11.6.11

Some personal thoughts on Syria



Photo credit: Voirlemonde

I have not been posting on Syria because the state of this country is a very personal thing to me.   I grew up during the Lebanese civil war.  I saw the savagery of my fellow men and women.  I saw people who used to be friends denounce and kill each other out of fear and under coercion.  Militia in Lebanon were intent at destroying each other.  Only the presence of the Syrian army prevented one ethnic sect from annihilating the other.  Many Lebanese accuse Syrians of  having participated, in their own way, with their intelligence and army, in the Lebanese civil war.  But Syria didn't start the Lebanese civil war.  It was started by Lebanese.  Syria watched and made sure no sect triumphed.  It was in Baathist and secular Syria's interest that Lebanon kept its religious mosaics.  I left Lebanon in 1982 and forgot about it, married a foreigner and threw myself in the pursuit of the ordinary life without ever thinking of even visiting Lebanon.  When in 2005 Rafic Hariri was assassinated, I told my husband and children that it was time to visit Lebanon because the country was probably going to enter a new period of unrest.  It was also time for me to face up to my repressed fears and my pain.  Memories came back.  Days and nights were spent with anxiety only at the thought of revisiting the country that I left ravaged by civil war.  To calm my fears, my husband decided to give this visit a context that will make it less stressful by including Cyprus and Syria in our itinerary before arriving to Lebanon.  We were in Cyprus when the London subway was bombed.  Greek Cypriots love Bashar El Assad as much as they hate Turks.  In Syria, despite the tensions on the Syrian Lebanese border, we were welcome.   I felt free, I felt secure.  I loved Damascus and the harmony between the communities.  All these years I was outside Lebanon and unable to think about it, it was there before my eyes.  I know this might seem an insult because many Syrians consider their government as oppressive and themselves as lacking freedom.  But Syria in 2005 reminded very much of Lebanon before the civil war, it was my country lost and found again.  Finally we went to Lebanon, and only because I visited Syria before and saw the possibility of different religions living together I was able to see Lebanon again without fear and negative feelings.  This is my personal connection to Syria.

I have not been posting on Syria on this blog because there is so much disinformation.  The revolution, in the beginning, seemed genuine to me. But also right from the beginning, there was evidence of lies and biases in Arab and western coverage of Syria. The Guardian for instance has been misrepresenting the events from day one, even though they pretended to have a reporter on site in Damascus. They had Katherine Marsh, and now they have Nidaa Hassan. For some reason, Brian Whitaker who has written well on the Middle east and the Arab world, has been openly anti Syrian regime right from the beginning of the events (Whitaker who is in charge of the middle east section at The Gaurdian wrote directly only rarely on Syria since the beginning). The big elephant in this small room of information is Al-Jazeera who has been litteraly lashing out at the Syrian regime and not only presenting unreliable information from eyewitnesses but also manipulating the information.

There is also the gay girl in damascus story and it has come to represent the level of lies and manipulations in the information on the Syrian revolution 2011 to the point that soon enough Syrian auhtorities will be accused of the disappearance of a fictional character. This is kafkaesque!

Serious analyses are lacking.  The left leaning Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar has published some useful articles on Syria but they are not making their way into other news oultets and they are not cited.

Here are two of them that caught my attention:



And there are facts and analyses by journalists, political analysts and political scientists which were never mentioned in the blogs and Syria news aggregators that are read by Syrians anxious to find a way out to the turmoil in their country:



The weak foundations of Arab democracies: the author puts the blame on Islam and its inability to foster a vital civil society, a necessary condition for democracy, the real one, not the one that is being crafted by the neoliberal cons for Syria and the Arab world.

Understanding Syria's unrests: the author mentions, as early as April 11th, the danger of armed gangs

A third way on Syria is possible, but nobody is listening...





Nir Rosen: Prospects for the sectarian terrain in the middle east, part 1, part 2.


The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood by Gary Gambill (an article from 2006 but of some interest to what is happening today in Syria).
The Syrian Baath by Eric Rouleau (1967, English). Sometimes, it is useful to have a look back.

