By
"A Syrian-American"
Best
Defense guest column
The
Bashar al-Assad regime now faces itself with the dilemma of quelling a quickly
proliferating armed insurgency that has fused with a popular uprising. Cities like Homs, Zabadani, Rastan, and Idlib
have become modern day ghettos, sealed off by special task forces of elite
units and paramilitary squads specifically recruited to cleanse
neighborhoods and towns
of those who dare to resist the Baathist diktat.
By
many definitions, Syria has become ensnared in a full-fledged civil war. But beyond the narrative of internal strife,
when one takes a careful look at a map
of where the uprisings are taking place and the towns that have effectively
ceased to recognize the government, a competing narrative emerges not of internecine conflict but one of national
unity -- a whole country that has been brought together in opposition to the
Assad family's self-declared right to rule.
The people in this archipelago of resistance
cling to a hope -- perhaps foolishly -- that their cause will win the day. Like any illegitimate occupational force, the
Assad loyalist army can only control the ground occupied by its Soviet-era
tanks. Take out the saturation of
paramilitary, heavy artillery, and special forces units in the cities, and the
popular rebellion will reach critical mass.
For Syrians attempting to survive, there is no
illusion of life under the Assad tyranny. The executions of captured defectors, and the
past executions of leading non-violent activist heroes like Ghaith Mattar
speak to the reality that there can be no reconciliation with the mass
murderers of the Baath Party.
The
delusions of dialogue and a negotiated settlement with the Assad apparatus have
long faded. One cannot negotiate, let
alone reason, with a government that makes mass killings its domestic
policy. In every way, the ideology and
the solution being employed by Bashar al-Assad and his confidants are
neo-fascist in function and form.
Reaching
the tipping point to this conflict will require a determined shove by the
international community. There are
broader regional interests in play, and a rebel victory can prove to be a
damning blow to Iranian hegemonic aspirations that have claimed the lives of
freedom-seeking Syrians in addition to the Americans who have fallen victim to Iranian-supplied
weaponry throughout the region. The rebels now
claim that they are fighting the same Hizballah and Iranian revolutionary
guard forces in Syria that have wrought so much havoc across the world for the
West.
Hundreds
of civilians have needlessly died since U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay's
presciently warned the U.N. General Assembly that the ongoing assault and
shelling by Bashar al-Assad's forces against the city of Homs presented a
"harbinger of worse to come." Among the dead are journalists
who perished attempting to show the world just how real, and how tragically
correct, Pillay had been -- and just how wrong the assembly of global leadership
have proved in their stupor.
To
further punctuate the consequences of paralysis, Pillay rightly cautioned the
General Assembly that the failure of the U.N. to enact "collective
action" was actually "emboldening" the Assad regime to escalate
the violence against his own people. Since
the U.N. human rights report presented by Pillay was published, the regime,
sadly, has launched a second concerted campaign to retake rebel-held territory
in the north while simultaneously pouring hundreds of tanks and infantry
fighting vehicles into the strategic mountain town of Zabadani on the Lebanese
border.
By
the time you read these words, more cities will have come under siege. Hoping that the world will see them, the
residents of the town of Ar Rastan, an essentially liberated town, have written
in large rock formations the words "S.O.S," hoping that they would be
seen from the sky. Their eyes turn
upwards not just in the hope of salvation from the
nightmare that many are now living, but in the desire for a lifeline that
provides support beyond tired platitudes.
The
U.S. State Department even published satellite
imagery of the formations of artillery batteries and tanks that are
pummeling cities en masse. Perhaps it
was done to shame the regime and its allies. The real shame is now borne by
those who watched those armor columns and the screaming 120 mm shells slam into
the homes of the innocent -- and did nothing.
The
imperative for bold American action has never been stronger. While the Qataris
and the Saudis
have openly called for the funding and material aid of the rebels, the Turks
have made it clear that they are not willing to go all in without some degree
of U.S. backing. As uncomfortable as it
may be, an end-game in Syria will require a level of U.S. involvement, whether
be it direct or through an indirect approach.
Moral
clarity can be best guided by this realization: this regime has concluded that in order to control the ghettos that have
risen against it, they must be razed. The late Hafez al-Assad did this to one
city in the past, Hama, that rebelled against his authority in 1982. Today, the younger Assad faces many more situations,
and is displaying an equal determination to destroy them all.
And
so the world now has a front-row seat to the play-by-play gradual demolition of
homes, neighborhoods, and of whole families -- their liberation cut short by a
vengeful, cruel, and cynical regime. The
aftermath, as it were, is already visible for all
to see in horrid detail. Yet western leaders continue to balk at taking a
bold position, fearing that supporting the rebels in any form could somehow
enable religious extremists and Al Qaeda.
Secretary
Clinton was wrong
when she suggested that supporting rebel forces could benefit al Qaeda. Yes, it is true that al Qaeda's leader Ayman
Zawhiri declared his solidarity with the rebels and called on jihadis to
support their cause. But in his distant
Waziristan cave, the disconnected Zawhiri is a feckless general commanding
phantom legions. There is no room for an
Islamic Emirate in Syria. Liberation is not a slippery slope to rule by the
clerics. The fighters are not looking to
replace a mustached dictator with a bearded one. The Muslim Brotherhood is widely viewed in
suspicion by the revolutionary councils and rebel fighters alike. It makes little sense to cede the ground to
the jihadis in Syria when their program carries little credibility among the
rebels and the majority Sunni Arab populace. It will be municipal elections and
the desire to reawaken a civic involvement that is truly invested in their
country's future that will occupy the daily concerns of Free Syrians -- not the
resurrection of the caliphate.
The
end of the Assad regime will not immediately usher in a grand new era of democracy
and functioning governance, but the sooner the first steps are taken towards
this transition, the more any negative fallout can be mitigated and safely
contained. This will be good for Syria,
the region, and more broadly Western interests.
To
achieve their vision for victory, from Homs to Deraa, the revolutionary
councils that guide the day-to-day insurrectionist activity and the rebel
networks they support are looking to the U.S., EU, and the Gulf countries for
aid. There is growing disillusionment of
the timid international response and of the apparent lack of willingness by the
West to support the revolution. According to rebel reports, even those Syrians who volunteered to fight
U.S. forces in Iraq have expressed their support for receiving American aid to
fight the regime.
Some
Western
commentators have opined that opposition groups on the ground are
disorganized and incapable of overthrowing the regime. They are wrong. The capability to take on Assad forces exists
and the possibility of a rebel victory is real, but this outcome becomes more
realistic in the near future if enabled and supported with material aid.
The
rebels have proven their bona fides; regime security forces even with
overwhelming firepower took weeks before they could enter the Baba Amr
neighborhood in Homs -- and that's just one neighborhood. As any rebel force does, the one in Syria fights
and retreats and fights again as it gathers additional strength from its
popular support. But there are no
Benghazis here. Alone they can at best put forth a heroic stand that will lead
to a prolonged stalemate. With aid, they
can end the violence, and the Assad-sponsored killing fields, by ending the
regime.
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