When it rains it pours in wartime, especially when it’s raining rockets. The same day a car bomb apparently targeted members of the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, four rockets from Syria hit Lebanon. The Daily Star reported that two soldiers and a civilian were injured in the rocket attack.
Hezbollah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, has been fighting in Syria to help the government’s side in that country’s civil war. As a result, Syrian rebels and their supporters are believed to have targeted Hezbollah’s country of Lebanon. It’s a kill zone spill zone over there, and there’s nothing funny about that.
The Syrian civil war has killed over 100,000 people in that country, and has spilled over into violence in neighboring countries. Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Israel have all been hit with stray fire or sometimes even deliberate attacks.
The fear is that the spreading violence could turn into a regional war, especially in Lebanon, where internal political violence is a sad reality. Two civil wars in the same part of the world would be highly traumatic to the region.
Already hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled as refugees to neighboring nations. More fighting could lead to an even greater crisis. The world has already either promised or paid over a billion dollars in humanitarian aid for Syria.
Furthermore, the more conflict in the Middle East, the more uncomfortable the oil market there will be. That could result in higher gas prices for you. So even if the tragic circumstances don’t sway you to care, your wallet should.
The major world powers are trying to put together a peace conference on Syria next month in hopes of reaching a deal that will lead to the end of the bloodshed.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, December 17, 2013)