The international strategy to divert attention from Syria’s real problem

The sectarian regime in Damascus seized power 50 years ago and has mastered the strategy of diverting attention from the real and fundamental problem under which the Syrian people are suffering. Unity, freedom and socialism are reinforced by false slogans of perseverance, steadfastness and resistance.

Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011, the entire world has been reproducing the same strategy to cover up for the fact that Syria’s main problem is the regime in Damascus, which seems to be influential across the region. There has been talk about a constitution, the imaginary transfer of power and the Iranian and the Russian intervention and subsequent resistance to it, as if the Syrian people rose up for the sake of illusions and lies, and not for the removal of a cancer that has eaten away at them for decades. This confirms what the opposition groups who have met with the Russians since the beginning of the revolution have said about the Assad regime being a “strategic treasure”, and that all the money in the Arab world does not match the value of the Bashar Al-Assad regime.

The comment by the US envoy to Syria about Assad being like a corpse that cannot be brought back to life confirms that the diversionary tactic is ongoing. Perhaps this is useful in the short-term, but history will not be kind to those who stood by the sectarian regime in public or in secret while Syria and its people were destroyed. The corpse that the US official referred to has become the corpse of Syria itself; instead of talking about expelling the Iranian and Russian occupiers from Syria, the US could have prevented them from entering in the first place. To allow them to destroy the Levant and its civilisation and people, and then make suggestions about resisting the Iran and Russia occupations without regard for the inevitable massacres and catastrophes likely to result, is completely farcical.

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They have made it seem as if the Syrian people sought a constitution only, and not someone who would implement a constitution and stand by it; as if the Syrian people who sacrificed lives, limbs and homes did so only for the sake of a constitution that does not feed them. Everything done in Syria is based upon the interests of the countries and groups opposing revolutionary change. While some believe that Daesh is the problem, others believe that radical groups in general are the issue. Yet more believe that anyone who took up arms against the sectarian regime is at fault; a fourth group believes that the problem lies with the Russian and Iranian occupation.

Meanwhile, the Syrian people remain the victims in all of this and continue to pay a high price with their past, present and future. Outsiders fail to acknowledge that the problem lies with the criminals in Damascus who have decimated crops and livestock, people and land. The regime is the disease and everything else is a symptom of that disease.

The Syrian people have sacrificed their best people to liberate their land, not to create “buffer zones” across it. Even if the regime has powerful supporters, history demonstrates that revolutions based on justice tend to win in the end. That may be soon, or sometime well into the future. Either way, victory will belong to the people of Syria.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.