[Skybird]

I frown. Because I cannot believe that there were people at the Guardian or in the world who seriously believed that AQ has not engaged in what is an inviting opportunity to them. The rebels in Syria are a wide conglomerate of different factions anyway, and my impression is most of them have an outspoken "fundamentalist" agenda.

That's why I am against the West getting enaged on their behalf with bombers, troops, and the like, and also not to deliver them Western hightech weapons. Major monetarian supply seems to be coming from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states anyway, the money being used for buying weapons of Russian production on the black market. Turkey has engaged heavily in coordinating this. Rebels are even allowed to maintain a training base and a headquarter in Turkey. It seems Erdoghan I. and Assad are no longer in love with each other. Turkey also worries about Kurdish sovereignity given to Syrian Kurds.

Then there is the massive ethnic tension. Assad belongs to a minority group that thinks it is fighting for its very own survival as well. They have control of most of the armed forces, and key posts in business and finances.

It will be a mess over there for years to come. It is a proxy war of the old Sunni-Shia confrontation (and Saudi Arabia versus Iran). So it is last but not least a religious war, and I think it is this more than anything else. I agree with those seeing this as a new Lebanon.

If some people in the media and politics still think this is just a revolt against a dictator and it is just about removing this dictator and gaining freedom and democracy, then I really cannot help it.