The confrontation in Syria has also changed rapidly. The so called Syrian revolution 2011 has mutated into an armed insurgency against the regime. They have strong elements from the neighbouring Muslim Brotherhood and from external powers including Israel who have stakes in fomenting a civil war in Syria. External powers, especially Israel, have no interest in the emergence of a vibrant Syrian economy and Syrian society, I wonder how those Syrians who are monitoring the Syrian revolution 2011 from Washington DC, Maryland, or Sweden cannot see this, but they are blinded by their hate for Assad. There is no opposition in Syria today if one means by opposition a unified assembly of people having common goals for the country, there is only chaos powered by hate for the Assads and organised by ennemies of Syria in which a minority of Syrians are participating taking hostage some 70% of the population in Damascus and Aleppo. This is not to say that there isn't a need for genuine reforms in Syria and a transition to social justice and freedom (you will never hear the word democracy in my posts because the term, as it is promoted by Neo Liberal Cons and western powers as an excuse to invade Arab countries is now in disrepute), this is to say that the Syrian revolution 2011 is the perfect example of organised chaos, far from being a platform for reforms, social justice and individual freedoms.

One has to feel responsibility for the country and the people when trying to change the order of things. I am not seeing this in any known representative of the Syrian revolution 2011 and the people they are sending to protest are poor and desperate people. So far, this revolution is represented in the outside by people funded by external powers who are not friends of Syria and inside by disenfranchised people. There are no women, no families, no students, no businessmen, no professionals, no intellectuals in these protests. Meanwhile the traditional opposition sits silent and departs from its silence only to mention that it is up to the Shabab (youth) on the streets to assume the revolution. Only Bassam El Kadi, who is younger than your average traditional Syrian opposition figure, has been vocal and I like what he writes.  It makes me sad,  these old revolutionaries would like to think that there is a real revolutionary spirit on the streets.   There is.  But sadly, there is also a foreign funded armed insurgency which nobody knows for sure how it will end.

Today is the 'Day Of The Clans' of the Syrian opposition who is hoping to rally the clans of Syria. Just the title makes me suspicious of this opposition. If  clanism is going to be part of the new Syria then you can say goodbye to reforms with this opposition (not to mention democracy of course, even their democracy and not mine). They are only going to topple Assad by replacing him with another dictatorship, fragilise the country's ethnic mosaics, its economy,  put an end to the last secular regime in the Arab world, and open the door to a more docile Syria.  That's the price of freedom, if only they would get their freedom, and if only it will end there but it won't.  By ending secular governments in favour of sectarian and theocratic governments, the conditions are set for more tensions in the region.  I hope Syrians will find a way out of this mess and wish them well.

A road map to a peaceful solution in Syria.

25 comments:

Moussa Bashir said...

very well put and said. great post (as usual)

annie said...

Although I entirely side with the street in this terrible period, I share some of your misgivings, notably about the outside interference. As you know, I lived in Syria for five years and I love the country as my own. Everything Bashar will do now will be too little too late. And where is he anyway ?

Sophia said...

Dear Moussa,

It is so nice to hear from you again. Hope all is well.

Regards,

Sophia

Sophia said...

Dear Annie,

I don't agree with you that it is 'too little too late for Bashar'. He has been doing economic reforms and it is these economic reforms that put him into trouble. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Gorbatchev did political reforms without economic refomrs and he lost. Bashar did economic refomrs without substancial political reforms and he angered the street. Of course I am with the street but not at any price.

Annie I saw that you joined me on twitter and I wanted to follow you but frankly many of your Syrian followers are of the kind that I frequented recently at Syria comment and I didn't like. So, here on Syria, we part ways, and we will join ways in the future as I have great esteem for you.

Regards,

Sophia

annie said...

The big missed opportunity was his last major speech. How we hoped and expected some wonderful words like freedom of expression, freeing political prisoners. And he said nothing (lifted the state of emergency but with hundreds of arrests it counts for nothing). He is only one person surrounded by many thugs. Sophia, the mukhabarat are the plague of the country. How can they be sent to do some valid work without a revolution? I too kept quiet in the beginning but reading Rime Allaf gave me the courage to speak up. Plus, I was outraged when I saw what they did to the children. These people are crazed with power. I avoid SC most of the time because of the too many hasbarites who occupy the field.
I hope our paths will meet again in a free or a better Syria. I reposted your post on my blog.

