{"id":3064,"date":"2013-07-23T14:50:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T21:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=3064"},"modified":"2013-07-26T01:46:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T08:46:55","slug":"3064","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=3064","title":{"rendered":"Ten Years On, Militant Salafism and Millenarian Shi’ism Conflating Iraq and Syria Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Humvee-web\"<\/a>

On the road outside Nasiriyah following an American Humvee, May 2003. The gulf in understanding between Iraqis and their newly arrived American interlopers was visibly evident in the differences in driving styles and bizarre hand gestures made toward locals by the U.S. soldiers. From the very beginning, the Office of Special Plans ambitious Iraq project appeared doomed, at least in my personal observations. \u00a92003 Derek Henry Flood<\/p><\/div>\n

New York-\u00a0<\/strong>I have a new article out on how the ongoing war in Syria is helping stoke sectarian tensions in Iraq that are manifesting themselves in the form of daily suicide bombings<\/a>, shootings, and dual massive AQ jailbreaks<\/a>. My article examines how the unrelenting carnage in Syria<\/a>\u00a0has not only taken the place of Iraq in the global media spotlight, but is also directly fueling renewed conflict in Iraq itself. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), sometimes referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has now added “ash-Sham” (“the Levant”-i.e. Syria and perhaps they’re including Lebanon as well). So the ISI is now the ISIS. Sunni Salafism has only expanded in Syria as the fractious umbrella of the Free Syrian Army is simply a much less efficient fighting force than their jihadi counterparts.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>\u00a0At the same time, Hezbollah from Lebanon and Shia groups from Iraq are officially sending in fighters to both the front line in places like al-Qusayr and to protect Shia holy places like the shrine of\u00a0Sayyida Zaynab<\/a>\u00a0on the outskirts of Damascus and When the Sayyida Zainab site is perceived as threatened, it makes for a an easily rallying call for Shia on either side of Syria<\/a>\u00a0to mobilize to protect and defend not only the religious pilgrimage site, but also the Assad regime that controls the territory such a site rests on.<\/p>\n

Both Salafi-jihadis and more Qom-oriented activist Shia have been working to unite Syria and Iraq as a single battleground. Though there are important schisms within the Shia perspective such as Najaf vs. Qom<\/a>\u00a0and creating a Sunni Islamic state within borders of a finite post-colonial nation-state vs. an idealized borderless caliphate, it cannot be denied or played down that the wars in Syria and Iraq are now inextricably linked. And Lebanon has been drawn in in full view in terms of sub-state or non-state groups protecting what the believe are their interests in Syria.<\/p>\n