How Syria
is Being
Ravaged
Debasish
Chakraborty
WHAT is being witnessed
in Syria
today is not only a great tragedy for the land of
ancient civilisation and a
heritage of secularism, but also an impending threat of
a violence of the
international scale. The so-called civil war in Syria
has already gained broader
international ramification, spilling over boundaries and
with very evident
involvement of foreign powers. Even the possibility of a
full-fledged military
intervention is not so distant.
Syrian people, like
those of every other nation, have the inherent right to
enjoy democracy, civil
rights and a fuller humane society to live in. They have
every right to engage
in extension of these rights, to demand political
reforms if they want so.
There were dissensions within Syrian society and it was
being reflected through
demonstrations and political opposition, calling for
broader democratic
reforms. The position of Syrian communists is important
to be noted here. They
supported the reforms which have democratic nature. The
most important,
according to them, were the lifting of martial law and
the democratic revision
of press and publications law to enhance exercise of
opinion and expression of
freedom. Initially, the Syrian government was responding
to the demands and it
initiated reform measures. But these internal questions
are sought to be
utilized for not only a ‘regime change’ but to destroy
every advancement
achieved by the people of Syria.
And, what made the entire episode dreadful is the
involvement of the foreign
forces.
Whether one agrees with
their position or not, there were opposition forces who
tried to advance their
demands in a political way and independently. These
forces, like National
Coordination Committee for Democratic Change or Popular
Front for Liberation
and Change were quickly undermined and Islamist,
foreign-sponsored forces
started the mayhem.
FOREIGN
INVOLVEMENT
The involvement of a
number of countries in the Syrian crisis as arms
suppliers and political
operatives is virtually exposed and well documented now. Saudi Arabia
and Qatar
supplied money and other help, including supplying arms
to specific groups. Turkey is
playing the most aggressive role. Turkey,
which has a 900 km border with Syria
has nurtured and promoted both Syrian National Council
(frequently called as
Istanbul Council) and armed the Free Syrian Army. The
southern border of Turkey,
specially the Hatay province, has become the main
gateway of infiltration of
foreign terrorists. FSA has been trained and supplied
arms by Turkish military
and they have created buffer zones for launching attacks
in northern Syrian
towns including Aleppo.
Turkey
is not only giving
open support and an organisational base for the rebels,
but has also threatened
to invade Syria
several times. Turkey’s
parliament has given the government permission to wage
war. NATO is preparing
to deploy Patriot missiles along Syrian borders
responding to requests from Turkey.
What is less reported,
however, is the direct involvement of USA
in building up armed gangs within Syria
and engineering armed
attacks. US
ambassador in Syria Robert Ford has personally monitored
and organised
so-called ‘rebel’ groups and encouraged demonstrations
by personally attending
them. CIA operatives are active in training and supply
of arms since long.
According to reports in western media, US
administration abetted forming
‘provincial military councils’ and supplied arms through
them. According to NBC
News, the Free Syrian Army has received American Stinger
missiles via Turkey.
The most interesting
part of the Syria
story is that US, France, NATO allies and Islamist
terrorists are on the same
team. The most ferocious of them is Jabhat al-Nusra, an
al-Qaeda affiliate.
They have become the strongest force among the ‘rebels’
now. The first attack
for which Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility came on
January 6 this year
when a suicide bomber blew up buses in Damascus.
Since then the use of suicide bombings or
remotely-detonated car bombs has
spectacularly increased. Such attacks have become an
everyday reality in Syria.
They
have killed hundreds of citizens. A gruesome example is
the attack on a school
in al-Wafeen camp near Damascus
in which 29 students were killed in a class. ‘Collective
violence and selective
assassination’ are their methods of operation.
According to reports in
western press, the key to Jabhat al-Nusra's extreme
violence is its recruitment
of radical fighters from abroad who include mercenaries
from Libya,
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia,
Iraq,
Lebanon,
Turkmenistan
and Chechnya.
They have not only
declared their goal of ‘regime change’ but also
establishment of an Islamist
government replacing the secular political system in Syria.
The same terrorists who are
thought to be “hounded” by USA
in Libya
are actually in Syria
now,
assisting NATO efforts to terrorise people. The façade
of expressing ‘concern’
for the presence of such forces by top officials of US
while channelising arms
and logistics for them exposes the utter hypocrisy of
the Obama administration.
Judging by these attacks
Syria
is now facing international terrorism. But the western
media and NATO countries
are understandably silent on this. To them, the ‘rebels’
in Syria
have an
undivided identity. On the contrary, the Syrian
government’s response to such
terrorist attacks is being branded as an ‘attack on
people’. The yardstick in
fighting terrorism has changed in Syria.
The USA
and its allies are trying to replicate the
successful strategy it used to break up Yugoslavia
in 1999 and in Libya.
In Kosovo and Libya,
western trained and financed proxies staged grave
provocations against the
State. When the governments responded, their actions
were described as
“genocide” and international public opinion was sought
to be moulded by barrage
of misinformation.
SAME
OLD
STRATEGY
In Iraq,
the strategy was to mobilise even the UN,
though USA
was desperate
enough to declare that they would attack Iraq
with or without the sanction
of UN security council. For more than two years, media
was used to construct
the fear of so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction”,
allegedly built by Baghdad,
or Iraq’s
“ involvement” in 9/11
attacks etc. It has been proved beyond doubt that
nothing of that sort of
weapons ever existed there and the 9/11 commission in USA
never produced
any evidence of Iraqi government’s contribution. In Libya
too, the specter of an
“impending massacre” was trumpeted to justify blatant
NATO bombing.
In the case of Syria,
the
so-called ‘humanitarian intervention’ is being sought
after. For last few days,
the specter of ‘Chemical Weapons’ is being widely used.
Western media started
reporting that there are some “extra ordinary activities
in the areas where Syria
keeps its
chemical weapons’’. Following this were ‘warnings’ from
western powers that Syria
would
have to face ‘immediate’ response if such things occur.
Despite Syria’s
repeated denial, this atmosphere is being created to
mould public opinion and
justifying intervention by NATO.
In their design of
disintegration and devastation, the imperialist forces
always stir up sectarian
strife and narrow identities. This has happened in many
parts of the world,
including Iraq.
This is now being done in Syria,
which traditionally has been one of the most composite
formations of religious
and ethnic identities in the Middle
East. The
victims at this juncture are the Shiites and Alawites,
who have faced brutal
attacks from Islamists with Sunni and Salafi identities.
The New York Times has
reported that the Syrian rebels have committed large
scale ethnic cleansing
against Syrian Christians. This sectarian division has
destroyed the potential
of any movement with democratic aspiration from below.
The battle for control
of the Middle East, part of which is being fought today
in Syria,
is obviously related with control over
oil, as it was in Iraq
and Libya.
Crisis-ridden international finance capital is
intensifying its pernicious
expropriation of natural resources all over the world.
One should not
disconnect this hunt and the political-military
adventures of USA and
its
friends.
The struggle in
solidarity with the Syrian people, therefore is a part
of the wider struggle to
resist predatory finance capital, imperialist strategic
designs.
People's Democracy