Don’t turn Syria into second Iraq
30 Aug 2013 10:15 PM GMT
In a baffling repetition of the same old tropes, the US and its allies are rehearsing the practiced lines on how to invade an Arab country yet again. After almost 10 western interventions in Middle-Eastern states in the last two decades, ritually to disastrous results, the America-driven zeal to bomb, raze and erase hasn’t died down yet. Instead, if the latest quagmire in Syria is anything to go by, the White House is mulling over ‘military action’ as a possible solution to the allegations of chemical weapons attack near Damascus that reportedly killed over 1,300 people.
In fact, even within the US, there are saner voices of dissent that are raising strong objections to the perverse logic of striking Syria, a well-armed nation sitting on billions of gallons of crude oil. Evidently, it is not possible hoodwink people into believing that the chemical weapons attack was carried out the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, who easily knows the violent consequences of such a move. Several countries, including UN Security Council members such as Russia and China, and others such as Iran, have categorically dismissed the charge that the Syrian army used the purported chemical weapons, and instead point fingers at the rebel groups that have been systematically armed by the US, Israel and other Western powers. While Barack Obama minces words as presents the case of ‘limited’ attack as a way out, we have already seen the efficacy of such drone attacks, especially in the leaked video ‘Collateral Video’, that captured in graphic detail the lethal and heinous transgressions of the US-led NATO forces in Baghdad. How can the international community be a mute spectator to America’s blind pursuit of power and let it turn Syria into another ‘graveyard of perverse foreign policy’ like Iraq.
Syria, with its protracted civil war and a most toxic battle between the US-armed rebels and the Assad’s men, its entrenched sectarian battle between Shia and Sunni communities, almost two million refugees and enormous strain on resources, is an impasse that just refuses to end. However, forcing a closure through armed intervention on ‘humanitarian grounds’ is doubly vicious a medicine than the malady would permit. While the United Nations meekly asks the Obama-led US government to wait before they launch an assault on Damascus, Washington is hell bent on giving in to the rebels’ demand that yet another push could bring down the edifice that is Bashar al-Assad’s hold on Syria. Hence, the agenda of dislodging the president is nothing but the US attempt to reestablish its slipping grip on the Middle East, in the wake of the 2011 Arab spring, even if its outcome is now being called into question.
Along with Egypt, where a malengineered coup usurped a civilian government and hurtled the country into an endless abyss of bloody massacre by General Al-sisi’s army, Syria, if allowed to being marauded by the US forces and razed by air and naval strikes, will surely become another burial ground of bodies that will fall. The international community must stand form and refuse to let the US carry on with its unilateral agenda of invading Syria and redrawing the road map in the Arab world. Moreover, a Syrian invasion, if it happens, would surely bring Iran under its ominous shadow, and might trigger an Iran-Israel war on the sidelines, with possible consequences of resulting in a nuclear nightmare.
In fact, even within the US, there are saner voices of dissent that are raising strong objections to the perverse logic of striking Syria, a well-armed nation sitting on billions of gallons of crude oil. Evidently, it is not possible hoodwink people into believing that the chemical weapons attack was carried out the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, who easily knows the violent consequences of such a move. Several countries, including UN Security Council members such as Russia and China, and others such as Iran, have categorically dismissed the charge that the Syrian army used the purported chemical weapons, and instead point fingers at the rebel groups that have been systematically armed by the US, Israel and other Western powers. While Barack Obama minces words as presents the case of ‘limited’ attack as a way out, we have already seen the efficacy of such drone attacks, especially in the leaked video ‘Collateral Video’, that captured in graphic detail the lethal and heinous transgressions of the US-led NATO forces in Baghdad. How can the international community be a mute spectator to America’s blind pursuit of power and let it turn Syria into another ‘graveyard of perverse foreign policy’ like Iraq.
Syria, with its protracted civil war and a most toxic battle between the US-armed rebels and the Assad’s men, its entrenched sectarian battle between Shia and Sunni communities, almost two million refugees and enormous strain on resources, is an impasse that just refuses to end. However, forcing a closure through armed intervention on ‘humanitarian grounds’ is doubly vicious a medicine than the malady would permit. While the United Nations meekly asks the Obama-led US government to wait before they launch an assault on Damascus, Washington is hell bent on giving in to the rebels’ demand that yet another push could bring down the edifice that is Bashar al-Assad’s hold on Syria. Hence, the agenda of dislodging the president is nothing but the US attempt to reestablish its slipping grip on the Middle East, in the wake of the 2011 Arab spring, even if its outcome is now being called into question.
Along with Egypt, where a malengineered coup usurped a civilian government and hurtled the country into an endless abyss of bloody massacre by General Al-sisi’s army, Syria, if allowed to being marauded by the US forces and razed by air and naval strikes, will surely become another burial ground of bodies that will fall. The international community must stand form and refuse to let the US carry on with its unilateral agenda of invading Syria and redrawing the road map in the Arab world. Moreover, a Syrian invasion, if it happens, would surely bring Iran under its ominous shadow, and might trigger an Iran-Israel war on the sidelines, with possible consequences of resulting in a nuclear nightmare.
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