As President Bashar al-Assad flees Syria, neocons and Zionists have a good time all through the world, whereas those that will actually endure—the folks of Syria—shall be left to wash up the mess of American and Israeli ambitions. Regardless of the accusations in opposition to Bashar al-Assad, those that have changed him are a lot worse—the Hay’at Tahir al Sham. Shaped in 2011, the CSIS claims this group is an al-Qaeda affiliate of Jabhat al-Nusra. In 2018, the State Division designated it as a overseas terrorist group that retains a “Salafi-jihadist” ideology, which means they intend to wage struggle on modernity, which they declare has twisted the minds of Muslims.
The swift victory of HTS appears sudden to many within the West. Previous occasions had signaled that Assad had all however gained the civil struggle: they’d regained membership to the Arab League in 2023 and the final strongholds of the SDF have been recaptured. Two necessary questions seem within the evaluation of the Syria state of affairs: Who supported the HTS within the swift victory in opposition to Assad? What’s going to occur to Syria as a rustic now that its twenty-four-year authorities has been toppled? Previous occasions each in Syria and elsewhere could assist reply these questions.
The Syrian Mess
The bigger objective in Syria is to harm Iranian affect within the space by toppling Bashar al-Assad, as Gideon Rachman said: “Those that take the Iranian risk very critically argue that one of the simplest ways to deal a blow to Tehran is to topple its regional ally—the Assad regime in Damascus.” To do that, america authorities and its businesses have funded insurgent teams in Syria in hopes one will finally take out Assad. However the rebels in Syria all have completely different targets, ideologies, and funders. In 2013, it was believed that there have been 1000 armed opposition teams in Syria. This didn’t cease folks equivalent to Hillary Clinton and the State Division from sending help to insurgent teams, even when these teams have been affiliated with al-Qaeda. Clinton said:
We all know al Qaeda [leader Ayman al-] Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria. Are we supporting al Qaeda in Syria? Hamas is now supporting the opposition. Are we supporting Hamas in Syria?
Regardless of this information, help for insurgent teams had not gone anyplace. In an electronic mail from the present Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan to then-Secretary of State Clinton, it was said that, “Al-Qaeda is our good friend in Syria.” Different insurgent teams, such because the Free Syrian Military, led by Common Idris, have been accused of working with al-Qaeda however have been nonetheless graced with a go to from John McCain and requested for “weapons and different navy assist.” Different “reasonable” rebels who search “democracy” in Syria, just like the Northern Storm Brigade, have taken to kidnapping civilians for ransom cash, or the al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group al-Nusra, which confirmed certainly one of its navy commanders, Abu Sakar, consuming a human coronary heart.
However the greatest participant within the recreation within the combat in opposition to Bashar al-Assad has been the Syrian Democratic Forces—a Kurdish group led by the Kurdish militia, YPG. With the help of President Obama, a satisfied President Trump, and a withering President Biden, the Kurds have discovered dominance in North-Japanese Syria. Conveniently sufficient, a lot of the Syrian oil fields and refineries are discovered on this a part of the nation. That is how the State Division was capable of persuade President Trump to remain in Syria. A Trump administration official said:
I believe DoD and State [Department] can now make the argument to [President Donald] Trump that we have now to remain and ensure the oil flows or the U.S. firm will lose all their funding. So it’s a present for individuals who need us to remain in Syria.
Due to this, Syrian manufacturing of oil has dropped by 90 p.c—from 353,000 bpd in 2011 to 24,000 bpd in 2018. Syria now depends on the manufacturing of client items, equivalent to olive oil, cotton, nuts, and seeds. The Kurds—with their newfound governance—have had rising hostilities with native Arab tribes:
Some Arab tribes within the Deir Ezzor area, with whom they’ve partnered within the combat in opposition to the so-called Islamic State (IS) over the previous a number of years, have rebelled in opposition to them in current months over allegations of discrimination and an insufficient share of oil revenues.
The US has not been the one actor ready to see Assad toppled. Israel too has made it its coverage to overthrow Assad. The Instances of Israel even made it clear in April of 2024 that “the Israelis clearly warned Assad that if Syria was used in opposition to them, they might destroy his regime.” The final word objective for each america and Israel in each Syria and the entire Center East is destabilization. This harkens again to the times of Henry Kissinger when coping with Bashar al-Assad’s father—Hafez al-Assad—on the Palestinian state of affairs. In a documentary referred to as HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis, Kissinger’s coverage was laid out:
Kissinger thought that strengthening the Arabs would destabilize his steadiness of energy. So he got down to do the very reverse, to fracture the ability of the Arab international locations, by dividing them, and breaking their alliances so they might preserve one another in examine.
In comparison with What?
Regardless of Bashar al-Assad’s crimes, he’s the one reasonable reply to Syria’s troubles. When analyzing Assad, folks should ask themselves the widespread query for which economists are identified: in comparison with what? Let’s not neglect how Iraq taken care of Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. An Iraqi by the identify of Kadom al-Jabouri took his sledgehammer to assist topple Saddam Hussein’s statue as US troops entered the town. A decade later, he says why he regrets it: “Then we had just one dictator. Now we have now a whole bunch.” Iraq in the present day suffers from the standard instability produced by international locations unaccustomed to parliamentarianism. In 2022, protestors stormed the Iraqi parliament in help of a cleric named al-Sadr.
In the present day, many Iraqis really feel as if they don’t have sovereignty inside their very own nation, as their politicians are both American or Iranian puppets. Libya, too, after Gaddafi, skilled a resurgence of chattel slavery the place a person was purchased for $400 in an public sale. Very like Russia throughout the Nineteen Nineties, folks in nations which can be corrupt and destabilized will come to the conclusion that regulation, order, and stability are much more engaging than a failed democracy or imprecise concepts of liberty. Now, with the struggle in Ukraine coming to an finish, as admitted by President Zelensky, Putin could come to the help of President Assad, however till then the folks of Syria will proceed to reside amongst the phobia and infighting of the HTS.
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