Syria Trap

This is a super-conspiracy theory to understand what is going on in Syria. The theory is like most conspiracy theories--long on plot, short on evidence. Here is the plot.

The Syria plot has ben planned by the Saudi and Iran leadership, which on its face seems ridiculous. Why? The Saudi population is 85-90% Sunni, while Iran is about 90% Shia, with great hostility between the groups. However, we assume that Saudi and Iranian leadership use Sunni-Shia hostility as a way to maintain internal control (much as US politicians stoke and exaggerate left-right or Democrat-Republican hostility as a way of maintaining their rule). The Sunni and Shia leadership are no different from Western politicians, in that their primary interest is maintaining their power and accumulating money.

In 2007 there was an Iran-Saudi summit, where both sides appeared to be friendly and agreed to find ways to reduce strife between the two groups. Most important, both Saudi and Iranian leaders agreed that their main enemy is the "imperialists" who do what they can to foster Sunni-Shia hostility, and that Iran and the Saudis must work together to limit the power of the imperialists.

Fast forward: Obama is perceived as a threat to all Muslim states because of his ideological bent toward democracy, his love of the Arab Spring, his policies to undermine all traditional leaders in the Middle East, and his love affair with non-fossil fuels (wind, solar, and the soon to be accepted fracking for natural gas). Obama is also perceived as being pro-Israel, and committed to keeping Israel as the dominant power in the region (which is why "no Nukes for Iran" policy).

So the Saudis and Iranians conspire to draw Obama into a new quagmire by leading him to draw the redline, and requiring him to follow through with a cruise missile attack. The US is loaded with super-hawks (e.g. McCain and Graham) that the Saudis and Iranians recruited indirectly through their ties with All-American hawks who are pro-Arab oil.

Assad is the Judas goat: he gasses his own people to get Obama to honor his red-line pledge (Aside: why else would Assad, who appears to have the upper hand militarily, risk offending the Western powers by using a non-strategic gas attack on civilians, not on insurgents). Yes, Assad did use gas in order to lure Obama into the trap.

Scenario: Obama launches cruise missiles against Syria. This serves to unify Muslims of different stripes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria (Sunni, Shia, Alawite, Hezbollah, al Qaida, etc.) against the US as the enemy of all Muslims. This also serves to weaken Israel without their US sponsor and to create unified anti-Israel sentiment in the region.

End game: Obama is weakened and unable to push his democracy agenda in the Middle East. Iran and Saudi Arabia agree to share control over the Middle East and to force the West to accept new terms for pursuing there interest.

End of plot.