Crimson,
RE: the sunni-shiite conflict. The Saudis are playing with fire by openly supporting some sunni factions in iraq and lebanon. The real danger will be that this conflict spreads into an uncontrollable series of civil wars in the oil-rich gulf countries, which have sizeable oppressed shiite minorities. The Sunni-shiite conflict is yet another way to distract the citizens of Middle East dictatorships. Hey look there, the sunnis are coming, or the shiites are coming. Now go fight each other and forget about corruption, poverty and lack of democracy. The most outspoken supporters of the current lebanese government are the Saudis, president mobarak and the king of Jordan, one of which is a shinning example of democracy. One country stands to benefit from such a conflict and that is Israel, for the simple reason that a sunni-shiite war would weaken Israel's main enemies, Syria and Iran and may lead to the fragmentation of arab countries into mini-states divided along ethnic and religious lines.
As for "The Lebanese government has nearly doubled the size of its security forces in recent months by adding about 11,000 mostly Sunni Muslim and Christian troops, and has armed them with weapons and vehicles donated by the United Arab Emirates, a Sunni state.". Good luck with that, given how the shiites were able to repel attacks by an Israeli army 3 times the size and perhaps a 100 times better equipped than this security force. Moreover, the anti-government coalition in Lebanon is in fact composed of shiite, christian and sunni parties that oppose a government that itself is supported by other sunni and christian parties, but no significant shiite parties. |
