Canada is Concerned

"Canada is concerned that the civil war is turning Syria into a hub for terrorist activities that will heighten the terrorist threat to Canada, Canadians and Canadian interests.
"Individuals have travelled to Syria from around the world -- including from Canada -- to fight the Syrian government. Some of these foreign fighters are suspected of joining local extremist groups. As a result, some experienced extremists from other conflict zones like Iraq and Afghanistan are now operating in Syria.
"Canada is also concerned that Syria's conventional and chemical weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist groups.
"Canada is concerned that the conflict is attracting individuals from other countries to the region, including two Canadian citizens involved in the Algeria attack."
2013 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada

The report and its findings has recently been released and elaborated upon through an interview with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. Syria, points out the report, was fast becoming a "major theatre of operations" for terrorists, and in the process "reinvigorating" the extremist cause. But, in fact, the 'extremist cause' surfaces with renewed vigour anywhere in the Arab and Muslim world where conflict rears. Take, for example, Libya, Mali, Algeria, Egypt and now Syria.

When the activities pick up leading to mass conflict, in flock the jihadists eager for the opportunity to join the fray and make their mark. If it's not upon the infidels, then the deadly direction is toward other Muslims, and sectarianism becomes the poisoned chalice. Syria's confrontation with citizen disaffection between the minority-sect rulers and the majority-sect losers simply turned out to be a more prolonged and deadly face-off than Egypt's, and Libya's.

Tunisia, where it all began, though hosting an Islamist presence which continually challenges the governing legitimacy of the ruling party, was a mild takeover in comparison. No other dictator than Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has been as vigorously offensive and capable of calling upon strength from a powerful ally like Iran and their Hezbollah allies to ensure that the rebellious uprising does not succeed.

As the international community and the United Nations decry the brutality and the atrocities that each side commits against the other, the standoff continues and becomes more horrendously destructive of human life and civil infrastructure, no real move has been made to separate the antagonists and the battles rage on, creating greater numbers of desperate refugees to strain the safe-haven capabilities of Syria's neighbours.

And as the brutalities pile up, and the Shia and the Sunnis become more hysterically engaged in their tempestuous hate-fest against one another, greater numbers of internationally-based Muslims will respond to the call for jihad to defend their version of the religion of peace.  New recruits will come forward because they understand that the Shia wish to dominate the Sunnis by extreme force and vice-versa cannot be tolerated.

Then there's the little matter of weapons, and specifically weapons of mass destruction. What is happening in Syria is a mode of rehearsal for Iran's future as a nuclear-weapons-wielding state, using that threat to dominate its neighbours and potentially making use of it to destroy the presence of a neighbour whose presence Iran abhors. If the Syrian regime is able to use its chemical weapons stockpiles to advantage in meeting the rebel onslaught, there are no limits left.

And there lies the crux of a particular problem. Whom to support? Best not to support either side since each is guilty of atrocities, of mass slaughter, of fanaticism and poses a dire threat to the regional stability, let alone that of the greater world community. Lack of involvement means consigning civilians to death, maiming, homelessness, deprivation of humane treatment by whichever side is triumphant.

Yet undertake to arm one group against the other and those arms will most certainly end up aiding the ferociously ardent terrorists who never blanch at the prospect of committing further atrocities. Take more direct action by actually committing to troops on the ground to separate the combatants, or to create a situation similar to Libya's where NATO created a no-fly zone to aid the rebels, and a like situation ensues, with terrorists moving in with ease.

The Assad regime's rhetoric about the rebels consisting primarily of terrorists, jihadists, criminals has a partial ring of truth. On the other hand, the Assad regime is comprised of very like-minded fanatics and brutalized thugs. The Canadian report has accused President Bashar al-Assad of sponsoring terrorist violence in Lebanon and Turkey.

"There's at least a couple of dozen major organizations involved and some of those are of concern, what we would I think call terrorists." That's a discreet understatement from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. "As well, certain Iranian-backed groups are fighting on behalf of the old Syrian government." No kidding.

The Canadian concern of chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorist groups, another allied issue. And yet another, the expansion of al-Qaeda-linked extremism exhibited through rising extremist violence in Nigeria and northern Mali. But while the United States has finally been obliged through the advent of chemical attacks and red lines to agree to arm the rebels, Canada will not.