Syria, Victim of Outside Powers

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Both the Syrian regime and the Syrian opposition have committed crimes against the Syrian homeland and people by each seeking outside help against the other. Syrians sought strength from the outside, one side against the other, until we reached a stage where it is the outside powers interacting with one another, while Syrians stand watching what the outside might do to them. It is the outside powers negotiating among themselves over the future of the Syrian homeland and people, while the two warring parties inside Syria each claim to be so concerned with independence, sovereignty, and freedom. The height of foolishness and stupidity.

It is clear that Syrians, from the very beginning, were not searching for a solution to the internal crisis — each side was searching for a swift victory over its internal rival, removing him entirely from the equation, and each side found that such a dream might be achieved by seeking outside help. Both sides set out searching for backers, supporters, financiers, and arms suppliers, and how numerous these have been, since strife always finds many supporters, and the blood flowing is not the blood of the outside powers’ own sons, but the blood of the sons of Syria. Many powers — Arab and non-Arab — have pounced on Syria, and the goal was never the freedom of the Syrian people or safeguarding Syria’s future — rather, the outside powers were governed by private interests and concerns, with the Syrian people serving as the tool for achieving them. Some of these powers have scores to settle with the Syrian regime, some saw in the Syrian regime a base for their own activities in the region, and some sought the Zionists’ comfort and America’s satisfaction. As for the Western states, they were concerned with drowning the Arab homeland in internal conflicts, so that their dominance over this homeland would continue, their draining of Arab energies would continue, and the security of the Zionist state would be assured.

As for the Arab states, they are driven by nothing but pre-Islamic tribal logic, which sees the internal rival as the greatest evil it faces, and does not hesitate to direct its arrows at its internal enemies, even if this serves an enemy working to subjugate everyone. The regime sought the outside’s help, and so did the opposition. Perhaps if we confronted both sides with this today, each would say it was not the one who first sought outside help — as though Syrian blood would flow back into people’s veins once we finish settling the question of who raced to hell first. The regime and the opposition both acted recklessly and irresponsibly, never weighing the grave consequences of summoning outside powers into the country.

The Western states became absorbed in courting the opposition, promising it the regime would collapse within a month, a week, or six months at most, and the opposition never factored in that the regime, like itself, had its own bitter tears to weep. And the worst thing the opposition did was have some of its symbols seek help from the Zionist state and from obscurantist Arab states with no concept of human worth — confirming what I always say: that Arabs are more hostile to one another than to the outside powers seeking to pounce on them.

America was concerned with Syria’s destruction, and for this reason its position has remained ambiguous, wavering, and lacking vision. It has remained, to a large degree, biased toward the opposition, but never wanted to see a weak party in the war lose outright before the country’s destruction was complete. For this reason, America has kept playing both sides, so that the war and the destruction and ruin continue. We always speak of the pain and grief the Palestinians have suffered, but the pain and grief Syrians have suffered at Syrian hands is harsher and crueler than what the Palestinians have suffered. The Zionists are criminal, barbaric, and savage, but the Arabs are more savage, barbaric, and criminal still, lending no ear to human rights, to respecting them, or to preserving people’s natural rights. Had Arabs believed in human rights, the Arab regimes would never have practiced all this injustice and enslavement against the Arab citizen.

Now, we have arrived at the results: the Syrian people is displaced, suffering destitution, oppression, and insecurity, hundreds of thousands of them under the earth — that is, if they even found someone to bury them. Syrian facilities are destroyed, along with farms, workshops, and shops, infrastructure is exhausted, Syria’s army is worn out, and the destruction will take no less than fifty years to rebuild. The opposition and the regime, meanwhile, are like the deaf man at the wedding procession — Russia and America negotiate over matters concerning Syria, and Syrians hear what others will do to them through news bulletins. They have destroyed Syria, the country of the brave, of love and beauty, and lounge on their own beds, entertaining themselves before their screens.

The outside powers have their own interests, and every power active in the Syrian war searches for a solution aligning with its own interests, and since these interests conflict, reaching a solution among the outside powers will not be easy. The solution now does not lie among Syrians, but among the powers supplying soldiers, weapons, and money — it is they who are active in the discussions concerning solutions.

The opposition, and the regime alike, have removed Syria and its people from the equation, turning everyone into a subject of discussion instead of the actors shaping their own future. And whatever conditions the outside powers arrange —

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “سوريا ضحية القوى الخارجية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.