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Assad's newest terror weapon: barrels
of explosives, packed with nails and other such crude shrapnel (of
the type terrorists such as the Boston Marathon bombers and others
employ) and dropping them out of helicopters onto Aleppo. Among the
targets: schools (a favorite Assad target, which he also likes to
firebomb) markets, traffic circles; in other words, where people,
especially young people, congregate and can be slaughtered in
significant numbers. About 200 people have been killed in one day of
such attacks in Aleppo, which along with Damascus is one of Syria's
two major cities. Assad's terror air force is now flying 100 sorties
a day.
The regime also just murdered a doctor
they had held in captivity (and no doubt tortured) for months, days
after cruelly telling his family he was about to be released. The
regime is big on psycho-sadistic touches like that. (The doctor's
“crime” was treating people wounded by the Assad barbarians who
lived in areas Assad lost control of.)
The country has been virtually
destroyed at this point. Actual physical starvation is confronting
many Syrians now. A few days ago 8 infants froze to death, their
families having been driven from their homes.
Yes yes, the rebels have at times
retaliated by killing Alawites and Druze, on the assumption that they
support the regime. And the jihadists have now exerted supremacy over
the original rebels. But this situation has been over two years in
the making. I notice the Saudis and their Gulf satellites aren't shy
about backing the jihadists with arms and money, making the
indigenous rebels no match for them. The jihadists have been killing
off the rebel commanders of the disjointed so-called “Free Syrian
Army” (for lack of a better term for the numerous ad hoc bands
of armed men desperately trying to throw off the yoke of tyranny) and
just stole a warehouse full of non-lethal supplies and vehicles
supplied by the U.S., causing the U.S. to cut off the spigot out of
which they belatedly started dribbling aid this year after about two
years of dithering. (After he leaves the presidency maybe Obama
should try out for a community theater production of Hamlet.)
Remember, this all began with Syrians
protesting for democracy and the Assad regime's “reply” that
consisted of murdering them in the streets. That made it clear that
the decades-long Assad dictatorship, one of the world's most
repressive, would never end except through armed force. That led to
the armed rebellion which at first had the regime on the back foot.
Had the U.S. and its lackey nations meaningfully supported the
rebellion with material aid early on, there is a very good chance
that the regime would have been overthrown.(The base of Assad's
support are the Alawites, which are a small minority of the
population, and even smaller minorities that feel beholden to Assad.)
Here we have again another example of
how impractical amoral power politics can be. Had the U.S.
behaved morally, the practical results would likely have been
better. Now the U.S.' main reason for keeping hands off the situation
(but not lips off, they did plenty of jawboning and jabbering,
exhorting Assad to quit and leave, as if that would ever happen short
of force), namely a fear of jihadists taking advantage of the
situation, is exactly what has happened, since the indigenous,
original rebels are too weak to resist the better armed, better
organized, and fanatical jihadists. (But to be sure, there were
plenty of opportunist phonies sitting in Turkey and elsewhere
claiming to “command” the “Syrian Free Army” or to comprise a
quasi government-in-exile, who hurt the rebellion with their
fecklessness.)
Funny species, homo sapiens
is. It wages weird power struggles with its own kind, a few trying to
rule the many, and then organizing the many to attack others to seize
more territory and subjugate more people. This is the story of
several thousands of years of what is deemed “civilization.” (As
if hunter gatherers were barbaric by comparison.)
What is the answer? Surely not to just
throw up one's hands in despair, or affect a jaded, world-weary
attitude, as epitomized by the Harper's magazine editorial
stance, or by the late Gore Vidal. The hard work of activism and
organization is the only possible way to achieve any progress in the
human condition. Which- surprise!- the rulers of every country make
as hard as possible. And with their massive tools of surveillance and
repression, this is especially true of the U.S., which sees it as its
global mission to snuff out all progressive movements everywhere in
the world.
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