Allying with the Devil

A question remains unanswered regarding the popular uprising in Syria, which erupted across the entire country against al-Assad’s regime. Why is there an Arab and international silence towards the massacres committed against the Syrian people? In reality, the Arab silence is unsurprising. Arab regimes have never acted against any ruler who committed genocide against his own people, whether he was Saddam Hussein in Halabja, Iraq, Hafez al-Assad in Hama, Syria, or Omar al-Bashir in Darfur, Sudan, among others of course. Thus the Arab silence was to be expected, yet the international one is highly suspicious.

During World War II, a key ally for the West in opposition to Hitler’s Nazi Germany was the Premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. This man committed repeated genocides against his own people and brutally buried them in underground camps in Siberia. Nevertheless, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were pictured smiling with him, and said he was their ally. It was under the same principle that [the West] cooperated with Saddam Hussein, Halabja’s butcher, against Iran in the Iraq – Iran War (1980 – 1988), and with Hafez al-Assad, Hama’s butcher (1982), in what later came to be known as the Coalition Forces for the Liberation of Kuwait, against the Iraqi occupation (1990 – 1991).

Of course many have tried to uncover the “secret” of the bizarre relationship between the US and al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and the extremely private meetings between successive US presidents and Syria’s head of state in Damascus and Geneva. Ironically enough, Syria’s regime is openly and implacably hostile toward the US, which has imposed multiple political and economic sanctions against it. However, coordination between both administrations has never ceased. The role of the Syrian regime was to entrench the status quo on the Arab political scene, and to further fragment the “factions” speaking in the name of the resistance, especially the Palestinian ones. Syria’s regime has always supported any opposition to any line of negotiation that might lead to a settlement between the Palestinians and Israel, so as to increase the number of concessions made and lessen the gains, thus advancing Israel’s means of empowerment on the ground. Perhaps the most compelling evidence of this is the de facto annexation of the Golan Heights by Israel. Neither the West Bank nor Gaza Strip have been exposed to such a measure, not to mention the implicit guarantee of calm on the Golan front, which has not witnessed armed resistance for over 40 years.

The strange and contradictory statements issued by the White House and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after Assad’s regime had lost its legitimacy (did it have any legitimacy in the first place?), seem naïve and suspicious because what Syria’s regime has committed in terms of brutal suppression has gone far beyond the crimes perpetrated by the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes combined. Despite this, the US stance continues to appear hesitant and weak. Obama’s administration does not want to pressure Bashar al-Assad towards stepping down (which he won’t do) because this would mean political embarrassment, just like what happened with the Gaddafi regime. However, the US administration would be making a big mistake if it thinks that this regime is capable of reforming itself, or believes in the idea of reform in the first place. Those who have destroyed and corrupted their country are incapable of reforming it. Amidst the events of the Arab Spring, and the spread of its gentle breeze, it is inconceivable to assume that a regime which has committed genocides against its own people is capable of remaining in power. History is full of such attestations, and today we live in an era different to the 1980s. Honorable men and rational minds must choose to side with the peaceful people who took to the streets, to demand their dignity and freedom. This is the right choice. We must side with what is right and proper. The coming days shall testify to that.

The West allied with the devil in the past, and its silence towards the current massacres in Syria is an alliance of the same kind. However, the Syrian revolution will serve as a religious incantation to rid the country of this satanic spell.