Suicide bomber kills 13 at mosque in Saudi Arabia

[happyslug]

4. The internal fighting within the House of Saud is intestifing.

I was reading the following Counterpunch article, and something hit me:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/06/the-fake-war-on-isis-us-and-turkey-escalate-in-syria/

What hit me was the split between the Salafists/Wahhabists and the Moslem Brotherhood. Both are radical Islamic groups, but the Salafists are based in Saudi Arabia, while the Moslem Brotherhood is based out of Egypt. The present government of Turkey has been long allied with the Moslem Brotherhood, while the House of Saud supported Salafists supported the overthrow of the Moslem Brotherhood rule in Egypt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement

It is hard to tell the difference between these two, but the Moslem Brotherhood has long adopted the policy of peaceful take over of governments, if possible, Tolerance of Christians and other religions (Tolerance and acceptance but discriminatory), while the Salafists view all such non believers as enemies that must be destroyed. I.e. if you are a non Salafist, you are the enemy of the Salafist. In the Moslem Brotherhood you are potential converts, that can be treated as inferior to true believes, but you still have the right to live and work.

Right now, you are a three way fight going on in the Middle East:

1. You have the Moslem Brotherhood and is allies (The present Turkish Governent, the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria).

2. Iran and its allies, the Shiites in Iraq and the Assad's people in Syria. This includes most of the people on both sides of the Persian Gulf, but not their countries leaders.

3. Saudi Arabia and its Salafist's allies in Pakistan, Egypt and Syria. Israel is tied in with this "alliance" in all but name. The various Arab Persian Gulf State's leadership are in with this alliance, including Kuwait, but NOT Iraq.

The big question marks, are the following:

1. The Turkish Army. The Turkish Army leadership supports a Secular State as opposed to a religious state, thus oppose the Salafists, for that is what they want. On the other hand its enlisted ranks (like the Enlisted Ranks in the Egyptian Army) pulls from those section of the national economy that supports the Moslem Brotherhood. Thus the leadership of the Army may oppose the present government but it can not over throw it. The Turkish Army was allied with Israel till about five years ago, when ships from Turkey were shot at by Israeli gun boats as they try to get food and medical supplies into Gaza by bypassing the Israeli blockade. That turned Turkey against Israel, something that recent treatment of the people of Gaza has NOT reversed. Thus the opposition from the enlisted ranks to anything to do with Israel and Saudi Arabia may be to strong for any Turkish Army coup.

2. The Egyptian Army enlisted personal are also pro Moslem Brotherhood. The Main reason Qaddafi had to go from ruling Libya was if Qaddafi had stayed on, his army could have intervened during the coup against the Moslem Brotherhood (who he has long been allied with). Such an intervention would have lead to a dissolution of the Egyptian Army, as the enlisted rank would have defected to the Libyan forces. The Egytian Army was more then powerful enough to defeat any invading Libyan force, UNLESS that force had massive support of the Egyptian people. The Coup showed how much support the Moslem Brotherhood had for the Army had to use its special forces to do any actual killing, while sending its regular troops all around in APCs as a show of force (and to keep them in line and under their commander's watchful eyes, you saw massive number of APCs concentrated in one location, but no use of them against the protesters AGAINST the Coup. Thus the Egyptian Generals did not trust their troops and to prevent an army from intervening that the enlisted ranks could rally around against their own officers, Qaddafi had to go. Just a comment that Egypt is loyal to Saudi Arabia only via its high command, the people tend to support the Moslem Brotherhood.

3. Right now, the only standing Army in the Middle East I would trust is the Iranian Army. The people of Iran tend to support their government. They may dislike it, but they support it. The troops of the Iranian Army also tend to think like their generals, thus you do not have a split between the officer corp and the enlisted ranks.

4. The Army of Saudi Arabia is split between its Regular Army and its "National Guard", both are commanded by different sons and grandsons of King Saud I, via different wives. Each branch has an officer corp and enlisted ranks that think alike, but it is two different officer corps and two different enlisted ranks. We may actually get to see if the US M1 Tank (used by the Saudi Regular Army) is better then the German Leopard II (used by the Saudi Arabian National Guard). The Saudi Regular Army is tied in with the Salafists big time. Technically so is the National Guard, but its leaders has indicated some support for the Moslem Brotherhood.

5. Gaza is a mess, Gaza is Sunni Moslem but its main support for years was from the Moslem Brotherhood of Egypt AND the Shiites of Iran. Thus those two groups have been working together against the House of Saud for over 30 years. Thus this may NOT be a Shiite vs Sunni dispute, but a Shiite and Sunni of the Moslem Brotherhood vs the Sunni Moslems of Salafists of Saudi Arabia.

Yes, the Middle East is heading for open war, the real issue where will it break out and who will fight as allies against whom?