The Thirty Years War, Syria Version

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At EricMargolis.com, Eric Margolis describes the complex cohort of factions and sects battling it out in Syria as a version of the “madhouse Thirty Years’ War in the 1600s.” He writes:

As a veteran war correspondent, it seems to me that at least many foreign powers are now backing HTS. The US and Israel have been trying to overthrow the Assad regimes since 2011. Israel wanted to cement its hold on the strategic Golan Heights that it captured from Syria. The US, which now occupies the oil producing NE third of Syria, has at least 9,000 troops there and, with Israel, helps the jihadists while publicly denouncing them.

Turkey, whose leader hates Assad, is also highly active in Syria and is most likely providing logistic support to HTS and other jihadist groups while also battling leftist Kurdish groups. Add Russian air units near Latakia, occasional help from Hezbollah groups and minor operations from small Iranian forces. In short, the evolving war in Syria looks increasingly like the awful, madhouse Thirty Year’s War in the 1600’s.

Interestingly, Israel’s far right coalition leaders keep referring to their ambition to ‘remake the face of the Mideast.’ This obviously refers to genocide in Gaza, the open-air prison camp for Palestinians driven in 1948 from their homes in what is today Galilee.  But Israel’s expansionist hard right also has its gaze fixed on Lebanon around the Litani River, the region’s last remaining free water source. It has also long coveted southern Syria, including Damascus, and overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad, a staunch supporter of the Palestinians. Remember, also, that large parts of Iraq are now occupied by US ground forces and air bases. So, a ‘new face’ of the Levant may be indeed emerging out of its current chaos.

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