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A massacre of genocidal proportions is currently happening in Syria. The number of people dying daily is equivalent to the average number of deaths due to the war in Afghanistan every month. In the last few weeks, the number of people killed has surpassed 200 every day. The death toll has spiked recently, but the number of Syrians who have died since last March (when uprisings began) is estimated at well over 7,000. To put this in perspective, fewer than 5,000 members of the U.S. military died in Iraq during a nearly nine year war. Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians have been imprisoned. Torture is commonplace and countless videos of children being mutilated and murdered in the streets have appeared. Those injured are avoiding hospitals for fear of being tortured or killed by the oppressive, bloodthirsty regime. Doctors have suffered similar fates merely for treated the wounded. Makeshift clinics have appeared where courageous Syrians just try to treat those who have been indiscriminately shot by merciless snipers or whose houses have been blown apart by mortar fire.
A little background first: Syrian citizens began protesting peacefully for greater democratic rights and freedoms in January 2011 at the same time that protestors took to Tahrir Square in Egypt. In fact, the first public protest was held on January 26, a day after the January 25th protest movement began in Egypt. The protests strengthened and became sustained in March 2011 after major protests occurred in the city of Daraa. The protests quickly spread throughout the country. As part of the Arab Spring, the large-scale regional protest movement occurring throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the Syrian movement grew. While dictator Bashar al Assad’s Ba’athist government offered minor concessions to the protestors (such as lifting emergency rule which had been in place for 48 years), no real reform was offered. (If the Ba’athist Party sounds familiar, it is because Saddam Hussein was a Ba’athist, albeit an Iraqi one.) Assad’s troops began killing protestors, blaming the protests on “armed gangs”, calling his fellow citizens thugs and terrorists. As the death toll mounted, international journalists were not allowed into Syria. Members of the Syrian military who refused to fire on protestors were executed. Still, some members defected, and the Free Syrian Army was formed to fight off the growing violence. Like the rebels in Libya, the Free Syrian Army has claimed that it has control over several cities and is aiming to overtake Damascus, the capital. As the country devolved into chaos, the military began to kill all manner of civilians, even those who weren’t even protesting.
News reports have claimed that the country is on the precipice of civil war. The city of Homs is a prime example of the sectarian violence that has erupted during this conflict. Assad and his inner circle (i.e., those that have the power in Syria) are part of a Muslim sect called the Alawites. The Alawites comprise a small minority (approximately 15%) of Syria’s entire population. The city of Homs, where much of the violence and murder has been concentrated, has large populations of Sunni Muslims who have historically been oppressed by the Alawites in Syria. The Sunni areas of the city have been decimated while other areas (predominantly Alawite Shiite populated areas) of the city have been left alone, presumably to curry favor with the non-Sunni population.
The previous paragraphs only begin to scratch the surface, and if you’re still with me, thank you. What I’d really like to address is the question of what the world is doing in response to what is happening in Syria. After the humanitarian intervention in Libya, and the West’s positive reaction to the Arab Spring, it is understandable that the people of Syria are hoping for help. The United States and other countries, along with entities such as the European Union, have leveled sanctions against the Syrian government and Syrian oil companies. The United States and several other countries have criticized the Syrian government’s response to the protests within its borders and President Obama eventually called for Bashar al Assad to step down as leader of Syria. None of these actions made much of a difference, and the next step was an “observation mission” by members of the Arab League inside of Syria. Despite overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence that civilians were, indeed, being killed, the Arab League mission has failed to say anything significant. (It is important to note that this mission was compromised from the outset, however, as it was headed by one of the key people in power in Sudan during the Darfur genocide, who has been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.) The most recent major step was a vote on a binding resolution—a watered down resolution, but a resolution, nonetheless—denouncing the violence in Syria and calling for an immediate ceasefire. With 15 states voting at the United Nations, China and Russia vetoed the resolution, to the horror and disappointment of desperate Syrians.