Sophia said...

Dear Annie,

There are many things that should change in Syria. But I truly believe that Bashar should be part of this change. It cannot be done by breaking the country. What the Mukhabarat did to the children of Der'aa was plain stupid and murderous. However much of the many reports you are seeing now on you tube are fabrications. Syrians have the right to be angry but they shouldn't destroy their country just because they are angry. There are many unsavoury elements in the Syria revolution 2011.
I know you love Syria and want the best for its people and I thank you for posting my article.

Regards,

Sophia

Jad said...

Dear Sophia,
As usual excellent analyses with the dialogue tone you always use.
Thank you :)

Sophia said...

Dear Jad,

Thanks for reading this post and for your comment.

Regards,

Sophia

Syrian Commando said...

Thank you for your kind words Sophia.

Much better than the Joshua blog. At least you have intellectual honesty.

Israeli Debka (normally unreliable) is saying that Turkey intends to invade Qamishli...

Sophia said...

Dear Syrian Commando,

Thanks for leaving your comment here and thanks for the tip. Erdogan is going crazy I think...Who knows what kind of pressure he is under but believe me Turkey is the next thing the neocons would like to play with.

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=114232

Regards,

Sophia

Sophia said...

Syrian Commando,

Israeli news websites plant false information for the Mossad just to see how other countries will react, even the respectable Haaretz does it. I remember once they had a story on an intelligence agency issuing an info on Iran, and it was so obviously false that I personally called some sources they cited and it was bogus.

Syrian Commando said...

Quite right Sophia,

Debka tends to be 10% accurate, but sometimes they churn out articles with 50% truth, 50% lies, always spun to the advantage of Israel.

It could be that Israel is trying to widen the Syrian-Turkey divide. Iran officials are apparently meeting with Russian and Chinese officials as we speak. It could be preparation for regional war.

Though I think an attack by Turkey would basically be the start of World War 3, I think Erdogan might be stupid enough to do it! It will be the end of Turkey as the war will not be isolated between Syria and Turkey, as it would have been in 1998.

Sophia said...

Syrian Commando,

"50% truth, 50% lies" that's the definition of disinformation. If you tell 100% lies like what some of our friends at SComment do, the information doesn't have a chance to be believed, only by idiots.

Jad said...

Sophia,
I think Syria Comments newbies don't read anything not the main articles on the post itself and not the articles shared on that site, it's amazing how the level of intelligent on SC went downhill this much.

The same argument you need to have over and over and over without even getting anything interesting back.

I agree with you on this:
"If you tell 100% lies like what some of our friends at SComment do, the information doesn't have a chance to be believed, only by idiots."
Sad how SC level went this much down.

Sophia said...

Jad,

I agree wth you that we were very few to read the articles. Most of the commentators are there for propaganda trying to influence opinions in a very vile way.

But I cannot blame Prof. Landis for this. The only thing I blame him for is how much he censors people who are not pro-syrian revolution 2011 when compared with the crazy others. But I recognize that it is difficult to moderate comments. I thing the best thing to do is either you moderate closely or you don't.

Sophia said...

Jad,

Just a simple excercise: how many of the links on Syria I posted in this article were at Syria Comment? I bet you very few if none, and this tells you that the site has an evident bias in the message it wants to deliver on Syria.

Jad said...

Sofia,
I think only two articles of yours were posted on the main blog, nothing more than that.
I think Sc strength come from the comments section and JL depends on it.
I wont blame him, every person is responsible of what he/she will write, but I agree with you on him being a bit hard on the pro-regime jut to make the anti-regime happier, and I'm not sure why he is very apologitic from people when someone writes something very pro-regime on his site, what's with that? in anyway I think him doing that is making him look biased while he may not be.

For me, I refuse to abandon SC even if force me because letting it reflect one side of the story is the worst mistake anybody can do, any story in the world has two sides of it and to understand the whole picture, you must listen to both sides to decided that even when both sides are telling the truth, can you imagine how hard it is when both sides are lying.
This is why I try to share lots of articles just to make things a bit more understandable, though it's very very confusing.

Sophia said...

Jad,

"any story in the world has two sides of it and to understand the whole picture, you must listen to both sides to decided that even when both sides are telling the truth, can you imagine how hard it is when both sides are lying."

