Gulf regimes (and their media coverage of Syria is being mimicked in full by Western media) insist that the war in Syria is sectarian, because they want to present it accordingly to mobilize their audiences along sectarian lines. In that, among other contributions, they have helped in the rise of ISIS and other terrorist groups. They want you to believe that in Syria it is purely Alawites/Shi`ites versus Sunnis (and Western reporters dutifully emulate this perspective): they don't want to admit that there are Sunnis fighting with the Asad regimes and that there are other ideological factors involved. One of the non-covered aspects of the war in Syria is that the secular Syrian Social National Party (which is a Syrian nationalist party which has become under its current leadership a mere tool of the Syrian regime and is a close ally of Hizbullah) has been fighting in Syria along side Hizbullah forces. The man here is Adonis Nasr, who was killed in Latakia yesterday (and he is Christian Lebanese) by fire from Syrian non-secular rebels. I knew him some from Hamra in Beirut, and he was famous for being the man who beat up Christopher Hitchens when the latter--presumably under the influence of alcohol--insulted a commemorative plaque for the hero Khalid `Alawan (`Alwan, an SSNP member, was walking on Hamra Street in the summer of 1982 when he saw two Israeli soldiers sitting in a cafe. He was so incensed that he ran home, got his revolver and shot the two occupiers). When I would run into him in the street, I would ask him kiddingly: with which hand did you beat up Christopher Hitchens?
PS I recently discovered that Adonis unfriended me on Facebook (after having added me); I assumed he did not like my position on Syria as he is a strong supporter of the regime.
