Mayhem in the Middle East.

On Wednesday (21/8/13) someone used a chemical weapon believed to be Sarin gas in five suburbs of Syria's capital Damascus killing 355 people. Although this is significantly less then the 1300 people the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA) claim and substantially less then the 5000 people that were killed in the Iraqi city of Halabja in 1988 this is clearly not acceptable and could border on a crime against humanity depending on who was responsible and who was targeted. Of course whomever carried out this attack must have had such good knowledge of events in the UK to know that in the previous week my father had decided to treat our lawn with a chemical herbicide which causes a slight urea like smell. However you have to feel that any neighbours that were annoyed by this were perhaps looking for a reason to be annoyed. Also of course the use of a chemical agent (Buprenorphine) on the unlawful medical experiment on my grandmother made this a very interesting diplomatic conversation to have in the week while I was appear in Court.

Despite the obvious dirty war that has been going on in Syria what I find more interesting is the way in which this use of chemical weapons in Syria prompted a wave of violence across the middle-east region. Things began on Thursday (22/8/13) when four Katyusha rockets were fired from southern-Lebanon into Israel. One of these rockets was destroyed by Israel's Iron Dome defence system and the other three landed in unpopulated areas. Although Katyusha rockets have normally been the preserve of Hezbollah this attack has been claimed by the rival Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Therefore the issue at play here seems to be Hezbollah's involvement in Syria which has been causing them public relations problems. You see although its priority in Syria is stability Israel is actually quite happy for Hezbollah to fight in Syria to defeat the SQIA and keep the Syrian government in power. Hezbollah however is sworn to destroy Israel so being seen to be doing Israel a favour has led to some tension amongst Hezbollah's membership and support base. Therefore Thursday's attack on Israel seems to be either Hezbollah showing that it is still Israel's enemy or the Abdullah Azzam Brigades trying to chip away at Hezbollah's support by showing it is prepared to attack Israel while Hezbollah's appears to be helping Israel.

As such I feel I have to point out that Hezbollah is supporting the Syrian government for entirely selfish reasons. Syria has historically been a strong supporter of Hezbollah providing it with not only cash and weapons but also crucial support on the international level. For example diplomats from the US, the UK and the European Union (EU) are not allowed to speak to Hezbollah directly but they can use an intermediary like Syria. Also Syria provides a key transit point between Hezbollah and their other main supporter Iran because Iranian government planes can't land in Lebanon but they can most certainly land in Syria. Therefore the fall of the Syrian government and the installation of a western puppet regime would create a much weaker Hezbollah and a much stronger Israel.

Israel of course responded to the rocket attack by sending war-planes to bomb targets in northern Lebanon on Friday (23/8/13).  In the first instance this was Israel simply sending out the message that certain things - such as attacks on their territory - could not go unanswered. However the level of violence they used was intended to show that these escalating cycles of attack and retaliation can quickly get out of control. Particularly in places like Lebanon. The fact that Israel attacked targets in northern Lebanon rather then southern Lebanon where the missiles were launched from were also intended to serve as a warning that it knew the US was going to carry out attacks against Sunni Mosques in Tripoli in northern Lebanon later that they.

The reason why Israel is very opposed to the US' current position on Syria is that they know that the fall of the Syrian government is not going to lead to installation of a western puppet regime. Instead they know it is going to lead to a failed state populated by warring Jihadist factions. None of these Jihadist groups will be well armed or organised enough to destroy Israel but they will be able to threaten its security to the point where Israel will be forced to launch attacks outside of its borders in order to protect itself leading to the gradual expansion of Israel. The fact that the Israelis are nowhere near as keen on this plan to expand Israel as the US and the UK are rather proves the point that when you're talking about Zionists you're far more likely to be talking about Protestants than Jews.

As for the twin bombings in Tripoli that was the US trying to make it look like Hezbollah were carrying out a revenge attack for a recent car bombing in Beirut. The intention being to weaken Lebanese support for Hezbollah in order to force them out of the Syria conflict. That's because is Hezbollah don't pull of of Syria the SQIA will soon be defeated and that horrid little war will soon be over.

Tripoli was targeted specifically in order to cause confusion about whether people were referring to the Tripoli in Lebanon or the Tripoli in Libya. That Friday was chosen because the Muslim Brotherhood were staging a "Day of the Martyrs" protest. The intention being to make it appear as if the Brotherhood had chosen that name for their protest in order to warn fellow Sunnis in Lebanon on an impending Shia attack. This obviously starts people looking at all sorts of conspiracies not least the famous and completely unsubstantiated one that the September 11th attacks were a Jewish plot and that Jews were secretly warned to take that specific day of work. With the Fort Hood shooting verdict and the Robert Bale verdict coming later in the day the US was keen to get people across the middle-east thinking and talking about conspiracies because while the US' support for the SQIA will be as unwavering as ther US is dependent on Saudi Arabia and Qatar for oil and natural gas they really have little idea who they're supporting and are desperately trying to learn more.

(Originally Posted) 17:50 on 25/8/13