Some time ago I wrote in disappointment a blog posted Sunday, June 22, 2014 and titled "President Obama, you cannot change history to suit you".
Today and after ISIL burst from the boundaries set by whoever helped its creation I write in pain, saying to the so called Syrian Opposition
“Wake up; you are about to become the leadership of lost opportunities. Beware to fail the Syrian people once more. It is time to rise to the challenge. Declining the compromise proposed when Manaf Tlass (representing the Syrian Army) and Prime Minister Hijab (representing the political sphere) defected to form a government in exile led to an extension of the conflict. The consequence: hundredth of thousand deaths, destruction, and most importantly the strengthening of ISIL and AnNusrah. Today falling in line with the Arab participation in the alliance against terror while capitalizing on the refusal of Obama to recognize Assad as a partner in addition to his clear declaration that Assad cannot rule Syria after killing his people, is an opportunity that should not be missed. The US and Arab partners of the coalition are taking action to protect their interests. It is time to get the opposition house in order, to realistically assess the situation, negotiate and make alliances. It is time to lead in order to protect the interests of the Syrian people. The price of failure this time might be a return of Assad or the prevalence of an Islamic alliance that accepts the compromise. Years of suffering, millions of displaced persons, hundredths of thousands of death, torture and rape on a wide scale, destruction of Syrian infrastructure ought not to result in the replacement of military sectarian dictatorship by religious fascism rule.”
Assad was a big player in the promotion of ISIL. He nurtured its members to meddle into Iraq; a fact Maliki himself pinpointed. Then when ISIL lost its bargaining value to him, he imprisoned them. The second year of the civil uprising he liberated them and gave them free hand to fight the Free Syrian Army for domination of the then “liberated areas”. The Syrian Opposition was not able to hold on its own, it allied itself with Islamic factions fighting Assad.
Furthermore The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces failed in carrying the message of the Syrian people to the world. It failed in exposing the cruelty of the Assad regime. They squabbled over power and did not make enough on generating an effective media strategy.
Taking a look at the nascent Syrian Free Media (media outlets and citizen journalists) and their reach one wonders why the Syrian Opposition did not engage them and use them to reach the outside world. Assad won the media battle; the image relayed was of an army fighting Islamic fundamentalists.
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces did not capitalize on the “friends of Syria Alliance”. Their only strategy was to beg for foreign intervention. They never proposed a clear strategy that entailed a clear contribution from their part on the ground. At least it was not clear to me and many people around the world.
Today and just a few days after the strikes in Syria all I see and hear is
“what didn’t they do this before? Syrian civilians are killed by the strikes. The strikes strengthen Assad implying that his main enemy is ISIL! And again and again begging for foreign intervention to take out Assad…..
I cannot hold myself from saying
“Get real, nobody will help you if you do not get your affairs in order and start to help yourselves. International politics are all about interests, there is nothing altruistic in the game of nations.”
I say it out of pain; I hear and see the suffering of the people of Syria, their steadfastness and dignity, and I see the inadequacy of the leadership. I know that this leadership counts many competent persons, why can’t they work efficiently as a group?