NP - Chemical Weapons Used in Syria... (or WERE they?)

[Joseph Tracy]

What I am rather sick of hearing from Syrians who legitimately oppose Assad,  obviously  a violent authoritarian,  is the notion that the  US owes it to establish a just democracy in Syria by a war to topple Assad.  This was always a disgustingly naive and flawed idea.   This theory was tried with utter failure and massive murder and destruction in Iraq, and it caused in Syria the same kind of destruction, and initiated the same kind of power struggles that mark Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.  In this case the Syrian government had allies in Russia and Iran, so Assad was not toppled. This revolution always looked like a lost cause to many and there is no disguising its own horrific crimes. The truth about US wars is that they are bankrupting democracy here and the rest of the world?
 Did the Syrians who started this war and then turned it over to Isis, Al Nusra etc. always dominated militarily by extremist violent fundamentalism, really think Assad would allow them to seize cities in Syria without  armed opposition? Did they take over via nonviolent agreement  or did they kill fellow Syrians who were aligned with Assad? Were they unaware of his alliance with Russia and sympathy of Iran? Did they think the ham fisted, racist American empire would bring peace and justice to Syria or were their hopes with the champions of democracy from the House of Saud?   I sympathize with their plight and the desire for justice and a democratic process, but  they have shown no sign of internal democratic process and I do not believe the idea that this started with a democratically motivated nonviolent protest which was transformed by Assad's  violent response. It looks far more like the protests were designed to get a fairly predictable violent response at a time when the west was sympathetic and enamored of the idea of an Arab spring  and that there were leaders of the movement who were organized and ready to seize areas of Syria by force and to initiate a war against Assad and Iraq in the name of an Islamic caliphate. The handful of Syrian intellectuals and democratic idealists which allow themselves to justify this god-awful mess fled to safety long ago and led their listeners into a madhouse of death, religious intolerance and destruction.   
  The disease these intellectuals contracted  is everywhere spreading and  causing more violence and suffering.  It is the idea that justice can be purchased by killing, that democracy is the superior violence of those aligned with one of the great empires. These empires are not and never have been Democratic.  America looks wonderfully free if you are rich,  a college student with bright hopes,  or someone who has come from a place with no civil order, but it is the direct cause of tremendous suffering throughout the world  through an endless history of wars and economic exploitation that continues still to support dictatorships across the world..    Do you really believe tthe US is earning our prosperity through hard work and ingenuity?   Do you think the self centered americans really care about Syrians? We can’t even be bothered to take in the refugees from these wars. When the battle for this or that town is over, we forget the survivors and move on to the next battle so our politicians can strut  and pose like war heroes.  
  The same greed, militarism  and power lust that fuels Assad fuels the politicians in the UK, America, Russia, etc.  If you wish to ally yourself to a better world and resist the growth of fascism, it is time to look to those places that have turned away from war and religious fundamentalism:  northern Europe, Japan, Iceland, the fragile democracies of south America  the outliers in southeast Asia. Time to study the methods of Martin Luther King and the socialists of Finland and Iceland.  This is the hope of the world,  an alliance of the peaceful, the tolerant, the friendly, a resistance of non-violent non-cooperation.