syrian regime that is responsible for the atrocity.

And not for the first time. The truth is elusive and may be somewhere in between; some have suggested that in raising the alert over chemical weapons used by the rebels -- despite the question whether or not the rebels have the requisite method of delivery, whereas the regime most certainly does -- and suggestively leaving the impression among those who will find it credible, leaves the regime free and clear at a later date to indeed use chemical weapons - citing pay-back.

While it is true that the regime pledged that it would never stoop so low as to use chemical weapons against its own people, just never, ever -- it is well to keep in mind that the constant referencing of "terrorists" fighting among the rebels are those whom the regime could claim to be targeting, for they are not Syrians, not Syrian citizens, but in fact Islamists who have filtered through borders to arrive in Syria to join the Sunni rebels in their goal to upend the Alawite regime by whatever methods are required for victory.

Apart from the fact that there are tens of thousands of well-trained and -armed Hezbollah militia members fighting alongside Syrian troops, and well battle-seasoned members of the Iranian al-Quds battalions of the Republican Guard whose presence and determination and Islamist zeal will more than match and outmatch the determination of Islamist zeal of their sectarian opposites, this conflict will be a long time in the conclusion.

The wretched conditions under which the Syrian civilian population now live in constant fear of artillery attacks, of the need to mobilize themselves to go elsewhere than where those attacks are taking place, living with their families in untenable conditions close to starvation and health privation, bring glory to neither side. On the other hand, their condition is not considered an imperative for improvement by bringing the conflict to an end, through reasonable agreement between adversaries.

This is the Middle East, of cultural, traditional Arab tribalism and the stark fanaticism of the sectarian divide that motivates the region to its constant dysfunctional chaos.  And, in the midst of all of this dysfunction absorbing North Africa as well -- from Lebanon to Libya, Iran to Iraq, Egypt to Mali, Saudi Arabia to Somalia, Algeria to Bahrain, Tunisia to Sudan, Turkey to Qatar -- there is that minuscule sliver of land upon which sits the State of Israel.

Whose presence has been so disproportionately, dreadfully disruptive to the normal goodwill and optimism of the Arab/Muslim world that it has been irremediably tainted, leading to the current, unsolvable dysfunctionality enmeshing that world in violent hostility toward one another. Once that's all solved and set aside, they can focus again on Israel.