SYRIA HAS
CHANGED
by Thierry Meyssan .. Nov 4 2013
The media coverage of the war in
Syria examines only military, diplomatic and humanitarian action. It ignores
profound transformation. However, one does not survive a sea of violence
without changing profoundly. From Damascus, where he has lived for two years,
Thierry Meyssan describes this evolution.
While in Damascus, the Special Envoy
of the Secretaries General of the Arab League and the UN, Lakhdar Brahimi,
presented "his" draft peace conference project, Geneva 2. A
conference whose objective would be to end the "civil war". This
terminology rehashes the analysis of one side against another, of those who
argue that this conflict is a logical continuation of the "Arab
Spring" against those who argue that it has been manufactured, fueled and
manipulated from the outside.
THE
WAR ACCORDING TO THE ARMED OPPOSITION
For Westerners and the majority of
the National Coalition, Syria is experiencing a revolution. Its people have
supposedly risen up against a dictatorship and aspire to live in a democracy
like the United States. However, this view is contradicted by the Gulf
Cooperation Council, the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army. For
them, the problem is not one of freedom, but the personality of Bashar
al-Assad. They would be willing to keep the same institutions if the President
agreed to step aside for one of his vice-presidents. However, this version is
in turn contradicted by the fighters on the ground, for whom the problem is not
the personality of the president, but the tolerance that he stands for. Their
goal is to establish a Wahhabi system where religious minorities would be
subdued or destroyed, and where the Constitution would be replaced by Sharia
law.
FREEDOM
OF EXPRESSION
At first, when snipers were killing
people, it was said that it was the regime gunmen who were trying to impose
fear. When cars exploded, it was said it was a false flag attack by the secret
services. When a massive attack killed members of the Security Council, Assad
was accused of having eliminated his rivals. Today, nobody doubts that these
crimes were the work of jihadists and they continue to commit more.
In the beginning, there was
emergency law. From 1963 on, demonstrations were banned. Only a trickle of
foreign journalists was allowed entry and their activities were closely
monitored. Today, emergency law has been lifted. There are still few
demonstrations because of the fear of terrorist attacks. Numerous are the
foreign journalists in Damascus. They move freely without any supervision. Yet
most continue to report that the country is a horrible dictatorship. They are
allowed to go on in hopes that they will tire of lying when their governments
cease to preach the "overthrow of the regime."
Initially, Syrians did not watch
national television channels. They considered these to be propaganda and their
preferred source was Al- Jazeera. On live TV, they followed the exploits
of the "revolution" and the crimes of the "dictatorship".
But with time, they found themselves confronted directly with events. They saw
for themselves the atrocities of the peudo-revolutionaries and they often owed
their survival solely to the national army. Today, people watch national television
much more, and especially Al- Mayadeen, a Lebanese-Iraqi channel that
recovered the audience of Al Jazeera in the Arab world and who is
developing an openly nationalist point of view.
FREEDOM
OF CONSCIENCE
At first, the armed opposition
claimed to be multi-denominational. People from religious minorities supported
it. Then came the Islamic Courts sentencing to death and slitting the throats
of the "bad" Sunni "traitors" to their community, the
Alawites and Shiites, tortured in public, and Christians expelled from their
homes. Today everyone understands that one is always a heretic when one is
judged by "the pure ones”, the Takfirists.
While intellectuals argue that Syria
was destroyed and needs to be redefined, people know what it is and are often
willing to die for it. Ten years ago, every family had a teenager they were
trying to exempt from military service. Only the poor were considering a career
in the armed forces. Today, many young people enrol in the army and their
elders join the popular militias.
They all defend eternal Syria where
various religious communities live side by side and they all venerate the same
God when they have one.
During the conflict, many Syrians
themselves evolved. At first they mostly watched events from the sidelines,
most declaring not seeing themselves in any camp. After two and a half years of
terrible suffering, everyone who remained in the country had to choose to
survive. War is but an attempt by the colonial powers to blow on the embers of
obscurantism to incinerate civilization.
POLITICAL
FREEDOM
For myself, having known Syria for a
decade and having lived in Damascus for two years, I realize how much the
country has changed. Ten years ago, each spoke in a low voice of the problems
he had encountered with mukhabarats poking their noses into everything
and anything. In this country, of which the Golan is occupied by Israel, the
Secret Service had indeed acquired extravagant power. Yet they saw and knew
nothing of the preparations for war, of the tunnels what were dug and of the
weapons that were imported. Today, a large number of corrupt officials have
fled abroad, the mukhabarats have refocused on their mission of homeland
defense about which only the jihadists have to complain.
Ten years ago, the Ba’ath Party was
constitutionally leader of the nation. It alone was allowed to field candidates
in elections, but it was already no longer a mass party. Institutions were
gradually moving away from the citizens. Today, it’s hard to keep track of the
birth of political parties as they are so numerous. Anyone can run for office
and win. Only the "democratic" opposition from Paris and Istanbul
have decided to boycott rather than lose.
Ten years ago, one did not talk
politics in cafes but only at home and only with people you knew. Today,
everyone is talking about politics everywhere in government-controlled areas
and never in areas controlled by armed opposition groups.
Where is the dictatorship? Where is
the democracy ?
CLASS
REACTIONS
The war is also a class conflict.
The rich, who have assets abroad, left when Damascus was attacked. They loved
their country, but especially wished to protect their lives and property.
The bourgeois were terrified. They
paid "revolutionary" taxes when insurgents demanded, and asserted
state support when the army questioned them. Worried, they awaited the
departure of President Assad which [[Al-Jazeera announced as imminent. They
only lost their anxiety when the United States abandoned plans to bomb the country.
Today, they think only of redeeming themselves by supporting the associations
of families of martyrs.
The little people knew from the
beginning where things were at. There were those who saw the war as a means to
take revenge for their economic conditions, and those who wanted to defend
freedom of conscience and free public services.
The United States and Israel, France
and the United Kingdom, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia who waged the secret war
and who lost, did not anticipate this result: to survive, Syria has liberated
its energies and regained its freedom.
If the Geneva Conference 2 stands,
the great powers will decide nothing there. The next government will not be the
result of a diplomatic arrangement. The only power of the conference will be to
propose a solution which can be applied only after it has been ratified by a
popular referendum.
This war has bled Syria, half of its
cities and infrastructure were destroyed to satisfy the appetites and fantasies
of Western and Gulf powers. If something positive emerges from Geneva 2, it
will be the financing of the reconstruction by those who have made the country
suffer.
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Translation
Roger Lagassé
Roger Lagassé
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