A Conundrum Within a Dilemma
"Anything, anything, to get that man out of the country and to have a safe transition in Syria. Of course I would favour him facing the full force of international law and justice for what's he's done. I am certainly not offering him an exit plan to Britain, but if he wants to leave, he could leave, that could be arranged ..."
British Prime Minister David Cameron
So then, which is it? a) anything to get Bashar al-Assad out of the country and by so doing achieve a cessation of the punishing war of deadly attrition killing civilians and rebels alike and creating tens of thousands of desperate refugees spilling over into other neighbouring countries threatening to destabilize the area as regime and rebel assaults both also spill over borders...?
Or b) Securing Bashar al-Assad's compliance on a plan to exit his country, become an exile with the promise of protection for himself and his family from prosecution, and at a later, more convenient date, haul him before the International Criminal Court for justice must be seen to be done...?
"Our overriding message is one of great concern. The situation inside Syria is turning grimmer every day, and the risk is growing that the crisis could explode outward into an already volatile region." The UN undersecretary general for political affairs has briefed the Security Council, informed reporters that the "military logic" that the antagonists are locked in dictates only force will create an outcome.
Seven Syrian army generals creating a sizeable entourage with their families, have been escorted through the border town of Reyhanli in Turkey, under tight security. These latest defections bring the total of such high-ranking regime military personnel absconding to a total of 42. Bombs are continuing to rock Syrian cities, along with killings and booby-trapped cars targeting regime neighbourhoods.
Three blasts recently occurred in Damascus causing significant destruction, in a main square close to houses occupied by the elite troops from the Republican Guards, led by Maher Assad, Bashar's brother who has been charged with protecting the capital. It is doubtful now that he is capable of protecting his own troops. Mohammed Osama Laham, brother of Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham is the latest high profile Syrian official to be assassinated.
Prime Minister David Cameron met with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss the ongoing crisis as he arrived in Jiddah. Saudi Arabia - alongside Turkey and Qatar - is one of the Alawite regime's harshest critics. He has called for the international community to stand behind the rebels and to arm them with the weaponry they require to return fire for fire. Without which they will be unable to surmount the difficulties of facing a formidably armed army.
In continuing to appeal to NATO, to the United Nations, to the United States, to the European Union to intervene in the deadly melee between the Syrian rebels, their phantom Islamist allies and the Alawite Ba'athist regime of Bashar al Assad, the Arab League is evading its own responsibilities. One of its own is massacring his people. Arab and Muslim countries invariably charge the West of interference in their eastern affairs.
Yet on this occasion when they should be deploying their combined military resources to disarm a viciously rogue state and apprehend systemic violence against a vulnerable population, they cannot move themselves to act. Granted, doing so would bring to a head the stark theological divisions between Sunni and Shia, and their traditional animus.
In taking collective action against Syria, the Sunni states would be aware that Iran would enter the picture and a more regional dispute of unknowable violence and disruption might ensue. But this is a region beset by concerns over the plans of Iran with respect to its nuclear agenda and its longer-range plans to take commanding sovereign control of the greater Middle East.
Their indecision and angst, existential and cowardly, was never in evidence when collectively they assaulted the smaller nation of Israel, time and again, not to remove a deadly dictator, but to expunge an entire population.
Labels: Human Rights, Iran, Islamism, Israel, NATO, Political Realities, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Security, Societal Failures, Syria, Traditions, Turkey, United Nations, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 08, 2012
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