And yet so often I am told we they not. 


Backing from the UN Security Council, where any intervention is blocked by the vetoes of Russia and China, seems even less likely. Nor is the call for an Arab-led military action in Syria, voiced two weeks ago by the emir of Qatar at the UN General Assembly, expected to bear fruit.


Many Saudi and Qatari officials now fear that the fighting in Syria is awakening deep sectarian animosities and, barring such intervention, could turn into an uncontrollable popular jihad with consequences far more threatening to Arab governments than the Afghan war of the 1980s.... 

That's the narrative some (cui bono) would like you to believe. I'm sorry I no longer believe the intelligence agency cover story known as sectarianism, readers. 

Saudi Arabia has long had an antagonistic relationship with the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria and sees itself as the protector of Syria’s Sunni majority in a country governed by Assad’s Alawite minority. But the prospect of an increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria is deeply troubling to many here, where the Afghan jihad spawned a generation of battle-tested zealots who returned home and waged a bloody insurgency that was brought under control only recently.


‘‘The government really doesn’t want to repeat the experience we had with the guys who went to Afghanistan and Iraq,’’ said Mshari al-Zaydi, a Saudi columnist and a specialist on jihadi movements. ‘‘The damage from Al Qaeda was worse in Saudi Arabia than it was in the USA.’’ 

Excuse me, but I've gotta take a crap

Who are the "terrorists" again? 


In May, a group of Saudi clerics announced a fund-raising drive on Facebook to support the Syrian rebels. Days later, they posted messages saying the government had barred them from sending donations.


Some clerics criticized the government’s restriction, including Awda, who sent an apparent warning on Twitter: ‘‘The donations to Syria cannot be limited to this route or that route, and those who want to provide support will find a way.’’