"Bombings in Iraq aren’t just killing Iraqis – they’re also helping Syria’s Assad"

[Comrade Grumpy]

From the Washington Post's foreign policy blog:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/30/bombings-in-iraq-arent-just-killing-iraqis-theyre-also-helping-syrias-assad/

Yet another wave of bombings struck Iraq on Monday, killing at least 51 in the latest of the country's worsening violence. The attacks are typically conducted by extremist groups, including al-Qaeda's local branch, who belong to Iraq's Sunni minority, and tend to be committed against civilians from the Shi'a majority. The bombings have long been and continue to be very bad news for Iraqis, who have to worry about terrorism, sectarian violence and the growing threat of political instability.

Iraq's violence is also bad news for Syria. And not just because the group behind many of the bombings, the al-Qaeda-allied ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria), is also pushing into Syria, where it's importing it's experience at causing mayhem. The stronger that Sunni extremists grow in Iraq, the more that Iraqi leaders are worried about how the war turns out in Syria. They fear that Sunni extremist groups like ISIS will turn all or part of Syria into an al-Qaeda-controlled state, similar to Taliban-run Afghanistan, and use it as a base to launch even more attacks against the Shi'a civilians and government in Iraq.

This fear of an al-Qaeda-run Syria may be leading Iraq's government to offer greater support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Baghdad sees as the lesser of two evils. And that support – which also involves Iran – could be playing a significant role in shaping the course of the Syrian civil war.

Iraqi leaders are not in love with Assad and, like American officials, are not eager to get sucked into Syria's civil war. But, according to a recent story by the New Yorker's Dexter Filkins on Iran's regional foreign policy, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has chosen to help Assad because he fears what would happen if the Syrian government collapsed. Iraq is not directly involved in Syria, but Maliki does allow Iran to conduct daily flights of personnel and supplies into Syria, where it is playing an increasingly crucial and direct role in propping up Assad.

<snip>

More worth reading after the snip, as is Dexter Filkins' New Yorker piece, which is mentioned.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. The headline is sort of misleading.

Syria is not conducting bombings or encouraging bombings in Iraq. If the Syrian government is being "helped' by the sectarian violence in Iraq is is only indirectly in that the horror show there is making the anti-government forces in Syria difficult for Western governments to support.