Syria: Theater of the Obscene

Bashar Al-Assad's staged, meaningless referendum in the midst of a bloodbath is not only absurd, it is obscene beyond description. On the day 125  Syria citizens died at the hands of regimes security forces, the president declares the referendum on the new constitution a success as about 89% of those who voted, the government claims, approved the referendum. The actual voter turnout is in dispute; local diplomats estimate it to be as low as 5% with no voting occurring in either Hama or Homs. The state media's fanfare around the referendum was slick showing an organized voting process and polling places packed with voters. Even Bashar came out to vote surrounded by his sycophants.

The contrast between the clean organized voting stations seen on the TV and the unseen misery and deprivation  of the people of Baba Amr, decimated in the most cruel way by their very own government, was nauseating. As the government officials feign concern for the citizens that they serve, the very basic medical help  is denied the people of Homs. Clearly, the images on state TV were for foreign consumption and in support of the regime's version of reality. Somehow they think they are winning this media contest even though few people outside of Syria believe a word of it.  I continue to see regime supporters tell incredulous interviewers that the videos, coming out in real time from Homs and elsewhere are all fabricated.

They know very well that their own people don't buy this alternative version of reality and in fact it doesn't matter.  The message they want to send to the Syrian people is clear: "Make no mistake about it, if you go against us, you will suffer the same fate as Baba Amr". This attitude of arrogance, hate and unbridled cruelty is not limited to places were there is active conflict but in the security forces' daily dealings with the citizenry they were sworn to protect. Harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests and beatings were always part of the modus operandi of this regime,  now they are rampant.

If no one knows what to do with Syria, it is because the regime has left no options for anyone including itself. It has painted itself into a corner and will continue to battle to the bitter end.  For those who oppose the regime, there is no going back, too much blood has flowed and the oppressive fear that was the regime's control mechanism  is no longer.  The cornered beast will eventually tire and succumb; I just hope that it is soon.

Support Avaaz to Support the Syrian People

Avaaz is a global citizen activist community established in 2007 and with a growing global membership.  They have started several campaigns of petitions and direct assistance to the Syrian people providing support for citizen journalists to get information out of Syrian and organization the smuggling of medical supplies into Homs and other cities and towns in need.

• Petition to the Arab League to stop the killing of innocent civilian by the Assad regime
• Smuggle hope into Syria: This is perhaps Avaaz most direct and most effective assistance to the Syrian revolution. It is an effort to support Syrian citizen journalists and provide medical supplies to  clandestine field hospitals and clinics in Syria
• Arrest Syria's torturers:  A petition to the United Nation Security Council and the Arab League to refer to the international criminal court members of regime accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Please consider supporting Avaaz' Syria campaigns either by signing these important petitions or providing financial support.  

Freedom for Syrian Human Rights Activists

Razan Ghazzawi, the courageous and outspoken blogger and activist appeals for the release of members of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of expression. They were recently detained by the Syrian mukhabarat for unspecified reasons.

In addition to committing what clearly amounts to war crimes by any definition against their own civilian population, the Syrian regime arrested thousands of citizens.  This appeal should extend to all Syrian citizens, known and unknown, who have been arrested for nothing more than the expressing freely their opinions of the their own government, be it as bloggers, journalists,citizen activists or as peaceful demonstrators.

Please, Enough Videos of Dead and Dying Syrians!

At the start of the Syrian uprising, the stream of  grainy and gruesome YouTube videos was unavoidable.  They were the world's only glimpse inside Syria and the only visual testament of the brutality of the regime. As an expatriate, I felt a sense of guilt for being out of harm's way as my compatriots were being wounded and killed.  Watching the videos was, in a sense, penance for my good fortune. It also heightened the sense of urgency and the seriousness of the unfolding calamity in Syria. But the videos also had a corrosive effect on the psyche,

It is not that I'm squeamish. I have seen my share of death and destruction first hand as a medical student in Beirut in 1982. Feeling anger at brutality of the regime's response to peaceful protests is normal and healthy, but this anger, constantly fed, can turn into destructive rage.  After a while I stopped watching. It didn't feel right, it felt voyeuristic; with every new video there was an expectation of ever more graphic images to maintain your level of outrage and indignation.   All I needed to know is that a family of six was killed by an artillery round fired by the army that is supposed to protect them, I didn't need to see the mangled bodies. I don't blame the civilians who took those videos.  In the absence of independent professional journalists, amateur videos uploaded on the internet were the only way  to tell their very personal story, the only way to communicate the urgency of their dire situation to the outside world.

I worry, however, that the constant stream of these videos will sharpen the divide among Syrians and, as it feeds the rage among of the aggrieved, it increases the risk of equally vicious retaliatory violence.  This revolution, in the end, is not about death and destruction, it is about a new beginning.  Preparing for this unavoidable new beginning is as crucial as winning the day to day confrontation with the regime.  As the revolution turns more violent, the positive, peaceful, unifying message of the non-violent approach that launched the Syrian revolution should not be drowned out.  I don't want to remember Giyath Matar as a lifeless tortured corpse; I want to remember his radiant, magnanimous smile and his courageous, non-violent activism.  In the same way I want to remember Ibrahim Othman's herculean efforts to treat the wounded, Tal al-Mallouhi's poetry and Mazhar Tayyara's citizen-journalism and his dedication to the unity of all Syrians.

We need to remember them and hundreds of others not for their death but for the remarkable things they achieved in their short lives. Theirs are inspirational stories for a new beginning, a new definition for citizenship for the not so far away post-Assad Syria.

Syria: Where is the Outrage? Where is the Outcry?

