Syrian uprising: Failure of collective will of the world community to act

by Javeed Akhter




The bloody suppression of dissent in Syria has continued unabated, even during the month of Ramadan, that in the Muslim world is generally a month of peace, prayer giving and forgiving. It is a stark testimony to the failure of the collective will power of world’s nations to act to stop these atrocities.

Sadly it is not the first time that the world community has failed to act and it won’t be the last. Kashmiris are still waiting for their plebiscite. The Dalai Lama with all of his charisma and connections hasn’t been able to budge the Chinese. The examples are too numerous to recount.

But the Syrian people have distinguished themselves as one of the most courageous in recent history.  Ordinary people ,knowing well that any protest will be met with bullets and even tank shells, have still gone out week after week to protest. Cities have been bombarded, water and electricity have been cut off and thousands have been forced to flee. Accurate numbers of those killed, arrested and tortured are unknown because of a lack of independent verification, but they are large enough for even the King of Saudi Arabia to call the Syrian response a “killing machine.”  This is strong language from a ruler who is the ultimate preserver of the status quo in the region and who is known for his caution in public pronouncements.

Neither the Saudis nor Syria’s other neighbors in the Middle East, including Turkey, have gone beyond rhetoric in condemning the dictatorial regime in Damascus. Russia and China have continued to block any meaningful action against the regime; their excuse, the sanctity of national sovereignty. They appear to be living in the past. The Cold War was over a long time ago.

The slow US response to the Syrian crisis is consistent with an unfortunate pattern with our administration of appearing unprepared and clueless in dealing with rapidly evolving crises especially in the Middle East.  Recently the US administration issued a statement asking for the President of Syria, Bashar Assad, to step down. Additionally it has imposed a few sanctions; a classic case of too little too late.

The US could have used its bully pulpit to condemn the regime’s actions and vigorously pushed for sanctions much earlier. It could have moved the international court of justice to indict Bashar Assad and his relatives for crimes against humanity.  If it had done so it would have won good will in the Middle East and the larger Muslim world. Secretary of State Clinton’s recent attempt at justifying the weak US response as use of “smart power” understandably met with derision.

The weak and ineffectual response to the Syrian crisis belies any notion of an Obama doctrine in dealing with crises in the Middle East or elsewhere, Libya notwithstanding. Libya was an impulsive response, not a well thought out policy, that appears to have worked out. This is particularly striking as the administration, unlike Egypt and Bahrain, had nothing to lose by responding aggressively. The slow response in Egypt was dictated by the realpolitik of undermining an important ally. Similarly with Bahrain, another strategically important ally, the US decided to look the other way as it crushed the opposition. In a world where nations act out of self interest these actions are understandable, although they showed a singular lack of a grasp of the historical nature of the Arab revolution and the extraordinary opportunity it offered to do right. Supporting the democracy movement in Syria on the other hand would have virtually been cost free.

Brutality against its own appears to be in the DNA of the Syrian regime. Almost thirty years ago Bashar Assad’s father Hafez infamously bombarded the town of Hama to crush a Muslim Brotherhood uprising. The Syrian army that carried out this bloodbath was led by Hafez al-Assad’s brother Rifat . The current onslaught is led by Bashar Assad’s brother Maher, who is head of the security forces, and cousins Munzer and Fawwaz who run plainclothes militias.

President Obama’s speech in Cairo held out the promise of a departure from the past. The expectation of a positive change soared as high as his rhetoric. The administration’s dithering has elicited deep disappointment. How far the favorable views of the US that had risen after Obama’s election have plummeted is shown by recent polls conducted in the Arab world by both the PEW research foundation and Zogby. In the Zogby survey fewer than 10% of the respondents had a favorable opinion of the US. The President’s “engagement with the Muslim world” had some of the lowest ratings, which is a telling commentary of the failure of Obama’s stated intent of opening a new chapter in US Muslim relations.

The ineffectual response of the world’s nations and the foggy thinking of the USA, the leader of the world’s nations, has destroyed any hope of change the Middle East. A more pro active policy would have been smart.

Javeed Akhter is Executive Director of the International Strategy and Policy Institute.