Syria

By Douglas Chalmers

I am not Syrian, I am Celtic Australian ...but given Labor foreign minister Bob Carr's disgusting recent suggestion that Syria's president Assad should be assassinated, we have found ourselves embroiled in the international aspect of the argument at least. Perhaps worse, though, was prime minister Julia Gillard's signing an agreement with NATO earlier this year drawing us ever further into their ambitious neo-colonialist sphere [ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/gillard-signs-d... ].

There was a discussion show on SBS Insight (30 Oct, 2012) which presented some very mixed views on Syria + the conflict there. That should be a starting point for further interest as the manner in which the show was presented portrayed Australia (Sydney, especially) as a base for Islamist jihadists and that there are already Muslim Australians fighting with the insurgency in Syria along with mercenaries from other countries sadly tends to confirm this [ http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/overview/509/Syria ].

It was fancifully portrayed by one group that the FSA 'rebels' were fighting to somehow save Syrians from their own government. Can you imagine that gangs of terrorists shooting up the country, blowing up hospitals, taking over entire neighborhoods and murdering people or forcing them to flee their homes is meant to be 'fighting for democracy'? This is what we were led to believe regarding Libya and we were falsely told that 'the government was killing its own people'. The same has now been applied deliriously to Syria.

There are many videos on YouTube, etc showing what has really happened ...along with almost as many distortions and lies online. The FSA fighters proudly upload their latest 'kills' and they can be seen boasting about their atrocities and their newest heavy weapons. But why would the Syrian Arab Army of the government want to kill its own people? The real Army is made up of ordinary Syrians and they are sacrificing themselves in a brutal war to keep their own country free of foreign invaders with agendas of imposing their religious ideologies or their foreign alliances [ 'Syria' on Insight also on YT(53 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4dEeoL6QP8 ].

Not only did NATO involve itself in Libya with 'establishing' a no-fly zone and thus bombing much infrastructure, etc, they have also been working since with Turkey, a NATO partner, and a neighboring state to Syria [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO ]. The many foreign jihadists and mercenaries going to Syria mostly transit through Turkey and they have training bases there and seem to be supplied through Turkey by the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have openly admitted funding them. Thus there can be no doubt that the conflict in Syria is no longer a rebellion or a civil war, if it ever was. Worse, many of the so-called rebel fighters in Libya have been sent to fight in Syria, inevitably by the same external interests who were responsible for the intervention in Libya.

As was admitted on the Insight show and on the YouTube videos of one of the participants, Australian jihadists also went into Syria via Turkey [ http://www.youtube.com/user/zakymallahshow ]. That is, they were unable to fly into Damascus in Syria because they were already undertaking illegal terrorist activities and associating with Al Qaeda (Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria) and the FSA, etc. As most of the Australian jihadists were apparently of Lebanese origin, some may have also entered Syria via Lebanon. Thus they were associating with seasoned killers from Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban and Mujahideen from Chechnya and elsewhere. There is nothing nice about those people or their ideology or methodology [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57531618/rebels-ally-with-al-qaeda-g... ].

It can't really be said that the crisis in Syria is sectarian as Syria was renowned in the Middle East (West Asia) for its pluralism with Muslim Shia and Sunni living alongside Alawites, Christians and Jews. Syria (once Ash-Sham or Greater Syria - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Syria ) is historically a major part of the Christian and Muslim 'Holy Land' where Jesus once taught. But there seems to be little respect for that or the Syrian people today, especially from NATO which seems to want to replicate the French colonial period in Syria and the Crusades of a previous millenium at any price.

As Australia withdraws from Afghanistan, will we next become involved in a conflict in Syria? The sectarian ideology of the Wahhabists and the Salafists is based on imposing Sharia law and the ultimate attainment of a global Khilafah (caliphate). This is supposedly going to bring Muslims closer to Allah, in their warped thinking. So far, it has simply meant ever more misery and suffering In conflicted Muslim nations across North Africa and the Middle East. It is also the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood which has been assisted to usurp the Arab Spring and expand in Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa. It is not seen as a positive organization in the USA, either [ http://muslimbrotherhoodinamerica.com/ ].

The Muslim Brotherhood also has influence in Turkey and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a violent disruptor in Syria decades ago, has been re-forming in Turkey with its aim once again to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. However, Turkey has its own problems and there have been large rallies recently protesting PM Erdogan's pro-NATO and anti-Syria agenda. Those who live along the border with Syria are also very unhappy about the influx of foreign jihadists which has threatened their own safety. If Australia stupidly steps into this quagmire to naively assist NATO, it will inevitably be regrettable for the Australian people, too.

But since many white Australians foolishly imagine that they won World War One on a beach in Turkey, this is a tragedy that could happen again as a result of a fanciful attitude about world affairs. Yet, the Australian history with Gallipoli also reminds us that we cannot be removed from the unfolding drama. Making the wrong choices this time, though, in siding with allies of the past in a changing world could again be at least as costly. Syria already has a legitimate government and an elected leader. It is only to suit someone's neo-colonialist agenda that NATO wants to spoil things there. They still have plans for the rest of North Africa too, regardless of how the African feel about having a Western pseudo-democracy imposed upon them (again).

Finally, in the Syria debate on SBS Insight, many of the FSA supporters wore FSA scarves which are based on the old Syrian flag when it was under French colonial rule. Mostly, though, they were Lebanese-Australians, not Syrians. Not only did they have no business there except as promoters of jihad extremism and thus terrorism and insurgency in Syria, they are linked to another organization in Sydney promoting the Wahhabist-Salafist sectarian bigotry of their Khilafah (global caliphate) and Sharia law. Thus, do Australians really want to see that kind of person also seeking the overthrow of an Australian government at some future time so that they can impose their 7th century ideologies?

But for more on Syria and the crisis there today, one of the other participants (Mimi al-Laham) who is genuinely Syrian has meaningful and informative discussion videos on YouTube [ http://www.youtube.com/user/SyrianGirlpartisan ] and several interviews with other YouTube personalities on Syria [ http://www.youtube.com/user/108morris108/videos?query=syrian+girl ], etc., and the global perspective today. There is no need to listen to a Sydney doctor who is a known agitator for Sharia law pretend that Syrian television is somehow unreliable because it doesn't support the terrorist insurgency (which they call 'shabiha') destroying Syria today.

Source: http://www.indymedia.org.au/2012/11/02/syria-%E2%80%93-insight-now-an-australian-dilemma