“On his eighth trip to fight with the rebels in Syria, in August, Abu Khattab saw something that troubled him: two dead children, their blood-soaked bodies sprawled on the street of a rural village near the Mediterranean coast. He knew right away that his fellow rebels had killed them. Abu Khattab, a 43-year-old Saudi hospital administrator who was pursuing jihad on his holiday breaks, went to demand answers from his local commander, a notoriously brutal man named Abu Ayman al-Iraqi. The commander brushed him off, saying his men had killed the children “because they were not Muslims,” Abu Khattab recalled recently during an interview here. It was only then that Abu Khattab began to believe that the jihad in Syria — where he had traveled in violation of an official Saudi ban — was not fully in accord with God’s will. But by the time he returned to Riyadh, where he now volunteers in a program to discourage others from going, his government had overcome its own scruples to become the main backer of the Syrian rebels, including many hard-line Islamists who often fight alongside militants loyal to Al Qaeda……………..”
The Saudis are going all out to win Syria for their brand of Wahhabi democracy. They have come out of the closet openly in support of Al Qaeda affiliates, based on the old Arab tribal saying that: “Me and My Brother Against My Cousin, Me and My Cousin Against the Outsider” (The Saudi princes have now refined that saying by adding the following: “……… Me and the Outsider against the Zionists, Me and the Israelis against the Shi’as”). Not that they have not supported Al Qaeda before: the terrorist group is Saudi born, bred, and breast-fed at the teat of Saudi and Gulf petro-money.
The Saudis have been seeking surrogates to fight for their goals in Syria (and in Lebanon and Iraq and Iran). At one point or another they had thought the Americans were on the verge of attacking Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. But the Obama administration seems to have dodged that bullet. Now they seem to believe the French, those habitual and opportunistic invaders of West Africa, could help them. They also seem to be under the illusion that the Lebanese Army can hand Lebanon over to the Wahhabi cause. Hence the announced $3 billion of weapons to be supplied by France to Lebanon with Saudi money. Some generals and warlords are licking their chops waiting for the kickback money: it is really a bribe to the leaders of the army and some Lebanese potentates. They are as amenable to Saudi money as (almost) anybody else in Lebanon, but the majority of the soldiers are not. Once the army gets involved in domestic conflicts, the soldiers will dissolve back onto their respective religions and sects and militias: and hereditary warlords. That is Lebanese politics for you.
Cheers
mhg
