It’s so confusing. I know the Saudis are Sunni, and that a reason to say the Sunnis are the bad guys. But do all Sunni’s agree with Saudi Arabia’s policies? I’m beginning to wonder if that might be the case, since the Sunnis in Iraq we were supporting didn’t stay around to fight ISIS.
ISIS is Sunni and essentially the outgrowth of the Iraqi insurgencies who pulled back and waited until Obama made good on his promise to totally pull out. Syria is an unusual item in that it is essentially a sectarian (Alawite) power rule that allows all faiths, but each has its class placement in the order. It is a sort of monarchy pretty much the same as was Iran under the Shah but the Shah himself dispensed power. Assad is pretty much a figurehead as is the Queen in England. The small sectarian group holds all the power like the Bishops did during the Dark Ages.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/31/191760.html
Which brings me back to the observations I made when I was stationed in Iran. They are in their period of the Dark Ages and only a Renaissance will move them into an age of personal enlightenment instead of Autocratic rule of the dumb uneducated masses as they hope to keep them mired in that existence to keep them in their positions of power and wealth.