The Absurd War in Syria

Wars are nourished by lies; hardly any other war is more misrepresented than the conflict in Syria. Anyone who talks to the residents of Homs, Daraa or Damascus and then listens to the analysis given by Western politicians in the media must feel like they’ve wandered into the wrong movie.

I’m no fan of Syria’s President Assad, and neither am I sympathetic toward the extremist rebels. I’m a friend of the Syrian people being destroyed by this war, the people who deserve to see this network of war propaganda torn apart.

The U.S. government demands almost daily that Assad end the civil war raging in Syria. The problem is that the U.S. — along with Saudi Arabia — could put an end to the fighting far more easily than Assad could. The Americans and the Saudis staged the war, and continue to ensure almost daily that the fires are not extinguished.

It was undeniably democratic reformers who tried in 2011 to overthrow Assad. Unlike Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — where it’s estimated that 90 percent of the population wanted their dictators ousted — Assad had the support of some 40 percent of the people. U.S. intelligence agencies say even that number is a conservative estimate.

Since Assad wouldn’t cooperate in his own removal from power, Saudi Arabia first began supplying the insurgents with weapons and money, with the help of other Arab states and Turkey — all of which was closely coordinated by the United States.

The goal wasn’t the democratization of Syria, but the overthrow of Assad, who was Iran’s most prominent ally. The U.S. would have advocated Assad’s removal even if he had been a democratic ruler. Iran’s influence in the Middle East upsets some circles in the United States and Saudi Arabia, especially ever since George W. Bush fought the most stupid war in modern times to remove Iran’s chief enemy, Saddam Hussein.

The flow of weapons changed the war and those fighting it. Increasingly radical extremists sidelined those seeking democracy and eventually stole their revolution. They weren’t fighting for democracy, but for a dictatorship of religious fanatics who often proved to be more brutal than the Syrian regime.

The number of admitted al-Qaida members among the up to 100,000 extremist fighters may have been around 25,000. The Free Syrian Army only played a role in Western propaganda, as did the exiled opposition.

The extremist exile opposition groups were financed mainly by Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that Riyadh had placed the al-Qaida offshoots Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS on its terrorism list for purely tactical reasons. There was no course change involved in that; the hidden war was waged, more hidden than ever.

From a legal standpoint, this is a war of aggression that violates international law, despite the fact that the Syrian regime uses unacceptable methods to “defend” itself. Firing on the democratic demonstrators during the first weeks of hostilities was totally unjustifiable, as was the shelling of residential areas — even if rebels happened to be there. Innocent noncombatants were indisputably killed in both cases.

Everything undertaken by Saudi Arabia and the United States in a war they never intended to end has been a failure. The idea that the Christian evangelical United States now fights de facto on the side of al-Qaida, with the result that it is complicit in the destruction of the birthplace of Christianity, is an absurdity that would be difficult to surpass. And Saudi Arabia will end up paying a hefty price for allowing al-Qaida to become so powerful in Syria. Both countries bring to mind Goethe’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” where the sorcerer laments, “Now I cannot rid myself of the spirits I have summoned forth!”

There’s no indication, however, that Barack Obama is about to change his misguided course. On the contrary, he wants to increase military support to the insurgents. Only to the moderate ones, of course — despite the fact that the remnants of the Free Syrian Army are usually obliged to surrender their Western-supplied weapons to the extremists on the other side of the border, and Obama knows that.

If he cared about the people, there would be paths to peace. Mainly, he would have to force his co-sorcerers — the Saudis — to stop sending money, arms and — most importantly — munitions to Syria. He would also have to insist an increasingly belligerent Turkey seal off its border with Syria.

This would ensure him a strong bargaining position vis-a-vis Assad. He could force an armistice along with far-reaching concessions on the disadvantaged Sunni population. Then, perhaps, free elections; the bottom line is that the Syrians — and only the Syrians — can determine their own future.

But why should Obama want that? Saudi Arabia’s covert war is also Obama’s war — one that he hopes to win with al-Qaida’s help and thus trim Iran’s influence to a point acceptable to the United States, after which bilateral negotiations with Iran would be redefined. It wouldn’t be the first time the United States clandestinely supported murderous guerrilla organizations in order to defeat its enemies.

And so the filthy war in Syria rolls on — in the name of democracy, in defense of Western values, etc., ad infinitum. In truth, nobody cares about the tormented Syrian people. And in truth, we live in a hypocritical world.