There’s a real war going on with real massive human rights’ violations, real massacres, and real alternatives at stake. Yet the world slumbers about it. Oh sure, there are expressions of dismay at the lowest level of diplomatic language and cosmetic sanctions. Meanwhile, artillery and tanks are being used directly to kill as many civilian, nonviolent protestors as possible. Those captured are being tortured.
These events make Egypt’s revolution look like a picnic and Libya’s civil war look like a scrum. Yet where is the massive outpouring of Western demonstrators, the teach-ins, the outrage, the international resolutions, the humanitarian action on Syria?
It is a waste of time, mine and yours, to write about double standards. Double standards have become standard. Nor will I inform you by bewailing the front-page coverage, misplaced outrage, and outright slander devoted to the smallest incident in Israeli-Palestinian frictions compared to these events. The same applies to the grilling of America for real and imagined sins.
And yet to keep things in proportion we must constantly remind ourselves and others that there are real, bloodthirsty dictatorships in the world, willing to stop at nothing, bound by no rules that are either self-imposed by morality or restricted by free institutions. In comparison to these — the terrorist-supporting, the hate-inciting, the consistently torturing, the always lying — is the reason why democracy is the best system and our cause is as just as anything that’s going to be seen in this sad and tragic world.
It is also probably a waste of time, mine and yours, to analyze why this happens. The traditional reasons are the lack of desire of Western democracies to engage in troublesome confrontations, their attentions being directed inward, the lack of reporters on the scene, and so on.
One traditional factor, however, is lacking: having an interest in the survival of a repressive, ferocious dictatorship. The Syrian regime is an enemy of the West and would always remain so. It didn’t just support terrorism against Americans and other Western forces in Iraq; the Syrian regime was the number-one factor making that campaign of violence happen in the first place. It sponsors terrorism not only against Israel but also Jordan and Lebanon, turning the last-named country into a satellite. This is a regime that celebrated — though it had no role in — the September 11 attacks.
Yet it is also a regime that the Obama administration has been courting and has coddled for 2.5 years and even now is reluctant, though it is grudgingly moving toward that point, to condemn. It is a regime that the Obama administration has engaged and appeased as it has been so eager to condemn Israel at times. And it is a revolution the Obama administration has been so reluctant to sympathize with though it embraced the overthrow of an ally in Egypt.
Another traditional factor not present is the lack of information. We know far more about Syria than about Libya, where NATO rushed to engage in some sort of military campaign that we cannot even explain. The revolution is being covered by the media, but that’s where it ends.
Indeed, we have long known about this regime, as I wrote in my book, The Truth About Syria. In 1982, it massacred about 10,000 of its own citizens in Hama, leveling large parts of the city. And now Hama has risen again, and the regime is again trying to knock it down.
Of course, there are also all of the “new age” factors in this disproportionate response to deliberate massacres: the automatic Arab, Muslim, radical majority in the UN; the reluctance to criticize a Third World state; the choice of democracies and allies as scapegoats; the treatment of left-wing dictatorships as if they weren’t really dictatorships. But you also know all that already.
“Despite the Communist presence on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War would it have been better if the Fascists had won? … just as Western failure to aid the Loyalist side in Spain guaranteed the growing power of the Stalinists there”
I think mr. Rubin meant
“would it have been better if the Republicans had won?”
Yes. Between communists and fascists there is no good side. And the communists would have used the war to get themselves in power just as with the Russian Revolution. At least Franco returned a constitutional monarchy at his death (not to ignore the legion of his crimes.) Lose lose situation.
And Franco kept Spain out of WWII, robbing the Axis powers of a valuable ally.
Franco did well for Spain.
MSM shapes opinions and we know what msm feels about anything non-Marxist.
In a world sliding to hell I’d say Franco did about the best he could.
And then handed the country back to msm-approved madness, but still in a way that it took another three decades for the wheels to really start coming off.
Pretty well done, I’d say.
“The west cannot ignore”. Wanna bet?
Yeah, we should step in and interfere in yet another country who doesn’t like us now and who still won’t like us when we kill the bad guy and give the people what they think they want.
Or how about fixing our own problems for a change?
“Another traditional factor not present is the lack of information. We know far more about Syria than about Libya, where NATO rushed to engage in some sort of military campaign that we cannot even explain. The revolution is being covered by the media, but that’s where it ends.”
I think that if Obama launched a military operation in Syria, there would be a revolution in Congress. Some Congressmen may even call for his impeachment. And it’s all the fault of Obama’s crazy decision to jump into the Libyan Civil War. Not only is that civil war still going on, but it has also shown how utterly weak and useless NATO really is. After all, if NATO cannot defeat a north African dictator in a country where roughly half of his own people are trying to overthrow him, then NATO really is a paper tiger.
