With Syria or Against Syria

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

When a conflict breaks out between a ruling regime and its people, we are with the people, and when it breaks out between a state and external forces, we are with the state. This is a rule that applies to Syria and to other Arab states. The explanation is simple: a people does not rise up against a government or political system out of a vacuum, or for amusement, but for a great reason — that injustice has overflowed; and external forces do not fight for the freedom of an oppressed people but for their own interests, exploiting popular conditions.

For this reason it was important to stand with the Syrian people, or with that portion of it that went out to demonstrate against the regime at the start of events in Syria, because the regime had grown tyrannical, oppressive, and unjust, and left people no path but to go out demanding their rights. But when the regime, the people, the land, or the Syrian state is exposed to external aggression, the space for interpretation becomes political sophistry and betrayal of the nation and the homeland.

The regime committed grave errors in its response to events at the outset, and did not heed advice or appeals, and we have now arrived at what we are in — a global mobilization against Syria. The opposition, too, committed errors, because it lent its ear to Western and Arab states and preferred foreign intervention over continuing a peaceful path that would corner the regime. And after all the intransigence we have seen from both the regime and the opposition, there is no longer any benefit in searching for who bore the greater fault, because the homeland is now being subjected to a foreign, Western invasion using Arab tools and Islamic forces.

Looking at what Syria is now being subjected to, it is difficult to find in history a mobilization of forces comparable to this one — it is larger than the mobilization that gathered against Iraq in 1991. Now gathered together are the states of the European Union, the states of the NATO alliance, the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and other Arab states such as Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco, along with Arab and Islamic organizations, parties, and fighters, to fight the Syrian regime or the Syrian army, or to invade Syrian territory and shatter the state. The following forces are now gathered against Syria:

The states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, numbering 28, and the states of the European Union, numbering 27, with of course some overlap in membership. These states are: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Britain, America, Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Sweden. Some of these states are not active against Syria, but their contributions against Syria remain an existing asset that can be drawn upon should the need arise.

Israel, and all the Zionist and Jewish media and organizational forces around the world.

Arab states, namely: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, the Palestinian Authority.

Arab forces and parties: the Lebanese Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Lebanese Kataeb Party, al-Qaeda and its offshoot organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist Islamic currents, some nationalist and patriotic forces in Egypt, Iraq, and the Levant, and some internal and external Syrian opposition forces.

In sum: there are about 60 forces participating, in one way or another, in the fighting against Syria, foremost among them the nuclear powers America, Britain, France, and Israel, and Arab financial power.

I cannot say that all these forces agree on a single goal after bringing down the regime, should they succeed. All of them want to bring down the regime, but each force has its own agenda thereafter. But if these states and forces succeed in achieving their shared goal, then the upper hand will belong to the strongest among them — the Western-Israeli side.

If we set aside some Islamic forces, and some internal Syrian patriotic forces, we find that most of the forces now massed against Syria are operating under the Israeli and American banners — forces that possess enormous capabilities such that they could seize control of the Syrian situation should the regime collapse. That is, it is not expected that Islamic forces will prevail should the regime fall, and all of them will be targeted by Western and Israeli forces and those Arabs who orbit around them.

Under the current circumstances, standing with Western forces against Syria has nothing to do with patriotism, Arab nationalism, or Islam, and is a stance that helps destroy and ruin Syria. Conditions in Syria must change politically, but not in the Israeli-American manner. We must now defend Syria while retaining the right to change by means that ensure the cohesion of the army, the people, and the land, and that prevent destruction, devastation, and dismemberment.

No Islamic, nationalist, or patriotic force can be in the same alliance in which Israel and America find themselves. We may hate the Arab party [in question], we may disagree with it, we may struggle against it, but we do not struggle against it with American and Israeli arms, bombs, and rifles. Here I remind everyone of the siege of Arafat by the Zionists. No Palestinian or Arab stood with Israel because he hated Arafat, or rejected the Oslo agreement — everyone stood with him against Israel. We did not agree with Arafat about Oslo while he was under siege, but we never for a moment thought of standing with Israel against a Palestinian. So do we accept being with Israel and America against a Syrian?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “مع سوريا أو ضد سوريا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.