Viewpoint is everything: Syria is near the heart of Sunni sway, an outlier of the Shia culture, a border threat to Jordan and a pixillated dot in America's disjoint world view. Saudi Arabia may have the most skin in the game. If you are reading about Syria and it doesn't include Shia/Iran/PersianEmpire and Sunni/Saudi/Guardian-of-the-Holy-Places, its myopic crap. Interestingly, Turkey/Ottoman Empire is omitted. Also missing are the DNA delineations of Semitic (including both Arab and Jew), Indo-European (includes much of Turkey and Iran) and African. Competition for turf is more complex. If there were no regional players, there would still be struggle on the ground in Syria.
Thanks to Stratfor for the graphic. They have a free weekly newsletter and a great deal more behind a paywall.
Complexity isn't an excuse to quit trying to understand. The disequilibria are going to play out with resultant vectors of action even if no one on earth understands them.
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