Obama never went into Libya with any sort of Congressional approval, let alone a mandate from Congress (after all, declarations of war are so 20th century, don’t ch’ya know). So if Obama tries to pull the same thing in Syria, he’s done. There is absolutely no excuse to get involved in yet another civil war. And even if Obama did decide to take a side, we still don’t know anything about the opposition to Assad. They could be radical Islamists, which would actually be worse than Assad in that part of the world. For once on our lives, can we PLEASE let these people work it out for themselves? Even if Assad stays in power, I don’t think he’ll be any worse than what’s going to come after him. And we also don’t know what a post-Assad regime could mean regarding more sectarian violence and slaughter inside the country.
Stay out of the Syrian civil war. We don’t need to get involved. If Turkey wants to, let them have it. Let another Muslim nation carry the water for once in their miserable lives. We do not need to get involved at all.
Quietly send the Syrian Opposition a few Kalashnikovs, ammo and our good wishes. That is all need be done.
Dr. Shalit
It is not our business to get involved in Syria.
Both sides are bad because both sides are Muslim.
Muslims are, by the definition in their own Qur’an, the eternal enemy of everyone and everything that is not Muslim.
I suggest a Constitutional amendment that prohibits the US from giving any form of aid and comfort to any Muslim nation, army, organization, or individual.
Agreed.
Our enemy is Muslim/Islamism in all of it’s unfamiliar subleties. And, it’s right here, right now, amongst us here in America….we don’t need to seek it out in West Asia/Asia Minor. The idea of fighting them “over there instead of over here” is no longer effective because we’ve been very deeply infiltrated inside our borders, and we’ll need all of our diminishing Treasury, with our domestic problems, to fund our necessarily growing counter-subversion efforts here at home.
Pakistan is the prime example of USAID ultimately being used against us. Belatedly, our State Department is apparently now looking for “results” before expending more of our treasure to these double-dealing Muslim/Islamists. They’re too slippery for our bureaucrats’ contracts.
So….let’s not ignore this civil war amongst Muslims/Islamists elsewhere, but remain wary bystanders while maintaining alertness to its spreading contagion here in America.
This is the most practical outlook. Today I’m feeling that Bashar is our friend as he goes about bombing the Palestinian camps. Who knows how I’ll feel tomorrow!
The West has its own problems that we cannot ignore. I also don’t want another drop of Western blood wasted on muslims.
I know: all this should stop, peace should be made, rights should be granted, gardens should grow food, streams should flow with drinkable water, hummingbirds should fly …. so why am I enjoying this internecine, inter tribal, clan warfare, growing daily in deaths and utter destruction within the ummah, Dar al-Islam, sooooooo immensely?
I say any time one group of Muslims is killing another group of Muslims, that is a win-win situation for us. Let them have at it.
I am firmly convinced that the anti-Assad forces face one insurmountable hurdle.
Any help would be seen as a pro-Israel move. No one will risk being seen helping Israel over an internal Syrian affair. Not for 2ooo deaths. Not for 20,000 deaths. Only Turkey, an Islamic nation might, I say might intervene.
I’m not holding my breath.
It would have been easier for the Turks to intervene if they hadn’t imprisoned, or forced into retirement, most of their leading military leaders.
I think we should follow Obama’s Libyan policy. Give the opposition just enough guns and support to guarantee that the civil war goes on until the entire country is in ashes. That’ll keep ‘em out of everyone’s hair.
And after that, the Islamists can have it.
I know that sounds cold and heartless – but whatever government comes out of this, it is still going to hate America and it is still going to want to kill all of the Jews. So let it all burn.
The Spanish Civil War for our age.
So, where does one go to enlist in the “Lincoln Brigade”?
What we are witnessing in Syria is the beginning of the incoming fireworks. Sooner rather than latter someone in The ME will ignite it, and when it does
The ME will change forever. Is anyone in the right mind thinks that Alevite Assad will be able to rule the majority Sunni nation for ever, or the Kurds in Iraq will not seek independents. We already seeing increasing uneasiness by The Turks toward Iran. It seems Iran is overplaying its hand in Syria and The Turks are not too happy. Where we go from here is anyone guess. The best thing the west can do is give them enough rope to hung themselves.
Seizure of Middle-East oil assets by American armed forces can be accomplished in less than 90 days. Conscientious Objectors or Humanists that stand in the way must be shot. Israeli`s should be given the job of managing the oil properties, they are the best.
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Muslim fighting each other, seems that one place we are not needed. There are enough areas for US of A to monitor and be engaged. North Korea, acting up again, and so it goes. How many friends can we count on today? Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, India that’s about it. European nations I am not so sure of.
the small rmaments industry is haveing a ball……..Lybia, Syria, Africa……….you name it.
correction: the small armaments industry is having a ball….Lybia, Syria, Africa……………wow!
Unlesss/until substantial numbers of the Syrian Military defect – Assad Stays!
Dr. Shalit
A fair enough criticism to what I just wrote about full employment would be “how do you intend to achieve this?”
Thx for sharing.
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