In her address at the U.N. Security Council Monday 3/12 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated: “The US believes firmly in the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member states, but we do not believe that sovereignty demands that this council stand silent when governments massacre their own people, threatening regional peace and security in the process. And we reject any equivalence between premeditated murders by a government’s military machine and the actions of civilians under siege driven to self-defense”. For a while I thought that Mrs. Clinton’s heart had a touch of compassion for the 5 years long besieged and starved Palestinians in Gaza , who have been the target of unprovoked assassinations, murder and extensive aerial bombardments in a graduated extermination scheme by the Israeli military machine. Last such unprovoked attack took place weekend of 3/10-11 in 37 aerial sorties during four days that murdered 27 Palestinians many of them school children while on their way to school. The real reason of this Israeli attack was to draw out Palestinian rockets in order to test the Israeli “Iron Dome” defense system in a real life situation.
Unfortunately Clinton was defending instead the Western/Qatari/Saudi armed foreigners, al-Qaeda, and Syrian rebels, who had been terrorizing and massacring Syrian civilians in many Syrian border cities. As for the Palestinian self-defense Clinton had this hippocratic contradictory response : “Let me also condemn in the strongest terms the rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel , which continued over the weekend.” Clinton ‘s fake humanitarian sentiments towards the Palestinians were also expressed in her threats to stop the American financial aid to Egypt if it exports fuel to Gaza to operate its power station. Gaza has been in total darkness for weeks due to shortage of fuel. It seems that in Clinton ‘s twisted logic Palestinians have no right for self-defense and Syrian government has no right to fight terrorists.
US State Department spokeswoman, Vicoria Nuland , , had also stressed the American disregard to Palestinian’s right of self-defense and the continuous unconditional prejudiced support to Israeli terror when she condemned “in the strongest terms” the rocket fire from Gaza towards southern Israel.
The 60 years long suffering of Palestinians under the Zionist occupation, the Israeli theft of their land, the daily destruction of their homes, the imprisonment of their children, the never ending destruction of their economy and uprooting and burning of their farm trees and slaughter of their farm animals by religiously extremist occupiers (so-called settlers), the assassination of their leaders and political dissidents, the extreme violations of their human rights and freedom, and the ethnic cleansing of their families had never moved any humanitarian feeling in the heart of any American senators while the defeat of the Syrian armed terrorists and their flight to Syrian border towns during just one year had moved many senators to demand military intervention in Syria to protect those “poor” Syrian citizens. The most enthusiast among these senators is the Zionist-bribed, “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran ” warmongering, power-drunk senile Republican John McCain . We should also mention here the “soft hearted” US ambassador to Lebanon, Maura Connelly , who called on Tuesday March 6 th for the protection of all whom she called disarmed Syrians including members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army during her meeting with Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Charbel. Connelly wanted Lebanon to create a “safe buffer zone” on its border with Syria to host “Syrian refugees” where this zone would become a military base to train terrorists and a launching pad for terrorist attacks within Syria . The Pentagon, also, has prepared basic plans to attack Syria including limited airstrikes, the establishment of a no-fly zone and a humanitarian corridor to deliver $10 million worth of relief (and military) supplies, as revealed by Army General Martin Dempsey . An internal email dated December 7 th 2011 from an official at Stratfor Global Intelligence Agency exposed that the US had sent American special operation forces to Syria to train and to arm Syrian armed militia to topple Syrian Assad’s regime in an act of war.
This humanitarian Pentagon would not even ponder neither the idea of establishing a no-fly zone nor spending $1 worth of relief supplies delivery to the Palestinians besieged and starved in Gaza for the last seven years in the dark without electricity and under the unprovoked routine Israeli air strikes, rather it gives Israel more sophisticated weapons to murder more Palestinian children. If we forget about the besieged Palestinians because the US supports Israel unconditionally, then we would ask for support to Bahraini and Yemini popular uprising to obtain social freedom and adopt democratic rule.
The US would be better off helping its own people before helping other countries. The American tax payers are suffering from high rate of unemployment, homelessness, budget cuts on all social services including medicare and education, increase of crime rate, and millions of families living under the poverty line. The number of beggars; young and old, standing on major freeway exits in a metropolitan city of Los Angeles is on the increase. Where is Clinton ‘s humanitarian help for her own citizens?
The US is not the only hypocritical party when it comes to Syria . European countries, especially France , are also guilty. France wants its old colony back; Syria was under the French mandate (occupation) since WWI until independence in April 1946. Along with the US France had tried hard, but failed due to Russian and Chinese veto, to secure a UN resolution calling for military intervention in Syria . French military special operation forces , some of which have been captured by Syrian security forces when they reclaimed Baba-Amr in Homs , had been sent to Syria to train and arm militias. This is an act of war. Humanitarian France, the birth place of the French Revolution defending human rights and freedom, had justified sending fighter planes to Libya causing the death of thousands of Libyans in order to free them from Qaddafi, and is now calling for arming Syrian rebels to affect another civil war and destruction, had stood dumb silent for sixty long years watching the Palestinians butchered by Israel. French humanitarian mouth is also shut tight about Yemini and Bahraini peaceful demonstrations faced with savage attacks by their governments.
