4/13/12 update The extremely courageous Syrian people are out in the streets, demonstrating peacefully in full daylight against the bloody tyrant who has killed 9,000 of their friends and relatives. The pseudo-sophistication of American and other Western non-interventionist is revolting.
Kofe Anan, the unforgettable former General Secretary of the United Nations painstakingly organized a cease-fire in Syria. I mean that he obtained Syrian dictator Assad’s the promise to stop killing Syrians. It was supposed to be in place yesterday, Tuesday. It’s Wednesday night in Syria. There is no sign of any cessation of the massacre. In a gesture of good will, Assad did move some tanks around so that his troops are now killing Syrian civilians in a different part of Syria from what he was doing two days ago.
Is anyone surprised? Assad is not really asking for much, seems to be the thinking of the “international community;” he is only asking for a few more days to murder a few hundred more Syrians. We should be reasonable.
The Arab countries should be ashamed of themselves. Their leadership does not even take the trouble to shout as loudly as they do when Israelis killed much fewer Arabs. Over the years, we seem to have accepted that it’s OK when Arabs massacre Arabs. It reminds me of the old American attitude toward domestic violence, “He is strangling his wife; of, well, it’s a family squabble; no one’s business.”
I wish any Arabs and beyond this, any Muslims, especially Turks, next-door neighbors to the tragedy would comment on my accusation. Their silence is deafening. Their claim to any honor is nullified by that silence.
The new America, under Pres.Obama, speaks loudly on the issue but because of its past passivity and because of its reluctant participation into the salvation of Libya, no one believes it will do anything for Syrians. It seems to have forgotten that the Assad dynasty has much American blood on its hands, much more than the mad Ghadafi ever did. The Obama administration ‘s contribution to the creation of a better world is to confirm the widespread impression that if you kill Americans, not too much is likely to happen to you as a result.
Libertarian in the US are silent as usual. They are paralyzed, caught in the same trap of their own making. The trap is this: Although their doctrine despises the nation-state, although starving their prison-like “own” nation-state is the core of their doctrine, they have infinite respect for the nation-states that imprison others, Syrians for example.
Besides, as one of my habitual mainstream libertarian interlocutors once argued on this blog, we never know who started it. (!) We can’t shoot off the sky Syrian helicopters that are rocketing apartment houses occupied by Sunni Muslims. That’s because, somewhere, sometimes in the 19th century,a Sunni ancestor of the current victims may have knocked the fez of an Alawite ancestor of today’s “President” Assad. Pathetic!
Followers of truth-confused candidate Ron Paul has a lot to celebrate today: Their candidate is now in second position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Congratulations!
