The Gathering Storm in Syria

[Adak]

Originally Posted by Griff

I read an interesting article from an unreliable source about the Saudis spending $70 Million on congresscritters to get American intervention. I keep forgetting who pulled the 9/11 job.

Your source is correct. Saudi's work tirelessly to cut the influence of Iran, for two reasons:

1) Iran is shia - and so is Syria (largely). Saudi's are shiite, and to say that they don't get along, is the biggest understatement, you could ever make.

Most of the attacks in Iraq today, are shia vs. shiite.

2) Iran's military build up over the last several decades, has been alarming to every nation in the middle east. Now more than ever, since the potential that Iran will build nuclear weapons.

The last thing anyone except Iran wants in the volatile middle east, is a nuclear arms race. What Iran wants is never perfectly clear, but a greater military strength is clearly one major goal.

[Adak]

Correction to the above post ^^^ : Substitute Sunni, in the above post, in place of Shiite.

Shiite is another term for the Shia branch of Islam, and they are very common in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, and a majority in Iraq, as well.

Sunni's are the most common branch of Islam, in the Saudi Kingdom, Pakistan, and etc.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

I keep forgetting who pulled the 9/11 job.

Humans did it. Which proves all Americans were complicit. Should that be too general, then also too general is to associate any extremist Sunni or Shiite with the actions of any other non-atheist.

The conflicts are directly traceable to extremists. The enemy of all good and decent people - moderates. All extremsits - atheists or non-atheists - are the source of or give comfort to this problem. They use extremist propaganda and hearsay, rather than adult intelligence, to justify their actions and beliefs. They (and not any one religion) are the problem.

[Lamplighter]

I did not know they were working under a deadline...

Washington Post
10/5/13

UN official says chemical weapons inspectors begin destroying Syrian stockpile, machinery

<snip>Their first goal in the undertaking is to scrap the
Assad regime’s capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by Nov. 1.

“Today is the first day of the phase of destruction and disabling.
Verification will also continue,” the official, speaking on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“The plan was that two types categories of materials would be destroyed:
one is equipment for making (weapons) — filling and mixing equipment,
some of it mobile, and some it static. The other is actual munitions.”

Developed during the 1980s and 1990s, Syria’s chemical arsenal is believed
to contain mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, VX and tabun.

Inspectors can use any means to destroy equipment, including crude techniques
like taking sledgehammers to control panels or driving tanks over empty vats.
But the second phase — destroying battle-ready weapons, is more difficult,
time-consuming and expensive. It can be done by incinerating materials
in sealed furnaces at ultra-high temperatures, or by transforming precursor chemicals
or diluting them with water.<snip>

[Adak]

We're reporting that all is going well, atm. Props to Assad on this matter, at least.

He sure had a shitload of chemical weapons! Holy Moly!

[Griff]

Apparently our buddies in Syria lost their warehoused materials to a more Islamic outfit. We're thinking of solving this problem by backing them (the nutters) instead.