http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34657.htm
The Rebels so Beloved of Nato Nations are Losing Their Hold of Damascus.
By Robert Fisk
April 18, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"The Independent" - Syrians who
settled down to listen to Bashar Assad’s independence day speech two nights ago
were sorely disappointed. He didn’t exactly offer blood, sweat and tears. Just
more war, and the assurance that he would win. Up to 7,000 prisoners would be
released to celebrate Syria’s freedom from French rule 67 years ago – which
goes to show how many prisoners are still held in the country’s jails – but
Assad wanted to assure his people that this really was a war. As if they didn’t
know. It was not sectarian. Foreign news media were portraying a lie: that “a
president was holding on to his seat against a population who want him gone,
but that is not the case”. France still regarded Syria as its colony. Western
nations wanted the Arabs to submit to them. “We saw their humanitarian
intervention in Iraq, in Libya, and now we see it in Syria.”
But Assad had a point. London, Paris and Washington love exiles. Into Iraq, we
tried to inject the ghastly and wealthy exile Ahmed Chalabi. And we all know
how reliable he turned out to be. We pretended that Libya’s freedom fighters
were Homeric warriors; and now they control their little Islamist fiefdoms in
Benghazi and Tripoli (having done away with the US ambassador), courtesy of
Nato air strikes against Gaddafi. If Algeria was not such a loyal ally of
Syria, Assad might have pointed out that the French handed their colony over to
the Algerian exiles who had largely avoided the war of independence – and who
produced the autocratic and vicious state which slaughtered its own people in
the Islamist struggle of the 1990s and which remains a corrupt and corrupted
regime to this day.
And then we have the Syrian “opposition”, insofar as it exists, with its
endless fraternal arguments and juvenile infighting – what on earth does dear
leader Khatib think he is doing? Has he resigned or not resigned? – and its
alliance with the very same al-Qa’ida groupuscules that are supposed to be the
centre of jihadism in Mali. Remember Mali? This was the centre of world terror
back in January. Now the centre of world terror is supposed to be in northern
Syria – fighting on “our” side against the hated Assad. And we brave Westerners
are worried, supposedly, that Bashar’s chemical weapons will fall “into the
wrong hands” – being presumably in the “right hands” (Assad’s) now! It makes
you wonder who writes the Assad speeches. Can’t they do better than the
curmudgeonly interview that Assad gave on Wednesday night?
But we still don’t understand the autocracies of the Middle East, both those we
love – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other well-known freedom-loving, pro-American
democracies – and those we loathe – Syria, Iran, possibly a future Iraq (if it
doesn’t obey our orders) and potentially Egypt (unless the army takes over and
returns the country to a Mubarak lookalike). Never will I forget the fantasist
Daniel Pipes’ suggestion that what Iraq needed in the aftermath of Saddam was
“a democratically minded strongman”. Isn’t that what Assad would claim to be?
And all the while, we are content to see Arab nations ganging up on the Syrian
regime, pushing more and more weapons into the war – which is indeed, contrary
to what Assad says, more and more sectarian – even though the Islamist al-Nusra
movement is now by far the strongest among the rebels. Yet we are outraged that
Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah might be involved – in Hezbollah’s case, there
is no “might” about it – in the same war. Up to 40 Hezbollah fighters are now
said to have died in the Syrian conflict, most in Shia Lebanese villages on the
Syrian side of the border. In Qusayr last week, at least five Hezbollah
fighters were killed. One of them, Assad Ali Assad – and here we have a name,
in case anyone cares to deny the story – was buried in southern Lebanon at the
weekend.
But Hezbollah’s involvement is important because Iran and its allies are also
part of the reason for this conflict. And it remains a fact, even though Assad
did not – could not – mention this in his independence day speech, that Iran is
the target of the Syrian war, the overthrow of Assad part of our plan to
destroy his Iranian ally – just as it was part of Israel’s plan to deconstruct
Iran by fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. Israel lost its war. Will
Assad’s enemies lose, too?
We have, in London, Paris and Washington, an odd habit. We believe that those
dictators we don’t like will actually go – “step down”, “step aside”, lose the
war, whatever phrase we like to use – because we want them to go. Wasn’t Saddam
destroyed? Wasn’t Gaddafi liquidated? Didn’t Milosevic go to the Hague? All
true. But Stalin survived. Kim Jong-un isn’t doing too badly, either – though
that’s probably because he actually has nuclear weapons, as opposed to Iran
which might or might not be trying to acquire them and thus remains on the
Israeli-American target list. And here’s some bad news for Assad’s foes.
The Syrian army is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It
is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war
He mentioned the Syrian government army on Wednesday night. What he did not do
was refer to their recent expansion of territory. His soldiers have now retaken
most of rebel Deraya and are advancing into Harasta in the suburbs of Damascus.
The 100-mile highway to Tartus, and thus to Latakia – long closed by the armed
opposition – has just been reopened by Assad’s divisions. For the first time in
months, Syrians can now drive from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast. The
rebels so beloved of Nato nations are losing their hold of Damascus. Yes, they
may get it back. The road to Latakia may close again. This war – beware – may
last another two, three or more years. Nobody will win.
But the power that will have to be reckoned with – barring some mass mutiny –
will be the Syrian army of Bashar Assad. It is tired of corruption. It is tired
of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war:
not just al-Qa’ida, al-Nusra, defectors and Nato, but with the intelligence
services whose brutality in Daraa struck the match to the Syrian uprising. And
just at the moment it is fighting back against Assad’s enemies. Western
“statesmen”, diplomats, “analysts” and those absurd think-tankers so beloved of
the networks may yet have to buy a new crystal ball.
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