The Libya effect is causing ripples in some of the other Middle East countries where the cry for freedom has gone on for months. Syria is a case in mind, and the message can't be clearer. The unceremonial end of Muanmmar Gaddafi gave a much-needed boost to millions of Syrians, who are fantasizing of the day when their dictator will be just a bad memory. This is going to happen, but not in a matter of weeks or even a few months.
Still, the trend is clear, and the Alawite regime is increasingly isolated and consequently desperate. The killing machine of the Fourth Division and the Presidential Guard under Maher Assad and Assaf Shawkat is working extra time, as the uprising is moving to a new stage. That of an armed confrontation between them and large parts of their former comrades in arms, mainly Sunni soldiers and officers who defect in droves and turn on their former Alawite masters.
As this is happening, the mass demonstrations continue and the geographic scope of them is also expanding. In the last few weeks the second largest city in Syria, Aleppo, which was relatively muted, is in the uprising and the reaction of the regime is typical: killing as many protestors as possible. The estimate of 3000 victims in Syria may seem to be much lower than the real number. Aleppo in the uprising is of significance because it has a large business community, composed of Sunnis as well as Christians and other minorities which until now seemed to give the regime the benefit of the doubt, believing that it could survive and restore stability. The relentless violence and its disastrous economic impact may finally turned the disc also for this element of the population. Altogether the uprising is likely to stay and intensify.
This is a battle of will between the Sunni majority and the determined Alawite elite, but one in which material resources and physical power could still prove to be the decisive factor. This is exactly where Vice President Biden's comments on the successful Libyan campaign can be very relevant regarding the predicament of the Syrian people.
Biden hailed the success in Libya, claiming that no American lives were lost. It was relatively cheap costing only $2 billion. While the VP sounded as if it was a model of action to be adopted also in other crisis spots, the case of Syria may be different than that of Libya. I, for one, do not detect any appetite in the US or among its European allies to intervene militarily in Syria, either by creating a no-fly zone, sending ground troops or attacking from the sea.
It is also the case that, unlike the Libyan rebels, their Syrian counterparts are yet to appeal to the international community and ask for military intervention. They may do it in the future, but already now they are eager to have much more support from the US and the Europeans than what actually comes their way. Let's take the financial element of Biden's statement. One shoulder Fim-92 Stinger missile costs only $38,000. The Syrian defectors organized in The Free Syria Army and other units will be happy to get as many stringers as possible. The Syrian air force, totally dominated by Alawites, has already been used against the defectors as well as civilians. The cost of even hundreds of Stingers given to the rebels will be far short of the money spent in Libya. Delivery could be along the Turkish-Syrian border. Just imagine the psychological effect of even one Syrian aircraft brought down by the rebels.
This is just one example, and there are others. Money should be promised and given to high-level Syrian officers crossing to one of the neighboring countries. And alongside this, there is much room for increased diplomatic support to the rebels and their political front, The Syrian National Council. The Obama Administration reiterated its position that the Assad regime lost its legitimacy. What, in that case, stops the administration from inviting representatives of the Council for formal talks with the Secretary of State and the President as a preliminary step before granting them formal recognition as the legitimate government of Syria?
If such an invitation will come, and it is already now long overdue, the Syrian rebels will feel the pressure of the need to patch up their internal dissent, in order to present a credible and united position to the Americans and Europeans. The West for its part will have to accept that any respectable delegation of the Syrian opposition should include also the Muslim Brotherhood.
The massacre in Syria has gone on for too long. It has to stop, and the US and its allies should do a lot more to achieve that, even if they refuse to intervene militarily. All they need to do and quickly is to make good on the statement of VP Biden, at least as a first step.
The sheer difference in the forces in presence is to blame. Syria is known to unbalance the region repeatedly, with Hezbollah as its arm in Lebanon for instance. The Hama massacre in 1982 should serve as reminder enough of what the regime is capable.
But Syria's forces are immensely more powerful than Lybia's. The opposition has no land or arms. The country in mountainous and densely populated. It is also land-locked. Support from the Arab world would be much harder to gain. A mission would be much harder and costlier in every sense of the way. The only country with an appetite for such a mission would probably be Israel itself, the only country which was actually against the Arab Spring.
54% of our F taxes for WAR. http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm
Is your only criteria who the US supports? And not the brutality of the regime?
You are hypocritical and don't make any sense.
So tell me Mr.Genius. In which country Israel got involved concerning the the so called "Arab spring".
Yeah ofcourse Saudi Arabia is "free" that is why women can't drive,vote or leave the house w/o a chaperon. Egypt is also an ally, and that government screwed over its people, I can go on and on. An American friend is one with oil or bases. Doesn't matter if you're free or not.
"The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named "Operation Cast Lead," houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed… More than 1,400 people were killed during the military operation…
The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population…"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8257446.stm
Israel is the only regime that has violated more than 60 resolutions of the UN Security council, the UN Charter, ICCPR, ICESCR and Geneva Conventions.
Israel is the only one in the whole, West Asian region which has the possession of over 200 thermo-nuclear weapons.
It has neither signed NPT( but Iran has) nor allowed weapons inspection( Iran has allowed) despite the UNSC resolution 687 of 1991 which call for West Asia Free from Nuclear weapons and WMD.
It has a long record of uprooting Palestinians( about 7 million refugees) occupying all their territories in 1967.
The recent UN report has accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Why does the world community( read the US) allow Israel to stand above the law?
NO one has the answer. Or every one knows the answer but scared to spell it out in order not to displease the big bosses, the moneyed people, those who police the world and who are economically, militarily, politically and industrially powerful under whose influence the UNO is run.
First thing first. The so called "Palestinians" was invented after 1967. your reference to 63 years can be explained in only 2 way. First, your are completely ignorant about the history of the conflict (In my opinion you are not) Or second, your post lacks any shred of integrity (as usual by ALL pro terrorist on HP) and full of clumsy attempts to distort the history of the conflict.
FYI, in the last 64 years Muslim killed Muslims by the Millions, but that of course is not a fact that have any value to you, because we both know that it's not the lost life is what concern you. The only life you pretend to care about is life that was lost by Israeli gun. That's when you dance on the spieled blood pointing fingers at Israel.
The Syrians should deal with their own issues, in their own way, by their own hand. Let us not forget they have not even asked for our help, nor do we know what view's a new regime will hold towards this country.
Even of the misguided wars in Muslim countries, let's focus on fixing America.
The fact that it hasn't is testament to the fact that what you have to say is insane rhetoric devoid of any analysis or truthfulness.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice all visited him to make profits for the Military Industrial Complex of the West.
Poor Gaddafi has failed to digest that western friendships might be the usual calm before the storm. The same leaders had been planning behind his back to unseat him.
Reason he has crossed the red line more often. A leader of a developing nation can be a tyrant, absolutely no problem to nato powers, as a matter of fact they love juntas and dictators, but make sure you are submissive to their dictates, rebels like Saddam Hussein be be dumped into the dust bin of histroy written by the vested world powers.
Look broader.
disappear into the ether over the next few days...