11.28.2015

Who's Pulling Whose Strings In Syraq's Chaotic Proxy Theater of Puppets and Puppeteers?


The only thing that the pundits and media broadly agree on concerning the chaos in Syria is that it's a proxy war. What they can't agree on is everything else. A proxy war is generally thought of as a war in which two countries are not in direct combat with each other, but both have clear goals that would hurt the other country. This simplistic definition has nothing to do with what's going on in 'Syraq'.

Yes, there is of course the obvious US vs. Russia proxy war. The United States does not feel that Assad should be in power. The Russian government, however, is in favor of keeping in Assad in power. Then there's the Shia vs. Sunni conflict most recently evident between those bankrolling ISIS - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar and those who support Assad's government - Iran and Hezbollah. Then there's the Turkey vs. Kurdistan, Israel vs. Iran, France vs. ISIS, ISIS vs. the west generally as well as the Shia and everyone else who in any way disagrees with their interpretation of the prophet's words.

Then there's all the secondary proxy wars: Israel vs, Hezbollah, for instance. Israel has long seen that keeping the various Muslim actors divided is in their best interests and more recently, according to a 'UN Report Reveals How Israel is Coordinating with ISIS Militants Inside Syria' has been, along with Turkey and the Saudis trying to assist in the overthrow Assad because they see this as the best way to cut off hezbollah from their benefactors - Iran.

China too is stirring the chaos soup with their covert support of Russia and Shia Iran, their partners in trade and banking as well as military agreements, and at the same time showing their consistent stance against the Sunni Uyghurs who they consider terrorists in China.

This must be the most difficult and cofusing set of proxy conflicts ever especially consider that the US-led coalition of 65 countries seems to be fighting both for and against almost everyone on different days. Then there's the support networks behind Washington’s coalition in Syria, each of which has its own agenda, which is comprised of many contributing covert intelligence agencies, including  the CIA, MI5/6, Mossad, France, NATO, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

All of this leads to today's question: In this chaotic proxy theater of puppets and puppeteers, who is pulling whose strings?