Dr. Abuzaid Dorda, the former United Nations representative for the North African state of Libya under the leadership of the martyred leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Dr. Dorda is being tortured and subjected to a sham prosecution., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Editorial Comment: Syrian crisis: Time Africa reflects
Thursday, 09 August 2012 00:00
Zimbabwe Herald
IT is no longer a question of whether or not NATO allies will militarily attack Syria, but it is when they will do so, and who will draw the first blood. The pattern is consistent with events in Libya. The Syrian war games have become another excuse to divert world attention from the imminent disintegration of the Eurozone, and also the under-reported protests in other Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, which pose a major threat to world peace and security.
Saudi Arabia’s dictatorship is not a problem to the West, as long as it still produces oil.
That Osama bin Laden was a Saudi national is also a non-issue, as long as the black gold continues to flow.
The arrests and police brutality against protesters are also non-issues, because Saudi Arabia is the West’s strategic partner.
The 17-month-long Syrian crisis, which has been escalating by the day, has become the world’s biggest story, involving major players, especially the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
After the Libyan debacle last year, Russia and China have maintained their resolute stance: That is, both sides are to blame and it is only the people of Syria who should determine their destiny.
They have opposed attempts at illegal regime change, the West’s major objective.
The Syrian crisis is once again demonstrating the double standards of some members of the international community.
Covert and overt operations have been used to create the Free Syrian Army, the rebel group that is fighting to overthrow the Syrian government.
This was also how Libya’s National Transitional Council was created.
It is a matter of time before the Western media reveal the deep involvement of not only their governments, but also the underhand operations used by intelligence forces such as the United States’ CIA, Britain’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad and others.
We do not also need super human intelligence to realise that the same tactics used on Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi are being applied on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Protests and defections were the mantra used to demonstrate that Col Gaddafi had lost legitimacy.
The same is happening in Syria.
It is however, interesting that senior army generals and a prime minister who were part of the crisis for more a year can suddenly claim defection and that only President Assad’s hands are tainted with the people’s blood.
When Assad was fighting the people, what were they doing?
Did it have to take protests for defectors to make the claims they are making now, or there are other forces influencing their decisions and sudden denouncements of a man they saved for a long time?
But considering the state of the world today, we are not overly surprised by these turncoats’ actions.
Many nationals are selling their souls to the devil claiming that their actions are in people’s interest.
The Syrian rebels have always claimed that they have “their people” in the Assad government who provide them with information as and when they need it.
But, what is of concern during this stage of the Arab Spring is how those calling on president Assad’s ouster are turning a blind eye on the hordes of mercenaries from different parts of the world that are being recruited and armed to fight and kill the Syrian people.
Who is paying and arming them?
Why are they being allowed to perpetrate crimes against the Syrian people with such reckless abandon?
Is it any wonder that weapons of war are now found anywhere and everywhere, and used willy-nilly to destroy innocent lives?
So much about the war on terror! This clearly shows that the so-called humanitarian concerns about the Syrian people are nothing but crocodile tears shed by elements that have ulterior motives.
We also know that the real target is Iran.
This is why they need President Assad out, in order to create a government that does is not pro-Iran.
An increasingly isolated Iran will become an easy target for attack by NATO and/or Israeli.
It will also not have the capacity to attack Israel.
But, the bottom line is that the Arab Spring like other regime change projects is about Western interests, and not the interests of the people of the Middle East in charting their self-determination and sovereignty.
Whatever the outcome of the Syrian crisis, it is also another opportunity for Africa to reflect. How important is Africa’s voice on the geo-political sphere?
The Libyan crisis saw NATO disregarding the mediation efforts by the African Union, through South African president Jacob Zuma.
It was a rebuff whose message was loud and clear: Africa has no business on the world stage, let alone its own affairs.
There has been a repeat in the Syrian crisis.
Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan last week stepped down as the UN and Arab League joint special envoy for Syria claiming external interference in his efforts to bring about peace in the war-torn country. Annan became another African with “well-known experience, wisdom and worldwide credibility”, which could not be used for the betterment of the world.
It is high time the West stops its double standards and put an end to blood-letting in Syria.
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