Hezbollah joins Syria’s war

Fears that Syria’s civil war would escalate into a full-blown regional conflict grew this week, after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed a total mobilization to fight alongside the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. “This battle is ours, and I promise you victory,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address. Before he spoke, 23 people were killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli as Alawites loyal to Assad battled Sunnis. In Syria, rebel chief Gen. Salim Idris said his forces, fighting for control of the strategic Syrian town of Qusayr, would “pursue Hezbollah to hell.”

The escalation prompted the European Union to lift its embargo on arming Syrian rebels, while Russia said it would deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime. The EU agreed to delay the delivery of any weapons until upcoming peace talks in Geneva, which the Assad regime tentatively agreed to attend. But rebel groups said they wouldn’t talk until a deadline was set for Assad’s departure.

Hezbollah’s announcement is a “terrifying development,” said Dexter Filkins in NewYorker.com. What has until now been a “war of attrition” between Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and the leading Shiite Alawite minority is now growing into an all-out intra-Muslim war as pro-Shiite Iran and pro-Sunni Saudi Arabia battle for influence over the region. “Brace yourself for the consequences.”

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The need for American intervention is more urgent than ever, said Ray Takeyh in The New York Times, and we need to go big: a full air assault to destroy Assad’s air force and boots on the ground to mediate sectarian conflicts and set up a transitional government. Half measures like no-fly zones won’t end Syria’s war, which has already claimed 80,000 lives. Indeed, a half-hearted U.S. intervention would only embolden Iran’s “hardened rulers,” who are currently engaged “in a fundamental struggle for the future of the Middle East.”

Intervening won’t solve one huge problem, said Caroline Glick in RealClearWorld.com: “Standing opposed to Assad and his Hezbollah and Iranian protectors is al Qaida.” So we either leave in power “one of the most dangerous leaders in the world,” who also happens to be a vassal of Iran and a mass murderer. Or we help a rebel force whose most effective military faction is the Nusra Front, a branch of al Qaida. “There are no good guys.”