I am with you 100% on this one and I wish I could stay at SC but the level of the conversation in the comments is unbearable. JL may not be biased but he is clearly shifting positions for many reasons that are his own and it is affecting his judgment and his writings. He is part of Syria because of his wife and he doesn't want to be labeled as pro regime as we have been falsely labeled (it is the with us or against us extremist thinking), although I do think he is not and he never was but again it depends on who is judging. I must say that the anti-regime crowd are perverse, violent and I believe many of them are there to spread propaganda and to intimidate. I refrained from clicking on any of the links they post. I think they are also monitoring the people on the comment section. I don't trust this extremist crowd.

I can confirm that two days ago I received on my blog the visits of Pony Tail and the other who can see Syria from his Washington DC balcony. My site's trafic is not huge and from time to time I check the trafic and had this little surprise just by chance...

I think you should maintain your presence at SC. I think you are having a great effect there that is not polarising and many anti-Syria (This is how I will call them from now on) don't know how to deal with you, they prefer to deal with a more polarising person. But they are really bad people, bad in morals, bad with their arguments, and bad in the way they address others. They only make a difference because they are numerous and they are there to spread their propagada and intimidate.

Jad said...

Sophia,
Honestly, I don't care anymore of anybody on SC to monitor me.
I don't hold any position or anything connect me to the regime or to the other side, I strongly believe in reason, logic and dialogue and will refuse to let it go this easily or be emotionally manipulated just to convince me of the idea in discussion.
I feel sad when I see people that supposed to be living in the west and exposed to a system where sectarianism, discrimination and any attack is prosecuted, yet they ignore that and try to take advantage of the 'freedom' without noticing the duty of having freedom and how power balance is the gem in democracy, not majority, minority thinking.
In anyway, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, the truth is there for us to seek not to be given to us by anybody.
Have a lovely day/evening :)

P.S. WSS, is also asking for you on SC, he sounds very rational man, I do respect his views.

Jad said...

I forgot:
YEAH!!!! Your site has been visited by Pony Tail, how NICE! ;)
I really dislike and disrespect this person he is the most disgusting one in this whole anti-Syria bunch, JL ADMIRE him, I have no clue what he sees in him other than a cheap opportunist moral-less and dangerous person.

Sophia said...

JAd,

I pretty much feel the same. Nobody is capable of influencing me or intimidating me. Keep up the good work.

SyrianCommando said...

http://www.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=61446&cid=83&fromval=1&frid=83&seccatid=33&s1=0

Al manar now confirms the same story as Debka: Turkey intends to invade Syria and occupy some of our best land.

Sophia said...

SC,

Now, I am willing to believe the story more. I never believe any story coming from the Israeli entity.

I think Erdogan is over reacting. He is acting as if Syria is going to activate the Kurdish card. Although Syria's Assad may just do this if Turkey keeps acting as it is acting now, establishing a buffer zone won't help Turkey, it will drag Syria and Turkey in a protracted civil war. I really lost any esteem I must have had in the past for Erdogan. He is defintiely not acting smart.

The moment Turkey puts its military on the Syrian soil, you can consider a further regional destabilisation (Iraq, Syria, Iran) as a fact. And the kurds, like the MB, will find charitable foreign help in order to have their own 'freedoms'.

Erdogan is the opposite of both Assads. Hafez and Bashar like Hafez, never overreacted, to the contrary, their reactions to events always seemed slow from the outside but served them well.

Anonymous said...

Here we go when i said that it was all about creating the Iraqi Kurdistan. Now that most Mosul Christians have moved there. Someone must start the job for them, and it is Turkey. Why else would have been accepting a bargain on Libya otherwise?
But if Erdogan gets only 51 percent of the votes today, is it enough to go that far? Ok he has already put in jail most of the officers who were against him, but there may be more? (Mina)

Sophia said...

Thanks for leaving this comment. You post interesting comments and links on SC and I read most of them.

Erdogan is starting to behave like a little dictator. He was furious that the Economist published an artilce last week calling Turkish people to vote for his political rivals. The Economist argument was just that it was time for alternance if Turkey were to be considered a democracy.

 
Since March 29th 2006