Ayoon Wa Azan (Everyone has failed Syria)

What started as peaceful protests in Syria turned two years later into an armed rebellion and a devastating civil war. While the regime is to be blamed for the daily massacres before anyone else, every other party has its share of the responsibility: the national opposition and the terrorist groups; the Arab countries that have been backing the opposition and those that have isolated themselves from the Syrian people, refusing to see the tragedy; the Western countries that have been supporting the opposition; and Russia, China and Iran, which have defended and armed the “killing machine.” Two years after the start of the revolution in Syria, what have the regime, its opponents, or its supporters achieved? Now, students are being murdered in their universities. In other words, the future is being slain, after the past was assassinated in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and all over Syria. The regime is sacrificing the people to remain in power atop their corpses. Outside powers, meanwhile, whether supportive of or opposed to the regime, are sacrificing the Syrian people to serve their respective goals, or to deny their part in the joint responsibility for failing the Syrian people. I do not have the power to support or oppose. My only weapon is my pen, yet I admit to my role in the collective failure to stand by the Syrian people. To be sure, I had never imagined that the peaceful protests would soon deteriorate into a devastating civil war, and concluded in the first few weeks of the crisis that the regime would find a solution. Now, I feel that the regime had sought from day one to crush the people, yet failed to do so month after month. The situation got worse, while the regime pressed ahead with its crackdown. The opposition, and the pro- and anti-regime Arab and foreign countries subsequently jointed the fight, as though what was required was murder for murder’s sake. Then the day came when chemical weapons entered the discourse, with questions about whether they have been used or not, amid conflicting reports about this. The rightwing paper The Daily Telegraph, for example, which never supported the Syrian regime, dispatched its correspondent Alex Thomson to Khan al-Assal. Thomson wrote an eyewitness account that concluded the extremist foreign opposition had likely orchestrated chemical attacks to blame the regime for it. A Likudnik American website then reached the same conclusion without any research, perhaps because this suited its agenda. Were chemical weapons used in Khan al-Assal near Aleppo, or in al-Otaiba near Damascus? I do not think so, and I only believe what the UN says about the subject. Nevertheless, I read a statement by Deputy Mike Rogers, chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, claiming that the Syrian regime had already crossed red lines, and used chemical weapons, which he said the United States must now “secure” – meaning to seize them to protect Israel. The pro-Israel Republican Deputy’s statement was not completely devoid of the truth. Rogers said, “You can't just hope for a good outcome in Syria — it's not gonna happen [sic].” However, the deputy discredited himself in the end, because he issued a verdict in advance about what had happened in Syria, based on his desires and biases. If desires brought results, I would have desired a democratic rule to emerge in Syria on par with what existed during three or four years in the 1950s. What I like or dislike aside, I want to say that the Syrian situation is on the edge of despair. The fighting on the ground consists mostly of hit-and-run attacks, and the conflict will not be decided any time soon. Only one thing is certain: More innocent Syrians are going to be killed. As for the political solution, it remains empty talk because the external parties fighting over Syria have changed little in their stances, which in their totality have only led to new chapters in the ongoing tragedy. The situation on the ground will not change until the proposed political solutions change, yet they are solutions that will remain futile until the situation changes on the ground. Moreover, there are past experiences related to the situation on the ground and international solutions. We have the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq where the daily killings go on, and where foreign intervention only led to creating conditions that are worse than those used as the excuse for the intervention. All roads are blocked, all doors are closed, and we have all sinned against Syria and its people. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.