The conflict in Syria has already claimed 93,000 lives and left 1.6million people refugees
Could Syria Ignite World War 3? That's The Terrifying Question As The Hatred Between Two Muslim Ideologies Sucks In The World's Superpowers -- Daily Mail
* Syrian conflict could engulf region in struggle between Sunni and Shia
* Already claimed 93,000 lives and made 1.6million people refugees
* UK, France and U.S. taken different side to China and Russia
The crisis in Syria may appear to be no more or less than a civil war in a country many people would struggle to place on a map.
But it’s much more than that: it is rapidly becoming a sectarian struggle for power that is bleeding across the Middle East, with the potential to engulf the entire region in a deadly power struggle between two bitterly opposed Muslim ideologies, Sunni and Shia.
Already, the war inside Syria has resulted in 93,000 dead and 1.6 million refugees, with millions more displaced internally. And those figures are escalating rapidly amid reports of appalling atrocities on both sides.
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My Comment: Another must read post on this centuries old conflict of Sunni versus Shiite is here. As to what is my take .... no one is the Middle East is interested in peace right now. The centuries old animosities and hatreds are now on full display, and unlike 2007-2008 when US forces were deployed to stop the sectarian bloodshed that broke out in Iraq, there is no such military force in the Middle East today. What we now have is the opposite .... major powers supplying weapons to their allies that are only further fueling this conflict.
I expect Syria's civil war to continue, and I also expect it to spread into neighboring states. And as the body count continues skyward in Syria, ethnic cleansing and sectarian enclaves will be the result. The only thing that I do not know for sure is if this sectarian and religious conflict will spread with the same intensity into Lebanon and Iraq. Iraq is certainly suffering a sectarian terrorism campaign that they are unable to stop, and Lebanon has a very long history of Christian-Sunni-Shiite battles. It will not take much to have these countries pushed into an implosion that will make the Syrian civil war a "walk in the park" in comparison .... and if that should happen .... all eyes will then be on Iran and on what it will then do. And if they (Iran) should become involved with boots on the ground .... expect Israel/U.S./Europe/and the Gulf states to jump in ... and jump in quickly. As to counties like Russia and China .... I do not expect them to get involved (aside from supplying weapons).