This is a religious war between Sunni and Shi'a, and it's a fallout of the Cold War, just as Libya, and Egypt, and Tunisia are.
I agree with you that this is situation is as a result of what went before.
Although it is amusing that the usual suspects have turned up to blame the Americans. Wasn't George Galloway claiming this week that the CIA has been plotting with Al-Qaeda?
I don't know what George Galloway has had to say but I think he know substantially more about middle east politics than Joe bloggs. America was training & funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the cold war. Osama Bin Laden was helping to fund this and he too was being trained by the CIA. Bush Snr had connections to the Bin laden family through the Carlyle Group. Bush, the father of President Bush, worked for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, this was reported in the Wall Street Journal soon after the September 11 attacks.
"Afghan President Hamid Karzai once admitted that with the US military bases established permanently in Afghanistan there?ll be economic prosperity and end to the violence in the country. At the same time, the US economy continues in dire straits yet little is being done to address it."
The historian and journalist Nick Turse explained, ?What I?m relatively sure of is that there are no less than 1,077 US bases or sites in foreign countries?.and likely there are many more than that, we just can?t be sure.? rt.com/usa/usa-empire-military-bases/
"We're under great threat, because we occupy so many countries," Paul said. "We're in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We're going broke." Ron Paul (nut Job) but even those on the right conclude that the American Empire is near collapse and has overstretched itself www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/14/ron-paul/ron-paul-says-us-has-military-personnel-130-nation/
But why? is it because the American state wants to extend Western style democracy or is it just protecting America? Or is because America, the land of the corporations and the biggest investment banks has a revolving door policy with wall street and seeks to extend capitalism into every part of the globe. Even if other countries have elected socialist governments the American state has sought to impose sanctions, economic asymmetries, CIA coups and threats of invasion on cooked up charges. The fact is capital must be allowed to grow, in order to do this it must plunder the entire globe and America has set itself up as the defender of this system.
How many bases does Russia have?
"The Soviet Union used to have a wide military presence abroad, with bases in Cuba, Poland, Germany, Finland, Somalia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Libya, but eventually these were shut down. Modern Russia has 25 military bases abroad: one located in Syria, and the rest in the former Soviet states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Moldova" rt.com/news/russian-military-bases-abroad/
Syria is strategically important to Russia. Do the Americans have a military base in Syria? do they want one?
Do they care whether sectarian violence continues long after Assad is ousted or whether the Syrian people have democracy. They couldn't give a shit even if the country is run by a Islamist dictator as long as that dictator allows them their base and enacts neo-lib reform that benefits corporations/banks.