The Conflict in Syria

By AM Tuesday, December 24, 2013

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Guest writer Steven Katsineris, a regular contributor to TPQ, with an older piece from April 2012 which he wrote on the situation in Syria. Steven Katsineris is an Australian free-lance writer of articles on Palestine, Cyprus and the rest of the Middle East region, political prisoners and human rights, environmental and social issues. He has been actively involved in the Palestine solidarity movement for over forty years. Steven lives with his family in Melbourne, Australia.

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The only constant thing in life is change and struggle. We are witnessing profound change sweeping through the Middle East at present, including Syria. It is something I think progressive and activist people everywhere would greatly welcome and encourage. The veneer presented by the Syrian regime of being progressive is a blatant deception. It only looks good to some people because several of the other Arab regimes are even more vile and reactionary. That many of the Syrian people are in rebellion against the brutal, corrupt, crony capitalist regime is to me a very good thing. While the terrible loss of so many people’s lives is utterly appalling and immoral, the Syrian people have shown they have had enough of this repressive regime and will sacrifice their lives to overthrow it in pursuit of freedom. 

Yet these wonderful expressions of people’s revolts seem to strike fear into some progressives and leftists. They highlight and worry about the opening this gives outside forces to intrude on the struggle and consequently support the maintenance of the present regime to block this. Well, of course it’s only expected that the Western powers, Islamic extremists and others will interfere in these struggles. These forces may be exposed and defeated by the people in their struggle, but they may also seize power when the Assad regime falls, which it will. The outcome is not assured either way, but the people would have been empowered by this struggle and learnt valuable lessons in overthrowing oppressive regimes. Any new government that tries to stifle and subjugate the people will be on borrowed time, because the people are conscious of their power and will rise up again to defend their liberty and other hard won rights. 

I believe it is wrong to focus on the scheming of outside powers and neglect the poor, suffering, but brave people of Syria who are being imprisoned, injured, tortured and killed in a bitter struggle against a cruel regime. Rebellion is the option the people have chosen in the face of a vicious response of the Syrian government. Any chance of reforms to the system died amid hails of bullets and a barrage of tank bombardment and the deaths of thousands. With their lives they are struggling towards a better nation and they deserve the unconditional support of all those who value real justice and freedom. Those of us who seek to change the world cannot seek to prop up a reactionary regime because of the risk of another pro-western or other bad regime maybe (for a time) replacing it. Life is a risk and revolution is a risk. 

But to live under a cruel regime is also a constant danger and a trauma. A new world is possible if people have the courage to struggle for it. The timing is unknown, but this worthy struggle will lead to a radical change in Syria eventually. And this defiant uprising will also inspire other peoples elsewhere to struggle against their oppressive regimes. 

But it seems to me that some of the Left has lost its way politically when the main focus is on the interference of outside forces when the Syrian regime is engaged in the slaughter of its people. Surely, the real issue is the mass killing and human rights abuses carried out by the Syrian government, and we should direct our outrage there, not at the question of the interference of the West or others, as that’s a minor diversion at the moment. At this time the reality is that it’s not US or European Imperialism that is bombarding the cities, towns and villages of Syria and killing thousands of Syrians, but the Syrian government. 

I say this as someone who has been actively involved in the struggle against US and European Imperialism and Colonialism since the mid-1960s in Vietnam, Palestine, Cyprus, elsewhere in the Middle East and the rest of Asia, Europe, Africa, the Pacific and Latin America, in many anti-war, anti-imperialist and solidarity movements. I have not gone soft on Western imperialist and colonialist foreign policies, but I also oppose reactionary regimes that try to maintain power by indiscriminate war and brutality against their own people, something in my view we are witnessing in Syria now. And I raise my voice in condemnation and protest against this gross injustice.