The Washington Post's Anthony Shadid checks the pulse of the Arab world regarding the rise of the Shia quoting an Egyptian market dweller called Muhsin Mohammed.
"There's a proverb that says, 'Divide and conquer,' " Mohammed said. "Sunnis and Shiites -- they're not both Muslims? What divides them? Who wants to divide them? In whose interest is it to divide them?" he asked.
"It's in the West's interest," he answered. "And at the head of it is America and Israel."
We are not foreign to Arab conspiracies. If the Jews can be blamed for self-inflicting the Holocaust to get themselves a state who could blame them for provoking the Su-Shi war? On the other hand, it is a well known fact that the schism between Sunnis and Shiites dates to the 7th century, hundreds of years before George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and David Ben Gurion were even on the drawing board.
We don't know if we would shed tears if the Su-Shis end up going at each other. The last time they did, during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, it was quite a breather. But hey, don't blame it on us. This family fued is about the decendents of Muhammad's daughter, Fatima, and son-in-law, Ali, not about the decendents of Washington and Ben Gurion.
For some reason the lessons of the 80s -- let 'em kill each other -- are lost. Our efforts in Iraq has been reduced to trying to stop them from killing each other. Even in Gaza, Condi is trying to get them to stop killing each other. Now some complain that the whole region could become one big war with Saudi Arabia joining the fight with Iran. I'd like to see Saudi fight their own battles for once.
One wonders what will happen in Syria. The leadership leans Shiite while the vast majority of the population is Sunni (with some Christians.) Let's step back for awhile. The problem may clear itself up ... nicely.
Posted by: JasonP | Feb 13, 2007 at 23:13