A Bleak Look at the Wests Vision for SyriaTony Cartalucci Fighting for Democracy We were first told that the so-called rebels were fighting for democracy. As the West began to acknowledge that the rebels were in fact sectarian extremists, the narrative shifted to simply, fighting to oust Assad. However, entire battles have been fought not between the Western-backed terrorists and the Syrian Army, but rather between the terrorists and local tribes, Kurdish militias, and virtually anyone who attempts to oppose the invading militants, many of whom are foreigners. In Reuters Rebels battle with tribesmen over oil in Syrias east, the narrative of pro-democracy freedom fighters crumbles entirely: Islamist rebels are clashing with tribesmen in eastern Syria as struggles over the regions oil facilities break out in the power vacuum left by civil war, activists said on Saturday. The fighting, which started in late March and lasted 10 days, was part of a new pattern of conflict between tribal groups and the Nusra Front, said a report from the Observatory, a British-based group which opposes Syrias government and draws information from a network of activists in the country. Reuters continues: What is being described is collective punishment of the variety used by the Nazis against the people it invaded and attempted to subjugate. The fate of territory under terrorist control in eastern Syria portends the fate of greater Syria should the government fall to what is clearly a pillaging sectarian tyranny. Not only are the rebels not fighting for democracy, they are not even fighting the Syrian government. Instead they are fighting to pillage the oil from a region they invaded and are currently occupying. Whats worse is that the EU is attempting to lift sanctions on Syrian oil, specifically so these occupying sectarian extremists can further fund and expand their campaign. Reuters reports: The incentive for disputes over lucrative resources may be increased by plans by the European Union to lift an embargo on Syrian oil, which would make it easier to sell. What of Syrias Christians? APRs article, Syrias Christian Minority Lives in Fear of Kidnapping and Street Battles, gives us updated insight to the plight of Syrias Christian population, who had lived in fellowship with Muslims, Druze, and Kurds until the Western-fueled sectarian bloodbath triggered in 2011. The article states: Prior to the conflict, many saw Ras al-Ayn as a beacon of tolerance between Muslims and Christians. Residents say that they there is still a camaraderie among the citizens that live there, but that problems arise from those fighting who dont live in the city, be they FSA, YPG [Kurdish militia known as the Popular Defense Forces], or Islamists. The article describes the fighting, with rebel militants invading Ras al-Ayn. The Syrian military and Kurdish militias (referred to in the article as YPG), were pushed out of areas where the militants then established a foothold. Devastation by fighting, rampant crime, and sectarian violence caused some 65% of the population to flee the city solving the mystery of just who is driving the refugee crisis ironically the same refugee crisis the UN and the West have attempted to use as justification to further fund, arm, and aid the terrorists. The article would continue by describing life for those who remain, who appear to be barricaded in what might be described as a ghetto: In an article written for a Christian Orthodox website, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Eusthathius Matta Roham called the Islamists, without naming Jabhat specifically, a great threat to the lives of Syrian Christians in Ras al-Ayn. He also praised the YPG for rooting out the rebels and protecting the Christian neighborhood. Like many other Christians interviewed, a 24-year-old Christian named Diana refuses to answer questions about the specific armed factions. We dont know about the fighting groups. All we want is the fighting to stop, she said. My home has been destroyed, everyone has left. I asked her who she was scared of. Everyone, she replied. My future is gone. Previously she had studied in Aleppo, but she rarely leaves her neighborhood now. Of particular concern to the Christians is kidnapping, which only some would admit seems specifically targeted at Christians. Despite this damning indictment, the Atlantic piece is also filled with attempts to downplay what is clearly a catastrophic sectarian conflict, spawning atrocities and a humanitarian crisis. Such a blood bath was warned against as early as 2007, where Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were purposefully planning to unleash sectarian extremists in Syria to overthrow the government. While the West now claims the rise of Al Qaeda is an unintended coincidence, Hersh reported in the 2007 article, The Redirection, that: To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabias government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. Hersh quoted former CIA agent Robert Baer, who warned about the dangers of fueling sectarian extremists: Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, weve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now its going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites. While Baers comments were in regards to Lebanon, the conflict in neighboring Syria has turned out to be just as cataclysmic, with Syrias Christians and other minorities in equal or greater peril. Clearly, Western-backed terrorists are not just fighting the Assad regime, they are fighting anyone opposed to their sectarian ideology which is both hardly democratic, and hardly anything to do with freedom. Predictably, unthinkable atrocities are being carried out in a wave of violence and subjugation that is leaving a broken society everywhere it sweeps through. Through the destruction of physical infrastructure, the crumbling of Syrias institutions, and the extermination or driving out of Syrias minorities, what the West backs as regime change, is in reality calculated sectarian genocide. In terrorist-controlled territory, we see a vignette of the future Syria the West imagines one not unlike the now dysfunctional, decimated Libya, or the totalitarian regimes of Tunisia and Egypt, both ruled by the sectarian crypto-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. These are purposefully imposed nightmares couched behind humanitarian concern and democracy promotion. It is clear that in areas the Western media claim are devoid of government troops, abuse, atrocities, tyranny, humanitarian catastrophe, and despair only increase. The rationale made by the West to continue fueling this conflict and extend this state of chaos across the entire country, poses to the rest of the world a moral imperative to not only condemn this conspiracy against the Syrian people, but to oppose it and ensure that it utterly fails. Tony Cartaluccis articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 