Viral, Vicious Choices

That's one hell of a difficult toss-up. At least as far as the civilized world is concerned. A choice -- that is, if one had the choice -- of choosing to support a terrorist group backed by a country whose support for such terror groups is common knowledge and which is itself immersed in institutionalizing human rights abuses against its own nations, and is now aiding another corrupt regime which is brutalizing its own people. Or, on the other hand, a group of religious fanatics whose fascist zealotry makes them the equal in terror of the other group.

The difference between them? Mostly that one is Shia Muslim, the other Sunni Muslim. The Sunnis supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the most part, and the Shias backed by Iran, Hezbollah and Iraq. The West anxiously wishing the rebels consisted only of Syrians. And the threat of civil war that has imperilled the citizens of Syria, killing tens of thousands, wounding at least as many, and making millions homeless, threatening to engulf its close neighbours. Those neighbours that have seen tens of thousands of frightened Syrian refugees camp within their borders as refugees.

In this two-year-old revolutionary conflict it seemed that the balance of power was held somewhere in the middle. That the geography of the country was dividing itself into territory held by the Free Syrian Army for the National Opposition, an umbrella group representing mostly Sunni Syrians who had been oppressed by the Shia minority under Alawite rule on the one hand, and by the regime forces, representing Shia Islam, on the other.

And then it seemed as though the rebel militias, never well organized, never coordinated, but furiously intent on unseating President Bashar al-Assad from his domination of the country were on the upswing. Bolstered by the presence among themselves of seasoned fighters from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and North Africa, among them al-Qaeda-connected Islamist militias that were more experienced in combat and better armed than the rebels. And who succeeded in making advances that the rebels would never have managed on their own.

Now, a response to the presence of foreign terrorists in the form of fully-fledged commitment from Lebanon's Hezbollah, the proxy terror militia of Iran, which has joined the Iranian Republican Guard within Syria to aid President al-Assad in his mission to destroy the rebels' crucial successes in advance the presence in key areas of the country. And now, suddenly, the regime's military is more assured, more capable, more determined, and the balance has now been tipped in the favour of the regime.

The only positive thing that has resulted in this melee is that Hamas participation has been taken out of the equation. Although funded and armed and trained by Iran, Hamas has balked at the prospect of conflict with Sunni Syrians. Their reward has been a cut of up to $23.6-million monthly in funding; due punishment for abandoning Iran's effort to bolster President al-Assad's regime. But on the other hand, Hamas has picked up another financial sponsor; Qatar has handsomely stepped into the breach. Though Hamas has not yet joined the Syrian fray in support of the Sunni polarity.

President Assad, nonetheless, feels confident enough to boast on Lebanese TV stations owned by Hezbollah that he is in the ascendancy. His military's new offensive would continue, prospective peace plan or not -- should such an event even be feasible, since the opposition refuses to attend in light of the massacre  taking place in Qusayr. Assad's supporters, Iran and Russia are powerful and well placed to take the lead in negotiations with the West, anxious over the fate of ordinary Syrians.

The Homs region, once seeming to be secure in the grasp of the rebels is now teetering toward the regime. Strategically vital, linking Damascus with the heartland of the Alawite minority sect, the regime requires that it be once again secure under its dominating influence to succeed in defeating the rebels. The coast is important for the simple fact this is where Syria's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus exist. And Tartus is where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is ensconced.

In addition to securing Qusyar, another important link for both the regime and the rebels, although that outcome is not yet clear, Damascans terrified that the rebels which were successfully nibbling away at the outskirts, might succeed in taking their city, the country's capital, now have the relief of breathing room, with the embattled rebels desperately attempting to hold onto their gains wherever they can.

Russian support for the Syrian regime and its extension of that support to encompass Hezbollah as well, since Moscow refused to permit a Security Council sanction against Hezbollah for flooding into Syria and creating a desperate situation in Qusayr, with intimations of injured civilians dying for want of medical attention, of food shortages, of a Hezbollah attack against the evacuation of wounded, has created a quite obvious situation of confrontation between East and West.

All is not yet lost of the rebels, who have held the town for the past two years. Other militias of the Free Syrian Army have left their posts in other key geographies to add their numbers to the badly outnumbered, out-weaponized, exhausted, wounded and desperate rebels trying to hold on to Qusayr.
And it's a hard call to make; France, Britain and the U.S. wanting to arm the rebels, fearing to since they know where they will end up, with al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

It depends, it seems, on which breed of terrorist seems more preferable than the other. And that's a hard, hard pill to swallow.