generalspeaking

Syrian Precedents

It all started with the colonial powers of the world conquering weaker, less technically developed and prepared-for-invasion countries whose natural resources attracted the presence of those imperial predators. It happened in Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East. Countries that vied with one another for the wealth that could be extracted from emerging societies that represented ancient cultures and traditions were ripe for the plucking.

And pluck they did, those imperial powers. They fought among themselves, the countries of Europe, and they played havoc with the world at large by setting off in their sailing vessels with full cannons and military presence, to bulldoze their way as powerful oppressors. Some nations, like Great Britain, have to this very day, fairly good relations with their previous hegemonic countries. Some, like France, not so much.

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, France took possession of some of the former Ottoman jurisdictions, and one of them was Syria, created under the League of Nations mandate, where France ruled. The new country embraced geography that held tribal, ethnic and religious diversities, of clans and cultures that faced one another with bitter enmity; there was no 'national' bond to hold them together for any common purpose.

In 1925, France mobilized 50,000 troops, using all the weaponry developed during the Great War in an aerial bombing campaign and armoured tank land assault on a revolt that shook the entire country of Syria. There were huge civilian casualties. But this was a French dominated situation and the international community thought little of it, and there was no intervention, for this was an empire protecting its dominance.

Thirty years ago, under a minority Alawite faction, Hafiz al-Assad put down another insurrection, one mounted by majority Sunni Muslims under the umbrella of The Muslim Brotherhood, where tens of thousands of people were slaughtered by regime forces. Like many African states with their mixture of warring tribes and animosities that flare up incessantly, the Middle East too is freighted with these constant fractures.

And now there is yet another, with the same Muslim Brotherhood-inspired uprising from the Sunni majority against the Shia minority that rules. The current Alawite-dominated regime of Bashar al-Assad is employing the very same tactics that his father did, that the French did in the first quarter of the 20th Century. The League of Nations made no attempt to halt the French; its successor, the United Nations, is attempting to persuade al-Assad to cease and desist.

But the Syrian opposition to the regime has a more all-consuming plan, to oust the Alawite regime and to install one of their own, with the considerable assistance and sympathy of Turkey. Turkey and the United States are discussing non-lethal supplies of assistance like food and fuel for the Syrian Free Army. While there is also agitation for the international community to become involved, to ensure that full-scale war involving the region does not erupt.

There does currently exist where there did not before, the Arab League, comprised of surrounding states, all of them well armed with standing militaries and the latest military equipment, capable of invading Syria, disarming the regime and insisting on the two sides suing for peace. Of course neither the regime nor its opponents is agreeable to bargaining with the other; each insists on the paramountcy of its particular demand that the other decamp.

Much as the world wrings its hands in sympathy over the plight of Syrian civilians being tortured and slaughtered by government forces, this is a local situation, common to the geography, and which must be solved locally. It's a tall order from any perspective, given the existing critical antipathies of tribal allegiance and sectarian hatreds, but this is a prime instance where Arab Muslims must solve the problems of their own.

Labels: Arab League, Conflict, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Monday, March 26, 2012