Sunni-Shia Polarization – PREVIEW TO WW3
Facebook Page “Eastwind Journals” (no. 203)
By Bernie V. Lopez
Disclaimer – the views in this article are the author’s alone.
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Chinese billionaire Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba) said that the US wasted US$14 trillions in the last 30 years on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure (Source – Global economic growth is based on both war and peace. Peace brings growth and harmony to all. War brings growth only to a powerful few, and decline to all others. War as a US foreign policy is slowly strangling its economy, as the weapons-makers and their funders grow rich and the US terrorist enemies grow rapidly to destroy that wealth. Pakistan welcomed Chinese multinationals and spurned US ones. China is taking over the development of the entire Middle East and Africa based on peace. The US is destroying the entire planet because it lacks the wisdom of true development among its Harvard- and Yale-trained leaders. True development goes outward not inward, as Jack Ma proposes. It is selfless, not selfish. It is based on the empowerment of the small as a basis of rapid growth, the Alibaba experience.
BREAKING NEWS – Philippines shuts down 23 mines, mostly nickel. The Philippines is a top nickel source, accounting for 24% of global supply in 2015, according to Morgan Stanley. Environment czar Gina Lopez says water for Filipinos is non-negotiable. “No amount of money warrants the life of the Filipino. I don’t care. That’s water.” The Chamber of Mines, dominated by mining multinationls, will have a dialogue with Duterte to present its side. They will dispute the DENR findings and if they fail due to hard evidence of pollution, they will promise to clean up if allowed to continue, which majority of multinationals failed to keep for decades. Clean up without pre-conditions. They warned that this would hurt the economy. Better to hurt the economy than hurt the affected Filipinos. The Chamber statement shows its insensitivity to humans and its greed.
Sunni-Shia Polarization – PREVIEW TO WW3
The complex Syrian conflict may linger for a few more rapid-escalation years in preparation to World War III, if doomsday prophets are right. The US wants a Sunni regime in Syria in preparation for the invasion of Shiite Iran. Russia will opt for an all-out war, if Iran is invaded because it is the last buffer to its border. This may be the final ingredient to Armageddon, World War III.
World Wars I and II were preceded by, first, gradual, then rapid polarization of Allied-Axis blocs. Fence sitters like the US were finally ‘sucked in’ to the war. World War III will be the same – the polarization of Sunni and Shia across the entire Middle East, which has sucked in US and Russia, to be followed by fence sitters China, EU, NATO who will all wage energy wars in the name of survival (read “Pipeline Wars”, to usher in what the Book of Revelation calls Armageddon, the final battle among the most powerful kings.


Sunni-Shia Polarization in Syria – Preview to World War III (as of Dec. 2016)
Global powers
Regional powers
Turkey (Sunni side)-Qatar-Egypt*
ISIS-Faisha-Al Nusra-Misc Jihadists
Fence sitters or low-
profile involvement
* The United Nations is perceived as subtly in favor of the US-NATO coalition. Egypt is poised to send warplanes and troops as of December 2016. Israel (not in the table) is for the weakening of all Islamic states by pitting them against each other, Sunni or Shia.
The map above shows the majority-Shiites (light green) and the large-minority-Shiite (dark green) nations contained within a vast monolithic Sunni ocean (blue-gray). They have been inextricably intertwined in the entire Middle East for many centuries since the Prophet Mohamed died, with very little chances of reconciliation, a key ingredient to World War III.
The pie graph zooms in to the Syrian demographics, where the majority Sunnis are fighting the minority Assad Shiite regime, just like in Yemen, where the majority Shiite Houthis are fighting the minority Sunni regime, and where the Saudi (pro-Sunni) and Iran (pro-Shiite) are involved. This was the same in Saddam’s minority Sunni regime in Iraq versus the majority Shiite rebels before the US invasion. Ironically, the power vacuum due to the US invasion of Iraq triggered a more intensified Sunni-Shia war which rages to this day. A majority populace always rebels against an oppressive minority regime, the key ingredient to the rise of the Arab Spring.
There are five ingredients to World War III – 1) proxy wars where outside powerful nations dip their fingers in local affairs, inducing rapid escalation; 2) the irreconcilable Sunni-Shia dilemma; 3) indiscriminate massacres of civilians inducing the growth of terrorism; 4) a protracted global energy crisis; and 5) millions of refugees from war-torn nations overflowing unchecked towards affluent nations (EU, UK, US), undermining the social fabric and inducing civil riots and wars.
Present game-changers to the Syrian war may include – 1) Egypt’s entry into the Syrian War; 2) the death of Assad leading to a Sunni interregnum, 3) Trump’s Middle East moves for or against Sunni or Shia, NATO or Russia, 4) the regroupings of rebels and ISIS after Aleppo (US concern) and Mosul (Russia concern) fall.
Historical Note. The Sunni-Shiite splinter began right after Prophet Mohamed died. The Shiite group was his relatives in the inner circle, the Sunni the non-relatives. The Sunnis were the dominant warriors during the spread of the Islamic empire, and the catalysts to the subsequent Islamic renaissance. Bernie V. Lopez .
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