SPEAKING
FREELY Regime change in Syria: A true
story By Francois-Alexandre Roy
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please
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contributing.
Syria is entangled
in a democratic uprising that's an extension of
the Arab Spring - this is the narrative people
watching Western media are fed every day. The real
situation couldn't be further from the truth.
The Syrian people demanding democratic
reforms do not represent an overwhelming majority
as was the case in Tunisia or Egypt. Furthermore,
the "democratic fighters" comprising the Free
Syrian Army (FSA) are not all Syrian citizens.
US and al-Qaeda: same goal this time
around There have been many new reports
that the Syrian opposition
forces are a melting pot
of various ideologies from Kurdish separatists to
members of al-Qaeda. This only serves to weaken
the portrayal in Western media of a strong and
coherent opposition. Al-Qaeda fighters are known
to be amongst the opposition forces in Syria as
well as Libyan mercenaries fresh out of the
"Libyan Revolution", which was another good
example of regime change dubbed as the"Arab
Spring" by Western media.
At the beginning
of the uprising, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri
himself invited al-Qaeda fighters and any Sunni
mercenaries alike to join the Syrian opposition
forces. Therefore, the US, al-Qaeda, the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are all on the
same side in this conflict - trying to enforce a
regime change in Syria without any thought on what
will happen after Bashar al-Assad has been ousted.
Turkey's game The Syrian
National Council (SNC) and the FSA are not always
on the same page. Besides putting an end to
Assad's police state, they have yet to lay down a
common and coherent plan for post-revolution
Syria. One of the main similarities between the
FSA and the SNC is that they are both heavily
backed by Turkey, which is looking to play a
greater role in the region.
Abdulbaset
Sieda, the Kurdish-Syrian President of the SNC,
has been accused by other Kurdish groups of only
representing the agenda of Turkey, a long-time foe
of the Kurdish people in the region. Turkey's
southern Hatay province is home of the FSA
headquarters and training camp has been set up by
there by Qatari special forces. Through Turkey,
the FSA also receive weapons used in Libya and
advanced communication equipment from NATO.
Turkey has been looking to fulfill a
greater role in the Middle East for some time now,
with a "democratic revolution" taking place east
of their border, they will probably seek to
further help the revolution in the hopes of
establishing strong ties with Syria's next
government or dictator, which ever it is. The best
way for Turkey to strengthen ties with the future
government is to help their cause right now and
play a greater role in the ousting of Assad.
On June 22, the Syrian military shot down
a Turkish F-4 fighter jet that Syria says breached
its territorial waters. Besides a stronger Turkish
military presence on its Eastern border with
Syria, there is not going to be any other major
changes as result of the incident since Turkey was
at fault by breaching a sovereign country's
territorial waters.
By shooting down the
Turkish Phantom jet, however, the Syrian military
has shown that its defense capabilities against
aerial attacks are still reliable, rendering a
Libyan-like "no-fly zone" much harder to impose.
Some might think of this "incident" as a false
flag attempt, but it seems more like the Turks
were caught spying on the Syrian military defense
along the border in preparation for something.
Western media The portrayal by
the Western media of the events taking place in
Syria is the best indicator of regime change. The
viewer always only sees one side of the story to
further the agenda of this bizarre coalition of
NATO (the US and Turkey), al-Qaeda and the GCC
countries, which is of course regime change.
It easy to tell that Syria is not
experiencing its own Arab Spring but rather a
civil war just by looking at how the media have
been following the developments of the conflict.
There are few reports on the Syrian People or
their legitimate demands, and the imagery used is
also of bombings and killings blamed on the Assad
regime without proof.
The latest massacre
that took place in Houla is one of the best
examples of media manipulation: without any proof,
as soon as news of the massacre came out, it was
immediately blamed on government forces. The BBC
even threw in a fake picture of hundreds of dead
bodies wrapped up in white sheets that was in fact
a picture taken in Iraq by Marco di Lauro back in
2003.
The BBC conveniently said in small
characters under the picture itself "This image -
which cannot be independently verified - is
believed to show the bodies of children in Houla
awaiting burial." They broke the story all over
the world as a means to show the ruthlessness of
the Syrian regime and push the public into
approval towards humanitarian/military
intervention in Syria.
Soon after the
picture was discovered as a fake, news that the
real perpetrators of the massacre where in fact
members of the FSA disguised as shabiha
(thugs), and that those killed where
pro-government Syrians did not receive the same
"airtime" as the original news did.
Where
are the images of peaceful protests? There are
none, because this is not a democratic uprising as
Western media claims but an all-out civil war
where the rebels does not represent the majority
of the population and are not all united behind a
single reason as to why they want to end Assad's
regime.
Further proof of this is seen in
the sectarian clashes which have erupted in
northern Lebanon. But evidence of the civil war is
mostly edited out by Western media because it does
not help further the cause for regime change. The
public has to be convinced this would be for the
"right reasons" first and foremost.
If the
Assad regime falls, it will be bad news for both
Iran and Hezbollah. Iran would then be completely
encircled by US "outposts" in host countries which
would lay ground for military action against the
Supreme Leader's regime that, for many years, the
neoconservatives have longed for.
However,
if there is military action by the West to "free"
the Syrian people as in Libya, all that will
follow is an is even bloodier civil war that will
be forgotten by the media.
Francois-Alexandre Roy is
currently studying International relations and
Arabic at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their
say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
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