There hasn’t been much debate about the Syrian situation. The world has largely turned a blind eye to Syria. Susan Rice, the current United States ambassador to the U.N. (and negotiator on Syria), is the same person who notoriously worried about the political impact of calling the Rwandan genocide a “genocide” back in 1994 when Bill Clinton was president. I don’t have particularly high hopes for American steadfastness on Syrian action with her at the helm. There is very little political will to even discuss military action or even humanitarian intervention of any kind in Syria during an election year in the United States. It is said that President Obama will play up his accomplishment of ending the official war in Iraq and of winding down the war in Afghanistan in hopes of being reelected in November. Many Democrats are opposed to war on moral grounds and many Republicans have either taken up the Tea Party “too much spending!” mantle or the Ron Paul isolationist model. Yet, the U.S. handling of humanitarian intervention in Libya is praised…
With no ground troops, an effective no fly zone put in place, a quick engagement aided by a multilateral force, and a positive result for about a billion dollars, which the United States expects to be paid back, most view the Libyan mission as a success. There are, of course, those who opposed the Libyan intervention like Rocky Anderson (a politician I really want to like, save for his ideas that saving Libyans was the wrong thing to do) and, again, Ron Paul. On a similar note, Fareed Zakaria (another person I like very much most of the time), lauded the credentials of the Arab League on its handling of Libya, yet said nothing about its failure and cowardice in its handling of the situation in Syria. If so many people believed that intervening in Libya was the right thing to do, why not do it again in Syria? I know. I’ve heard the arguments. Syria has a more powerful, more cohesive army. We shouldn’t spend the money. We’re not sure who to arm and how. There is no significant base for the rebels like there was in Libya with Benghazi. Yes, it is a different situation. But the basic facts remain the same. Civilians are being murdered in numbers that are too large to be ignored. We have no excuse. We can see and hear what’s going on. Even if the media would rather cover the Republican primaries and caucuses at the expense of showing much other real news, the Syrian situation still exists.
One of the only prominent politicians to speak out on Syria is presidential candidate Newt Gingrich—and he is not talking about helping Syrians for the right reasons. He has called for arming the civilians so that they will kill Assad, who is an ally of Iran, and of course, we (meaning the United States) aren’t very happy with Iran. So, basically, in his roundabout, manipulative, narcissistic way, Gingrich has turned what should be the moral thing into a self-serving, American interests first, pandering ploy. Nice one, Newt. He proceeded to explain how “weapons aren’t hard to get in that part of the world” which strikes me as a pretty nasty, condescending thing to say. Oh, Newt, ever the jingoist. Ever the opportunist. Still, he is one of the only ones to even suggest aid in any form to suffering Syrians.
I noticed something very interesting. Twitter is almost silent on the subject of Syria. There are no trending topics on Syria or the Syrian Revolution. No #syrianuprising or catchy nicknames like “Jasmine Revolution” (which was the name given to the revolution in Tunisia which started in December 2010). I first paid real attention to Twitter during the Green Revolution in Iran in the summer of 2009. Twitter was abuzz with tweets about the Iranian protestors. About a year and a half later, the Arab Spring erupted. Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya dominated Twitter, and prominent bloggers and tweeters from the ground in these Arab countries reached a level of fame they never would have had it not been for the uprisings in their respective countries. Even the protests in smaller countries such as Bahrain had their impact on the Twittersphere. This is in direct contrast to the fact that more people have joined Twitter in the last year. Why so little on Syria? I searched, and found some tweets written in Arabic, but even these were not occurring in a constant stream. I saw almost no trace of support from the outside world. Even on the few English tweets out of Syria, very little support was offered back to these people. I interacted with someone in Syria, in the midst of all of the destruction, someone who has had to bury a brother, an uncle, and a neighbor in the last few weeks, who is desperate just to be heard. I told him that there are Americans that do care. I asked what we, as Americans, or what I, as an individual, could do. He said that I can raise awareness. He asked me to contact my representatives in Congress and let them know what is happening. He doesn’t want the Syrians to go unnoticed, to be ignored by the world. They are screaming out, and everyone is covering their ears.
This is my attempt at raising awareness. I will not stop with this single blog post, but it’s a small thing I can do. Hopefully, the more people know, the more they will try to impact the Syrian situation and help the people there. They are human beings just like us and deserve basic human rights. Just as we do, they deserve safety and protection and a chance at the pursuit of happiness. If you read this, please tell everyone you can what is going on. Please say something. Please try to prevent more people from dying. Let us not let this continue as a genocide in which we look back and see how little the world really did while a corrupt government did all it could to hang onto power. Bashar al Assad’s father killed 20,000 people in the city of Hama 30 years ago in a matter of days. There is no reason this couldn’t happen again. Don’t let it.