The most hypocritical of them all are the Arab States especially the Gulf absolute dictatorships of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who, instead of helping their Arab brothers reach a peaceful resolution, have become the western tools to divide, destroy, and ignite civil wars within other Arab States. Qatar is an absolute monarchy ruled by Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who seized power from his father in a coup d’état in 1995. He persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and killed most of his father’s loyalists and revoked citizenships from almost five thousand dissidents. Qatar has no constitution, no democracy, no freedom, and no human rights. Qatar served as a launching pad for American invasion of Iraq and has been turned into an American military base since 1992. The Emir and his foreign minister, Hamad bin-Jassim, had turned into Arab enemy combatants through their cooperation with Israel . Their pictures with Israeli war criminals are all over the internet. They also planned to run gas and oil pipe lines from Qatar to Israeli port of Haifa and had invited Israeli companies to invest in Qatar . When Israel attacked Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008/9 the Emir and his foreign minister stood cheering the Israeli army and predicting the end of Hezbollah and Hamas. Their antagonism to Arab causes was also apparent when Qatar sent military trainers, advisers and weapons to help Libyan rebels destroy Libya , while similar armed military troops were also sent to Yemen and Bahrain , but paradoxically, to oppress the peaceful civilian demonstrators demanding freedom and democracy. Bin Jassim was heard vowing vehemently to topple Syrian Assad’s regime, and Qatari money, weapons, and military officers have not been spared for this purpose. Qatari weapons have been sent to Syrian rebels through Jordan , and Bin Jassim , in a meeting with Lebanese, Saudi, Turkish, American and French intelligence officers, had pledged to pay a million dollar to every terrorist group who would perpetrate a terror attack in Syria ‘s main cities. Car bombings in Damascus and Halab killing scores of Syrian citizens seem to come as a result of such a pledge. Through Qatar ‘s leadership of the Arab League Bin Jassim had pushed hard to adopt resolutions against Syria , to call on UNSC to pressure Syria , to organize Friends of Syria Conference, and to call for arming Syrian militias.
Similar to Qatar , Saudi Arabia is an absolute dictatorship. There is no constitution, no freedom, no democracy and no human rights. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had criticized Saudi Arabia for grave human rights violation in death penalty by beheading for many crimes and especially when it comes to women’s rights. Saudi women have no rights at all. They must be completely veiled, not allowed to walk in the streets alone without an escort and not even drive a car. Although considered the richest Arab state due to oil revenue it is estimated that 20% of citizens are below the poverty line while 30% are jobless when foreigners occupy Saudi jobs. Saudi Arabia was virtually occupied by American forces and became the launching pad for war against Iraq in 1990 and again in 2003. Saudi foreign policy has been covertly pro-American and pro-Zionist and did not serve the interest of its citizens or the interest of the rest of Arab world. This was clearly exposed lately during the American invasion of Iraq, by sending troops and weapons to Libya to get rid of Qaddafi, by sending troops to Yemen and to Bahrain to aggressively oppress the popular demonstrators and finally by arming Syrian militias . While claiming to protect Syrian human rights Saudi troops are savagely crushing their own citizens demonstrating in the eastern and northern towns, especially university female students and professors, demanding political reform, freedom and democracy. Demonstrations and strikes are spreading largely to Saudi pilots and to government employees fighting corruption and demanding equality. The Saudi Spring seems on the verge of exploding.
After playing the lead role in criticizing Assad’s regime Turkey ‘s rhetoric was quickly subdued after the capture of Turkish officers in Baba Amr and the economic loss Turkey had suffered due to economic boycott by Syria . Turkish oppositional parties had criticized Prime Minister, Erdogan’s, policy towards Syria , and had opposed his decision to establish a safe buffer zone on the Syrian border to harbor Syrian rebels. Turkey has its own Kurdish problem and has been militarily suppressing Kurdish liberation movements. Armed clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish groups are on the rise. During this month, March, five Turkish soldiers and seven armed Kurds were killed on 22 nd during clashes in Istanbul and Diyarbakir while Kurds were celebrating Nowruz Day. In the 24 th of the month the Turkish Interior Ministry announced the killing of fifteen Kurdish militia men in skirmishes in south eastern part of the country. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an organization fighting an armed struggle against Turkey to establish autonomous Kurdistan , vowed to hit Turkish targets if Turkey interfered in Syria ‘s affairs by establishing a buffer zone. Before meddling in its neighbors’ affairs by harboring, training and arming Syrian rebels Turkey should instead handle its own Kurdish problem first.
Syrian citizens have the right to demonstrate peacefully demanding change in their government. Unfortunately the so-called Syrian opposition was not peaceful and was not political. It did not offer any political program and refused to negotiate with the ruling regime. It also rejected the new constitution that guaranteed democratic reform. They have turned armed terrorists whose goal is to topple the regime by force rather than reform it. Opposition is always political and never calls for armed struggle otherwise it becomes a coup. Some western and Arabic countries hijacked the demonstrations, and turned them militarized in an attempt to topple Assad’s regime. Foreign fighters; Lebanese, Libyans , Iraqis, Qataris, Saudis, Turkish, French, and American , were sent to Syria to train and arm rebels, who call themselves “Free Syrian Army” This armed militias are divided among themselves in different groups under different leaderships with different goals. They have occupied neighborhoods by force , destroyed oil pipelines, bombed bridges, car-bombed government buildings, ambushed Syrian security forces, and massacred pro-Assad citizens, at times whole families. They have disrupted basic services critical to citizens’ survival including access to food supplies, medical care, water, electricity, transportation and education. These are grave human rights violations and extensive war crimes as was reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Countries that support and arm these terrorist are guilty of terror attacks as well. There is no sovereign state in the world that would accept foreign calls to arm oppositional militias, whose goal is to topple the government through terrorist attacks, and Syria has every right to fight these armed terrorists.
Syrian Assad’s regime has responded positively to his people’s demands, accepted Arab League’s resolutions, received international monitors, offered political negotiations through Russian mediation, offered a new constitution in a referendum to the people, and announced new parliamentary election on May 7 th . Yet arms are still flowing into the country.
By Dr. Elias Akleh
26 March 2012
@ Countercurrents.org
Dr. Elias Akleh is a writer living in Corona, CA., eakleh@ca.rr.com