War Drums against Syria

The American Policeman of the World
The American Beltway political Elites want to play Teddy Roosevelt and be Policeman of the World.  But while the Elites fatten their wallets with corrupt special interest money and attend Georgetown cocktail parties, it will be the blood and guts of average Americans in the military that gets spread all over the planet.  

Why are we being pushed into a war against Syria?

• There is a steady media and government drumbeat in the West for war to overthrow the Syrian government.
• Syrian Muslim and Christian minority groups have supported the Baath Government.

By Gary;

There is a steady drum beat from the United States, Europe and many Muslim nations to overthrow the Baathist government of Syria using some level of military force.

Why?

First of all, I don't believe for one second that the Western powers really care.  The U.S. and Europeans don't give a rat's ass that there have been people killed in Syria.

Over the years the Western nations have spilled rivers of blood to put down internal rebellions, civil wars and overthrow governments.  For example, Britain in Ireland and in their overseas colonies and now in Libya.  France in Algeria, Indochina and Libya.  Italy in North Africa.  The U.S. in the Philippines, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Libya.

I suspect the motives of the anti-Baathist Muslim nations.  Perhaps they do not like the Baathists for having been a secular political force or for their protection of Muslim and Christian minority groups.

Americans would have been furiously angry if during our Civil War the British and French fleets had attacked Baltimore and New York in support of the Confederacy.  Are we so arrogant that we refuse to believe that other nations might resent us interfering in their internal affairs?

Syrians need to be left alone to resolve their own problems.

Syrian Christians are frightened.
As 10% of Syria's population Christians have been a protected minority of Assad's secular Baath Party.  Looking at church burning in Egypt they are deeply concerned about an Islamist takeover with the help of Americans and Europeans. 

Syrian Christians live in fear of Islamic revolution

Syria:  A complex networks of tribes and religions

In an article for the Los Angeles Times Aram Nerguizian, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made some interesting observations on the complex nature of Middle East politics.  Everything is not as simple as good guy - bad guy.
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Writes Nerguizian:   "The core of Assad's support still lies within the minority Alawite sect, of which he is a member. Many Alawites, who make up about 12% of the population, feel that Assad has mismanaged the instability, but they cannot ignore the reality that, in a Sunni-dominated Syria, their community — like the Sunnis of Iraq and the Maronite Christians of Lebanon — is likely to be pushed to the margins of power and suffer reprisals."
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"But it would be a mistake to assume that only the Alawites support the status quo. The Syrian Baath Party's Arab nationalist ideology, its strong support for the Palestinians and its opposition to Israel have proved useful tools in extending the regime's legitimacy beyond the Alawite sect."

Syrian pro-government protesters are seen in Damascus showing their support for the new draft constitution referendum. (Youssef Badawi/EPA / February 26, 2012)  

"One source of support for Assad is Syria's Christian community, which makes up about 10% of the population. Though many Christians feel that the regime has made numerous mistakes in addressing the protest movements, they have a deep and understandable fear of the sort of instability and sectarian recriminations that followed Saddam Hussein's fall in Iraq."
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"The majority of Iraqi Christians there were eventually forced to flee the country after suffering high levels of violence and intimidation. Other minority groups, such as Syrian Kurds and Druze, have either continued their support of Assad or have resisted the urge to join elements of the protest movement for similar reasons."
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"Though Sunnis account for the overwhelming majority of Syrian opposition to the Assad regime, there are other Sunnis within the Baath Party's rank and file that would have few prospects in a post-Assad Syria and so have not opposed the status quo. The country's Sunni merchant class and business community, located mainly in Aleppo and Damascus, have also remained largely on the sidelines of the protests. Some have supported elements of the opposition, but most remain fearful of the socioeconomic vacuum that an abrupt change in leadership would create."

A member of the Druze community holds up a Syrian flag with a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad during a rally in the Druze village of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights (Baz Ratner/Courtesy Reuters).

The Syrian Druze Community


About 500,000 in number and concentrated in the rocky mountainscape of the Jabal Al Arab, the Druze are among the smallest of Syria’s minority groups, fewer than the Alawites, Kurds or Christians.
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But their reputation for rebellion against central authority and for wielding an influence in Syrian political life disproportionate to their numbers means their support is avidly sought by both Bashar Al Assad and the president’s opponents reports  The National News.    

Over 500,000 Druze live in Syria alone.

However, in the struggle for Druze support, it is the regime that for the moment remains on top, according to both critics and supporters of the government in the Druze community. Sweida is still seen as a bastion of at least tacit support for Mr Al Assad’s regime, 11 months into an uprising against his rule.

“When it comes to organising big protests, we’ve failed,” said one Druze activist from Sweida. “The uprising here is limited to the intellectuals. We’ve not been successful in getting it out into the wider community.”

Sweida’s silence, according to activists, analysts and Syrian Druze on both sides of the political divide, is the result of a variety of factors, from mundane practical problems to the long-harboured fears of a minority terrified by the prospect of rule by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority.

Druze religious leaders have refused to back the protesters. They side with Al Assad and, like him, give warning of a “foreign conspiracy”. Early in the uprising, activists in Sweida held meetings with Druze sheikhs including the three most powerful, Hamoud Al Hinnawi, Hussein Jabour and Ahmed Hajari, to solicit their support.

“They were all with the regime, we couldn’t get them even to be impartial,” said an influential opposition figure involved in the talks. “One of them told us that he would not send shabbiheh [thugs] against us but was unsatisfied with our protests. That was the most positive response we got.

“The other meetings were very bad. One sheikh said, ‘there are 100 dogs [protesters] in Sweida and if they were killed the city would be a better place’.”

Of the 2,000 security personnel the authorities say have been killed since March, 100 have been Druze, a disproportionate number that suggests Druze security officers are playing a prominent role in confronting the uprising.
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(The National News)

Druze religious leaders have refused to the back protesters.

If the Baath government of Syria falls who will protect the Christians from Islamists?

Non-thinking Elites in the West refuse to understand how complex Syrian society is, but they just can't wait to overthrow the government.