If
any country, including the U.S., had armed terrorists embedded in
neighborhoods, and holding civilians hostage for years, and targeting
unarmed civilians constantly, it too would be using its own military
and security forces to fight the terrorists in order to liberate the
captive civilians.
by
Steven Sahiounie
Part
3 - Sectarian, constitutional, and dedicated to resistance
President
Bashar al-Assad of Syria is approaching the end of 18 years in
office. His father President Hafez al-Assad died in summer 2000, and
the transition was made to his son taking over as the leader of Syria
through a constitutional procedure. At the time of the death of Hafez
al-Assad, the Syrian Constitution stated there was one legal and
recognized political party: the Ba’ath Party, which has a secular
and socialist party platform and is committed to the political
ideology of the resistance to the occupation of Palestine.
However,
during the Syrian crisis in 2012, a new Constitution was drafted and
ratified by popular vote. That new document abolished the old
one-party system, and allowed for multiple registered parties, with
the exception of any sectarian parties.
Bashar
al-Assad is the president of the only secular country in the Middle
East.
Certainly,
there is a Syrian opposition. They fall into many different groups:
some advocate armed struggle, and others do not. Some of these
various groups are strictly following Radical Islam, which is a
political ideology and is not a religion or sect. Some of the groups
are secular and democratic.
Assad
will be remembered by some as the man who ordered the bombing of
Syrian neighborhoods. However, if any country, including the U.S.,
had armed terrorists embedded in neighborhoods, and holding civilians
hostage for years, and targeting unarmed civilians constantly, it too
would be using its own military and security forces to fight the
terrorists in order to liberate the captive civilians. Indeed, a
situation occurred in the U.S. in which an armed revolutionary group
was dealt with in the same way.
People
living a life of safety thousands of miles away could not possibly
understand what life is like while living for five years underground
while being held captive in your neighborhood. The only way to really
understand this is to speak directly to the civilians freed from East
Aleppo in December 2016 and East Ghouta in April 2018. If you can’t
speak to them personally, at least look for their own videos online,
or perhaps their own words incorporated into news articles. Those
people were praying for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to advance and
free them. One woman stated, “We heard the bombs coming our way,
and we were happy knowing we might finally be free.”
Of
course, not everyone gets to freedom. Many innocent civilians were
killed in the battles by both sides. In war, the innocent always
suffer.
The
president of Syria is not a Sunni; however, his wife is. The majority
of the officials in the Syrian government are Sunni, as well as the
majority of those who hold Parliamentary seats. The media-mantra of
“Alawite Ruling Elite” simply is not accurate.
Syria is
a mosaic of 18 different sects. It is inaccurate to portray Syria as
a Sunni population, like Saudi Arabia for example. The Syrian culture
has been tolerant of all three major religions: Judaism, Christianity
and Islam. There was always a mixture of religions and sects across
Syria. Public schools were mixed, as well as neighborhoods. Syrians
lived next to each other, studied at the desk next to each other, and
worked side by side with each other. Sectarian conflict was not part
of Syria’s culture: just the opposite was true.
The
typical Syrian will tell you they say “Happy Holiday” to their
neighbors, even if that was not their own holiday. The majority Sunni
population in Syria have kept the government in power, and prevented
the collapse of the al-Assad administration. In June 2014 the first
multiparty Presidential election took place. It was constitutionally
scheduled, even though the conflict was raging in many areas. Assad
took about 88 percent of the votes cast out of a field of three
candidates, two of whom were Sunni. Many people have said the reason
Sunni citizens voted for him was because they felt he was the best
person to take the nation through the war successfully. They saw him
as a stabilizing force in Syria, and the person best suited to
finishing the war.
The
political ideology of resistance to the occupation of Palestine runs
deep in the Syrian culture and, after 40 years of that ideology being
taught in schools as well as various political and social groups, the
average Syrian, regardless of religion or sect, feels strongly about
this subject. Because of that ideology, it was easy to understand the
alliances between Syria, Iran and Hezbollah who all share the
resistance ideology. Many analysts feel that Syria was attacked by
the U.S.-NATO alliance because of its steadfast resistance ideology
and shared friendship with Iran and Hezbollah.
The
Syrian conflict is coming to an end, though we can’t predict its
last day. Assad has remained through seven years of armed conflict.
The next presidential election is June 2021. Syrians who have
suffered through the conflict are dreaming of a peaceful future.
Refugees abroad may be dreaming of returning home to peace. The
enemies of Syria are losing. The Syrian people have resisted regime
change for the benefit of the U.S.-NATO war machine, which used
Libya as the field-test for the Syrian conflict. Syria, however, is
different.
***
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