How can one be silent about Syria with all the mayhem going on in that country? Yet what can one say? I’m sitting here in Turkey with a wrecked back and can’t do much about world problems, but what I can do is send a few messages to a few friends in the hope that they may spread the word. The following are observations of someone who has observed the “Arab Spring” while living in the region since the beginning mainly via television and Internet.
As for the back problem, I’m now lying on a comfortable bed in a decent Istanbul hotel, getting as much bed rest as I can and speaking into the dictation program!
First I have to say that I admire the courage, stamina and craftiness of the Syrian people–qualities that we have seen in other national uprisings—in standing up to one of the most brutal son-of-a-bitches on record–Basher al-Assad. I should also admit my status as an amateur commentator on Middle eastern affairs; I speak no Arabic and get all of my news from the media. I know a few Syrians in Al Ain & at my university in the UAE, but I’ve never had a chance to plumb their feelings or minds in any depth. As for the Syrian people in general, they do get good word of mouth from both professional and casual travelers who go there and report back. I have never been to Syria but would like very much to visit in the near future.
Secondly, it seems to me that the qualities shown by the Syrian people are those we have seen other Arab nationalities exercise effectively. I’ve been extremely impressed by how these popular rebellions have exploited basic Arab & Islamic religious patterns (and social street behavior) to instigate and strengthen their political protest movements; Most amazing to my mind is the way the protesters have used the weekly Friday prayers meeting to launch and relaunch their protests so that their religious day is integrated into (and partly legitimates, one would think) the political movement. Early in the “spring,” the joke went around that one of the dictators would do well to abolish the day Friday altogether. With Ramadan now upon us (Ramazan in Turkey) it will be extremely interesting to see if the Syrian protesters can make good their threat to up the pressure on Basher during this time. The other religious event is the spectacle of street funerals for victims of the repression – a sad but vigorous Arab tradition – that seems to serve both to mourn the dead and rally the living. The other basic cultural trait, I see, that supports the political movement is the willingness of the Arabs to go into the street and coalesce as a crowd – often with tragic results as we’ve seen continually—but overall showing a kind of courage week after week that commands respect (& must dismay the tiny brain behind the closely-set eyes of Basher the Basher).
What can one do? Very little of course but one issue to my mind especially with Americans is the fact that the US government excludes Al Jazeera television; without the direct and indirect input of a major news outlet foreign issues remain vague and cloudy, mere hearsay. So my first suggestion to all those who care about the bloody situation of the Syrians is to request the FTA or the State Department to immediately cease its ban of Al Jazeera TV and let that important conduit of communications into the country. Al Jazeera is covering the Syrian situation better than any other channel, probably because they are one of the few news outlets allowed into that country. Americans are already endangered by their provincialism and remoteness from world events; we need more foreign news in more foreign news channels, not less.
The other point concerns petitioning our representatives and informing them of our views on Syria. I believe we can’t turn our backs on what appears to be a huge pro- democracy movement against a brutal dictatorship that responds to legitimate demands of its population by regular massacres of peaceful civilians. If we were willing to sacrifice American blood to bring democracy to Iraq, we ought to support a movement in favor of the same ideals that is self-generated in a country next door. According to Al Jazeera, the Syrian demonstrators' signs recently read “your silence is killing us”.
[note added later: this was apparently directed to other Syrians in cities such a Damascus -- and other Arab countries, whh recently did respond finally]
Our government has taken some steps in the right direction such as ambassador Ford’s recent visit to the demonstrations in Hama, and Hillary Clinton has made some good statements but our government needs to do much more than this in my opinion. With their great experience and connections in world affairs, they ought to be able to think of something that makes it clear to Basher Al Assad that he’s going to pay a price for his criminal repression of peaceful civilians. Perhaps Basher’s actions should be the basis for the definition of a new kind of crime against humanity—populace repression?–and be classified among those punishable by the Hague War Crimes tribunal. A few years ago an international arrest warrant was issued for the president of Sudan for his ethnic cleansing of the Christian south. In what way are Basher al-Assad’s crimes against his own people any less than those of the Sudanese president?
