Assad is a lesser evil

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jun 29, 2012 at 17:46

David D wrote :

> By the way I am very familiar with the Armenian holocaust.<

So what do you think? Why has your government not recognized it yet?

>So are you saying that Assad should stay? I must admit I don't have all the answers but its apparent that you think you do. How about coming up with solutions instead complaints. Assad has to go. He can move to Iran. Yes, it will get worse before it gets better. <<

He is a much lesser evil than al-Qaeda and the Moslem Brotherhood that are now operating in Syria , Libya and Egypt and some other places. You know sometimes we have to choose not between good and evil but between lesser evil and greater evil.

Besides, the problem is not Syria , but Qatar and Saudi Arabia that stand behind all this turmoil. What is at stake in Syria is, of course, not democracy or human rights (frankly, who cares about them in the grim and cynical world we are living in?) promoted by terrorists but natural gas. Qatar holds 14% of all known natural-gas reserves and is the world's third-largest producer behind Russia and Iran. Its partners are Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum. Politically, it is closely allied to Paris, London and Washington. A military US base "Al-Udeid" guarantees its security. Consequently, Qatar has great wealth and grand ambitions that focus on the newly discovered gas fields in the Mediterranean and its two competitors - Iran and Russia. Syria plays a key role in this configuration. It has got a long Mediterranean coast where the Russians have their naval base in Tartus. And Qatar dreams of control over a few Mediterranean ports in Syria to make easier its transport of natural gas over gas pipelines and then from the ports directly to Europe or further on land through Turkey to Europe. This is what makes Turkey so important.

But beside the Russian naval base there is a serious problem of gas competition. Last year Syria signed a strategic deal with Iran. It allows Iran to transfer Iranian natural gas from South Pars gas field to Europe. But Iranian gas is just one rival Qatar wants to ruin. Russia is yet another and a much bigger one. Cheap Qatari gas in Europe would mean the end of the Russian Gasprom and thus the end of one of the main sources of income to Russia. Qatar has already tried to oust the Gasprom from its traditional markets such as Italy and Poland, where the Qatari Liquified Natural Gas will flow in 2013. There are active negotiations on the export of Qatari gas to the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus. In Asia Qatari liquefied natural gas is putting Russian LNG produced on Sakhalin and in the Far East under pressure.

So if Syria falls, then the Qataris will get a major victory in their private natural gas war. The Iranian natural gas pipeline won't be built . The Russians will have to leave Syria and Europe will be flooded with cheap Qatari gas killing the Russian competition. Huge money and the future of the natural gas market is at stake.

One more thing. Note that by knocking down Syria and shi'a-run Iran you will just strengthen Saudi Arabia and Qatar -the two very dangerous wahhabi regimes. And I don't know what is worse for us kafirs - Iran or Saudi Arabia?To my mind the best thing would be to set the sunnis and shia'as against each other and keep them in a permanent state of war and mutual fear , instead of making the sunnis strong by eliminating the shi'as.Nobody is going to win from such a policy but our enemies -Saudi Arabia and Qatar and their Islamic agenda.

> I must admit I don't have all the answers but its apparent that you think you do. How about coming up with solutions instead complaints. Assad has to go. He can move to Iran. Yes, it will get worse before it gets better. <

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".