johndubyah said:
Although there are many sides to most stories there can be no justification for the brutal killing and terror on civilian populations. I was appalled when Russia and China refused to back the UN Security Council Resolution on Syria. But it seems that they (apart from their vested interests) at least justified their veto on the basis that it could lead to a civil war and that they wanted to try more diplomatic means. I believe a senior Russian has since visited Syria and the Chinese have invited leaders of the Syrian opposition to China for talks. We can only hope these diplomatic initiatives (quickly) justify their failure to support the UN Resolution. certainly no more time can be lost with the sacrifice of innocents continuing every minute of every day. I have not heard that the Syrian forces are using Air Force assets as in Libya, so a No-Fly zone would not seem to be the answer at this time. I am also genuinely concerned that one tragedy will be replaced with another ie Civil war given that i understand their are many factions within the country that could end up fighting one another. I believe that threat still exists in Libya and we saw the dreadful consequences in former Yugoslavia that led to unbelievable atrocities among the various internal ethnic and religious factions there. So what is the answer – difficult to say. I am sure there is one and we can expect Politicians of all free nations throughout the world to strive to find that solution – NOW. Many had hoped that ASSAD’s own British wife would have been so appalled at the atrocities that she might have influenced a more humanitarian resolution within the country. But it seems that the power is perhaps not entirely in the hands of the ‘leader’ but in the control of the military and other regime supporters. I somehow still feel that Assad (probably unlike his own father) is not the tyrant that both Saddam Hussain and Ghaddafi were and he is not the true power in that country. But the bottom line is the atrocities cannot be allowed to go on; heads have to be knocked together (diplomatically at the very least but with the promise of controlled robust and humanitarian intervention). It seems Turkey is making some effort, but the major powers of the US, Russia, China and the EU, need to work together not against one another to resolve this – NOW.
I support your personal commitment oohlaladeborah and sincerely hope some effective action can be stirred up.
starrygirl2112 said:
Thank you for commenting and subscribing! It’s interesting that you mention Turkey because I saw Ali Soufan (former FBI agent and author of The Black Banners, a book on the roots of jihadi terrorism and Al Qaeda) on “The Daily Show” earlier, and he mentioned the ethnic ties of a lot of Turks in some of the region’s countries as well as Turkey’s role as a moderating force and NATO ally. He mentioned how Russia feels threatened by US incursion in its former Soviet satellite states and is still very wary of NATO, so perhaps Middle Eastern countries serve as proxies for this still existing power struggle? China also worries about Turkey because of the Uighur population within its borders, he mentioned. As for the no-fly zone idea, I remember seeing a Syrian in Homs on TV asking the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone, but maybe this isn’t strategically expedient or even feasible–I’m not sure. I suppose there is always a great chance of factional fighting and even less stability, but I still think the current situation is untenable, and we know that something can be done now. We may be less certain of the future, but that doesn’t justify current inaction. I really liked the article from The Guardian you linked me to. I found the picture in it particularly poignant. I didn’t know that Assad’s wife was British, but yeah, I imagine she has little power in her own right. Maybe Assad doesn’t have as much power as someone like Saddam Hussein of Moammar Qaddafi–especially since he didn’t foment the revolution and is second generation–but his hands certainly aren’t clean. I think he has more power than, say, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I don’t know the specific answer, either. I think ,at the very least, we should be providing the people with food, water, and medical supplies. We could aid their Red Crescent workers or push more aggressively for a U.N. resolution to do so. I know it will devolve into civil war, but if a ceasefire can’t be reached (and I don’t think it will be any time soon), I’m for arming the citizens so that they can at least defend themselves. I don’t know how this would work exactly. Otherwise, I’d be a policy maker. Maybe I can use my Poli Sci degree to run for office and influence situations like this in the future. The Yugoslavia point is a good one. At least the United States intervened with Kosovo, albeit not perfectly. I actually remember reading Time for Kids in 5th grade and reading about Slobodan Milosevic in the fall of 1999. That was my first real awareness of global events. And how many similar instances have there been since then? I’d like to think society would’ve progressed, but apparently not entirely. Thanks again for your extensive comment.
–Deborah
johndubyah said:
As a follow-up of my previous comment, this Daily Telegraph report is pretty powerful in revealing the hideous situation that has developed in Syria – it clearly is a humanitarian crisis demanding international intervention. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9076596/Free-Syrian-Army-is-all-that-stands-between-civilians-and-tanks.html