The US Deeply Troubled! (2)
”America was behind Syria’s violence…. And I tell the Americans: ‘You must read well what you did in Afghanistan and Somalia. I don’t understand your slogan of fighting international terrorism when you are supporting this terrorism in Syria. We believe that the USA is the major player against Syria and the rest are its instruments.” said Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem, On August 28th, 2012, to the renowned journalist Robert Fisk of the Independent.
With this in mind, one cannot but to wonder why the USA has been playing such a destructive role! Is it because Syria is what it is since the early seventies as the country of resistance, tolerance, steadfastness, Arabism, and secularity! Is it because Syria has been, given its pivotal geopolitical strategic location and policies, the bone in the throat of warmongers and greedy powers! In fact, it is because of all the mentioned, not to mention the unjustified severe headache caused ironically by Syria’s strategic relations with its real friends in the region- in defense of the oppressed.
Actually, the frequent news reports and information, including those by the Washington-Post, New York Times, CNN and other US media means, regarding the US logistic support, training, and its intelligence information sharing with armed terrorist groups targeting everything Syrian, raise almost the eyebrows of every Syrian, filling them, at least, with anger! The Syrians, who saved many of American lives in the aftermath of Sept.11th terrorist attacks, have done their best to have a relation with the US based on reciprocal respect, understanding, and joint cooperation against every form of terrorism, extremism and backwardness.
On Sept. 12, 2001, President Bashar Al-Assad sent a heart-felt cable to the then US counterpart, George W. Bush condemning the terrorist attacks against innocent civilians and vital posts in the USA. Mr. Al-Assad, on behalf of the Syrians and of his own, offered condolences to the American people and to the bereaved families and urged for international cooperation as to uproot all form of terrorism and as to guarantee man’s right to live in security and peace everywhere in the world.
On Oct. 31, 2001, and in a joint press conference with the visiting former British premier, Tony Blair, President Al-Assad reiterated Syria’s condemnation of the Sept. 11 attacks against the US saying ” The Syrian condemnation doesn’t come from what happened on Sept. 11th, but as a result for other factors including the Syrian deep-rooted and old principles throughout ages, social, religious” recalling what Syria suffered of terrorism in the mid of the 70’s and what follows asserting the need for ” tackling the causes which motivate and proliferate terrorism recalling the late president, Hafez Assad, 1985 dispatching of Syria officials worldwide as to call for the convocation of an international conference to define and combat terrorism. Mr. Assad said: “To tackle the issue of terrorism is to start with defining this vocabulary” is to ” define its form and nature” and then is to ” analyze its causes”‘, ” We have to deal with the reasons and not with results” of terrorism.
Terrorism by US definition, according to the US yearly congress report, is the “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” If so, why has the Government of the USA been involved in encouraging such a “premeditated, politically motivated violence” against Syria, which according to a statement in 2002 by US State Department official, Richard W. Erdman, the chief State Department specialist for Syria, “saved American lives,” in the aftermath of September 11 terrorist attacks! And not to forget, of course, the Syrian AbdelRahman Zeitoun , who emigrated to the USA two decades ago and risked his life as to save many American lives during Catherina.
So, not only the Expatriates and Foreign Minister does not understand ”your slogan of fighting international terrorism when you are supporting this terrorism in Syria”; we do believe that such a US support, not to mention the US calls on armed groups as not to surrender their arms of killing, and the US ashamed rejection to condemn terrorist acts perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups in Syria, violates every international and human rights shrine and law. It is the former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton herself, who said in statements before the 2-day US House of Appropriations Committee on April 24-25, 2009: ”let`s remember here… the people we are fighting today we funded them twenty years ago…and great, let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries, importing their Wahabi brand of Islam.”
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim