AMBIGUOUS AMERICA

 AMBIGUOUS AMERICA

 

 

Allegedly the intervention of Western powers in Libya, practically on the side of the rebels and against the Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, was to stop the killing of civilians. Some also argued that the intervention was necessary to prevent future “potential” massacre should Gaddafi defeat his opposition. Meanwhile the war is going on with its daily toll in casualties and the numbers are much higher as the time passes (see – The Libyan-Campaign). Ironically, on 03/09/2011, Syria offered to replace Libya as one of the representatives of the Arab block in the Council for Human Rights in Geneva (see also – Goldston Report).

 

Bashar Asad’s regime in Syria is, no doubt, the most totalitarian and conservative regime among all Arab countries. Under his leadership he proved time and again his total grip on Syria and while most of the Arab countries went through economic progress, in Egypt a steady increase of over 4% a year for more than a decade, Syria vent backwards through growing economic crisis. All the Syrian economy is actually in the hands of Asad’s family and the inner circle of the Syrian regime.

 

When Bashar Asad started to kill his own civilians, at first in the Southern City of Daraa, the USA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described, on 03/27/2011, to a group of Democrats and Republican Congressmen the Syrian President Bashar Asad as a “reformer”.  “What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities… than police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see” – legitimizing the Syrian usage of power and killing Syrian civilians if it is done by police with snipers and not by airpower.

 

Anyhow since then over 200 more civilians were killed and the numbers are mounting fast. In some cities like Latakia, a harbor town on the Mediterranean, and Daraa in Southern Syria, on the border with Jordan, army troops were mobilized against the protesters (see also – SYRIAN 2011 UNREST)

 

On Friday 04/08/2011 President Obama finally condemned an “abhorrent” crackdown in Syria which killed 24 demonstrators. In a written statement and not personally on TV he wrote:  “I strongly condemn the abhorrent violence committed against peaceful protesters by the Syrian government today and over the past few weeks…I also condemn any use of violence by protesters” he said and added “I call upon the Syrian authorities to refrain from any further violence against peaceful protesters”. Obama’s condemnation did not resemble in any way his appearance on TV, on 02/05/2011, where he said that USA long time friend, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak “must resign now” practically ordering him to leave his office.

 

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