Sectarian Strife in Syria

In Syria over the past week, thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah crossed the border to help the government take the strategic, rebel-held town of Qusayr. Hezbollah is a Shi'ite movement, strongly supported by Iran. Rebels interviewed by the Times were shocked to be fighting against Hezbollah, which they had always supported in their struggle against Israel.

“Oh God,” he said, “it is like a dream to see Syrians fighting Hezbollah.”

“We will not forget what Hassan Nasrallah did,” Abu Zaid, 40, a fighter from Qusayr, said, referring to Hezbollah’s leader. “We will take revenge from him and his organization even after 100 years.”

In Syria's civil war, all notions of reform or greater democracy are being steadily subsumed by a multinational struggle between Sunnis and Shi'ites. The Syrian government now represents Syria's Shi'ites and Christians, supported by Iran and Hezbollah; they are opposed by the Sunni majority, supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. What began as a hopeful part of the "Arab Spring" has degenerated into the most rancid sort of ethnic hatred, and it looks to me like this civil war will drag on for many years.