Where is the outrage? Where are the cries for justice as the people of Homs, men, women and children, are pounded indiscriminately by a merciless tyrant son of a vile and vicious tyrant?  As the world leaders wring their hands pretending to care, Assad and his “armed gang” couldn’t care less and thumb their nose at the rest of world.  For the West, Syria does not have enough oil to matter.  They care enough to let Syria unravel to break Iran’s influence but don’t care enough to help achieve an outcome that benefits the Syrian people.  China and Russia, on the other hand, claim to be protecting Syria’s sovereignty but what they really want is to send a message to their own restive populations. Their people, however, know better.

That world leaders play their predictable games is no surprise.  What really gets my blood boiling, however, is the mealy mouthed response to the Syrian uprising from a clique of leftwing Arab intellectuals and academics, many living in the West.  They were all for the Tunisian uprising and the Egyptian uprising because it fit into their anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist world view and left-wing narrative.  There was never any question in other Arab spring uprisings about unbalanced reporting, and never a suggestion that news relayed by activists in those countries represented anything but the truth.  All that changed when it came to Syria, the self-proclaimed bastion of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, steadfastness, pan-Arabism and resistance against Israeli and American hegemony.  Suddenly, there are two sides to the story of the popular uprising. Activists in Syria, they claim, are part of a media conspiracy of disinformation and regularly exaggerated the numbers of the wounded and dead.  You see, the local activist lied; it was not really 200 hundred civilians who died who in Homs the other day, it was “only” 150!  Imagine that! Not only do activists lie according to them, but any media outlet that reports activist information and videos becomes complicit in this media conspiracy and is labeled pro-American or pro-Saudi.  They seem to gloss over the fact if information is hard to get in Syrian, it is because the regime has has rarely allowed independent journalists to cover the uprising.

Oh how I hate ideologues with a passion; left-wing or right-wing, they are all the same.  They so easily morph into demagogues. They speak in clichés and labels that disconnect them from reality and reasoned thought.  When you mention the Syrian uprising to a member of the aforementioned clique, the response you get is a torrent of disconnected clichés: imperialism… colonialism… conspiracy… Western hegemony…   Zionist… racist … genocidal entity…etc.  Yes,  well I know all of that, you say, but that’s not what I am talking about. I am talking about the more than 7000 Syrians killed by a Syrian genocidal maniac.  How about you get off you high horse of meaningless cliches and do something about the people whose loss you pretend to be grieving? How about supporting a divestment campaign? How about organizing a Tartous flotilla or two to get medical supplies to Homs? The worst part of this clique’s waffling attitude towards the Syrian dictatorship is that Assad and his supporters use their writings as fodder to bolster their contorted narrative of a worldwide conspiracy against the Syrian regime.

Fortunately, the people on the ground in the Middle East are not looking through the distorted prisms of fixed ideologies and have shown support for the Syrian people.  Unlike the clique in their ivory towers, the people get it. Here are Palestinians in Haifa, Lebanese citizens from south Lebanon,  Jordanians, and of course Yemenis. Here are Palestinians who clearly don't buy Assad's expedient claim to the mantel of "resistance" and exclaim "not in our name and not in Palestine's name will you commit these crimes, you murderers".  

This support will not prevent the continued carnage in Homs, but is nevertheless important for the morale of the Syrian people in their fight for freedom and dignity. 

Bashar in the Steps of Hafez

If there is any more doubt that the 2012 Assad regime is any different than the Assad regime circa 1982, the carnage in Homs today should erase all such doubts. Reports speak of up to  200 dead and 400 wounded in a single day. The timing of this escalation, a day after the 30th anniversary of the Hama massacre, makes you wonder about the mindset of those in power in Damascus: Are they insane or are they just evil beyond belief? When you listen to Al Jaafari at the UN, you get the sense that these people have so completely absorbed their delusional narrative that all they can do is respond with self-righteous indignation to anyone who opposes their world view.  When it comes to pure fanaticism, Al Qaeda, the regime's favorite boogeyman, has nothing on them. This self-righteousness begets the demagoguery that justifies any form of violence against their perceived enemies.  In its blind rage, the regime will not only destroy all that is in its path, it will invariably self-destruct.  The opposition is right, there is no room for a political solution with the regime in power, there never was.

And yet, Syria and the Syrian people cannot afford to sit and wait patiently for the regime's eventual implosion.  I was and still am a believer in the non-violent approach that formed the basis of the Syrian revolution.  However, the success of a non-violent approach is predicated on undermining the regime by getting the vast majority of the population on your side.  This is happening too slowly as a sizable portion of the population  remains silent either out of fear or self interest.  Then there are the true believers who have taken to heart the regime narrative and will continue, like lemmings,walking with them until they fall off the cliff.

With the regime's heels dug in, regime change will be costly to the Syrian people. I see little chance that the regime will respond favorably to any initiative either by the Arab League or the UN, unless they are strong-armed into it by the Russians. Even if that happens the regime will do its best to drag, delay and render the process completely useless all the while continuing its crackdown.  A slowly growing insurgency is not a good solution either. With piecemeal defections, the fragmented Free Syrian Army defectors will  achieve small victories but will ultimately be outgunned by an Army that has no qualms about sparing civilians when returning fire; that's Bashar's "iron fist" policy.  The increasing violence and retaliation will drag on ultimately creating an environment conducive to civil war.  The only chance of a quicker fall of the regime would be a revolt from within the ranks. I hope, for the sake of sparing as many lives as possible, that any person or group capable of pulling this off is offered the proper incentives to execute such a coup.

Sign: "Kill us but spare the people of Hama and Homs"