World View: Obama May Use NATO to Justify Missile Attack on Syria

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Obama may use NATO to justify missile attack on Syria
• Further retaliation feared in Lebanon after Friday’s bombings
• Muslim Brotherhood appears to be weakening in Egypt

Obama may use NATO to justify missile attack on Syria

Victims of chemical weapons attack in Syria

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF – Doctors without Borders) says that onWednesday, hospitals it supports in Syria treated about 3,600 patientswith “neurotoxic symptoms”, of whom 355 have died. MSF says thatstaff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arrivingin the space of less than three hours with symptoms includingconvulsions, extreme salivation, contracted pupils and sight andrespiratory problems. With the MSF report, and with continuingreleases to the internet of hundreds of pictures and videos ofWednesday’s chemical weapons attacks, international pressure isbuilding rapidly to take some military action against president Basharal-Assad’s regime. Britain and France are said to have alreadyconcluded that military action is necessary.

There is no chance that the United Nations Security Council willapprove any action, and so President Obama is said to be consideringusing NATO’s 1998 air war in Kosovo as a legal precedent for an attackon Syria.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, hasclaimed that the chemical weapons attack was planned and carried outby opponents of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. As evidence, hepoints to videos of the attack that were posted several hours earlierthan the actual attack. However, it’s now believed that Lukashevichbecame confused because he relied on the time stamps on the YouTubevideos, and the time stamps are always based on California time. Theattack occurred early on Wednesday morning in Syria, while it wasstill Tuesday in California. BBC andThe Atlantic Wire

Further retaliation feared in Lebanon after Friday’s bombings

After Friday’s bombings targeting two Sunni mosques in thenorth Lebanon city of Tripoli, the Lebanese people arefearful that rounds of tit for tat sectarian bombings aregoing to accelerate and worsen. Friday’s bombings cost morethan 47 lives and hundreds of injuries, and were thedeadliest since the 1980s civil war, and were retaliationfor last week’s enormous car bomb targeting the Shia Muslimterrorist group Hezbollah. ( “16-Aug-13 World View — Car bomb in Hezbollah’s Lebanon stronghold kills 20”)

Sunni clerics are accusing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regimefor Friday’s blasts. A statement issued by Al-Qaeda in theIslamic Maghreb (AQIM) said:

“We know with certainty that behind thisdeplorable act committed against are the hands of thevile, rafidah Hezbollah, which stands side by side withBashar in Syria.

That vile party … should know that it will meetretribution soon.”

It was just a few years ago that Muslim terrorist groupsthroughout the Mideast got along well with another, andcooperated in their jihad against Israel. But the Syrianconflict has turned Sunnis and Shias against each, on thetrend line to a massive sectarian war throughout the region.Daily Star (Beirut) and Reuters

Muslim Brotherhood appears to be weakening in Egypt

It was just a week ago that many pundits were predicting acivil war in Egypt between Muslim Brotherhood (MB)supporters versus opponents, but now there are signs thatthe entire conflict has fizzled. MB leaders had called fora massive turnout in protests on Friday. Instead, theturnout was considerably smaller than predicted, and theprotest marches ended relatively quickly. On Friday, thegovernment locked out a large part of Cairo with tanks. Thegovernment has jailed hundreds of MB leaders and has killedalmost 1,000 MB supporters in the last week alone, inactions that many people in the international community arecalling “brutal.” Al-Ahram (Cairo)

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