Posted by
Bert Chapman on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 5:59:51 PM
The situation is Syria is truly horrific. A sadistic dictatorial regime lead by Bashir Assad clings to power by massacring its own citizens. The world issues its usual rhetorical though restrained denunciations of these crimes. Some call for international military intervention, but others question whether the Syrians are worth western blood and treasure.
Just over a year ago, the Arab Spring uprisings began toppling long-standing regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya while also impacting other parts of the Arab world including Bahrain, Jordan, and Yemen. Many of the the revolutionaries in these countries said they wanted democracy but what do they mean by democracy? Unfortunately, their definition of democracy does not include western beliefs such as freedom of religion, speech, property rights, the pursuit of happiness, or other hard-earned constitutional rights. Democracy in the Arab world means the freedom to engage in whatever personal, religious, or tribal vendetta you want to without worrying about punishment. It also means, as seems sadly apparent in Egypt, the desire to impose Islamist governments upon these countries as the Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to do and blaming Jews and Christians for all the systemic problems in their countries.
Syria dates back to biblical times and was under Ottoman Control until the end of World War I. Syria and Lebanon were under French control until 1946 when they became independent. Syria's first quarter century of sovereignty was a succession of failed and unstable governments. In 1970, Hafez Assad, the father of the current dictator came to power and imposed a brutal stability on Syria for three decades until his death in 2000. Hafez Assad fought disastrous wars against Israel, played a big role in plunging Lebanon into civil war and occupying that country for several decades, was a sponsor of terrorism including the Oct. 1983 Beirut bombings which killed numerous U.S. marines, and an ideological bosom buddy of the Iranian regime. Bashir continued his dad's policies supporting anti-Israeli terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hizballah, probably giving some level of comfort to Iraqi forces fighting our troops in Iraq as they sought to bring stability after overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and seeking help from North Korea in building a nuclear weapons which the Israelis, thankfully, destroyed in 2007.
We have no idea what the anti-Assad forces in Syria stand for, but history and contemporary events give us little cause for optimism. As long as countries in this region remain shrouded in Islamist obscurantism which seeks to blame Israel and the west for all of their problems, there is little point in wasting our energy on their behalf. We need to concentrate on maintaining the damage from these revolutions to Israel and to guarding our larger geopolitical interests such as defeating terrorism and promoting international access to oil and other commodities essential for maintaining international economic growth.
Iran is the primary threat to us and our allies in this region. While it would be nice to believe that the latest round of international economic sanctions will stop the mullahs from developing a nuclear weapons arsenal, we should not get our hopes up to high. This is a regime that only understands brute force, doesn't care about the fate of its people, and will do whatever it takes to stay in power and impose its apocalyptic vision of Shia Islamic theology on the Mideast. We need to tell the American people and the international community that sustained military force and regime change are the only ways to remove the Iranian threat to international civilization. Democracy as we practice it in the west is not likely to occur in the Middle East outside of Israel and we should quit clinging to the fantasy that the Arab Spring will serve as a harbinger for greater maturity in the political behavior of most Arab countries.