Syrian thoughts

When I wrote (ranted) about the third world yesterday, my motive had been something entirely different. I have been wanting to write about Syria all the while because while Libya is in the news mainly because the western nations are fighting there, to bring about freedom and democracy, of course(!), Syria is still a country where its leader, or should I say dictator, Bashar Al-Assad, is using all his might to crush the growing discontent against him and his government. 

Using the secret police, and the not-so-secret other political tools, Assad's government has killed hundreds of Syrians, many of who were protesting peacefully. Accurate news is hard to come by, but since last month, when the fires of protests first flared up, hundreds have been murdered, and even in the past weekend, over 90 have been killed, according to some sources. According to Sawasiah, a Syrian human rights group, the toll this past Friday was 70. According to them, the total deaths caused by the Syrian security forces is over 400.

Now it may be questioned that if the US led NATO got into Libya to 'assist' the rebellion over there, what is stopping them from lending a helping hand in Syria? The most straightforward argument in this regard would be that NATO's resources are already stretched in Libya, and perhaps they would need a greater support from the rest of the world to do anything militarily in Syria. That is what Mr. Sarkozy says too. He says that any intervention in Syria must be pushed for by the UN Security Council. One must note that the current Security Council is actually the most powerful one I think I have ever come across. The non-veto members in the current council include India, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Nigeria and Portugal, all of them fairly powerful countries in their own right. Syria's neighbor, Lebanon, is a member too. It seems unclear what their stance is as the rest of the members are trying to come together and condemn Al Assad's actions.

I've often wondered what really happens when this said condemnation will be issued. I mean, will it make Bashar Al Assad stop and think twice? Will it lay the groundwork for greater and stronger action in the future? Does it lay the path for sanctions upon Syria? I don't know really, but I think its worth finding out. Actually, sanctions seem to be looming against Assad as more and more news sources reporting the same.  

When news from Syria started blowing up, its only then that I actually tried to look up the history of Syrian politics. Earlier I was under the impression that Bashar Al Assad was a democratically elected leader who just happened to stay at his post for far too long. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Syrian history in the past 50 years is zilch, and I realize that Al Assad actually gained leadership from the previous head, his father Hafez Al Assad.

I doubt if anybody ever looks up whats happening in most of the nations in this world on their own accord. Most of the news in the world today revolves around 10-15 nations of the world at max, something which I had mentioned on my blog earlier, and the rest of the nations only appear when something bad happens. As it happens, the world's concern with the middle east probably does not exist beyond its oil, because of which leadership in middle eastern states have been able to get away with many undemocratic and subversive activities. Being in the same neighborhood, Al Assad too got to exercise all this options without many serious protests from the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a united Arab world. This region has allowed itself to be ruled by special interests and money before anything else, and even now, it is probable that the future will be shaped by what the Americans and Europeans think is right. However, Syria is too big for its neighbors and other Arab states to simply ignore what is going on there, as perhaps they all did in Bahrain. 

I had been waiting for change to occur in the Middle East for a long time now. When I began to understand the kind of society they live in, the backwardness of thought, the blindness towards anything else except their perceived rules for life as mentioned in the holy Quran, and especially the way they treat their women and other races, really made me wish for something drastic to happen in that region. Syria is one, Libya is one, but I am aching to see some real quest for rights and freedom enter places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and  all those little dictators ruling their little realms.