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CALLING A CIVIL WAR A "CIVIL WAR"
There is no longer any need for euphemisms to describe the fighting in Syria, writes Al-Akhbar’s editor-in-chief, on the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising.
If some people want to persuade themselves that they are leading a revolution, or a battle against a foreign conspiracy, that is their business.
But the daily bloodletting, its diverse forms, sources, causes and consequences, and the identity of the majority of the perpetrators, leave only one name for what is happening today:
This is the Syrian civil war. And like all civil wars in history, it will end with winners and losers, along with a variety of consolation prizes and concessions to enable compatriots to continue living together.
Civil wars also come in different varieties. What is happening in Syria surpasses anything we have seen in the Arab world in terms of savagery. It is incorrect to say that the internecine Lebanese conflict was just as vicious, or that the tribal struggles in Yemen had similar results. Not even the ongoing war in Iraq matches it.
Syrians do not like to hear their infighting described like this. The deep rift between the two sides makes each insist on its own description. This applies both to the regime, which is in unprecedented disarray and incapable of maintaining civil peace, and the opposition, which must qualify as the least moral in modern history.
The majority of the opposition’s spokespeople represent groups that have placed themselves at the service of foreign powers under the guise of seeking a savior. Its most effective components on the ground are engaged in the task of destroying the country over the heads of its people, under the pretext of resisting the regime’s brutality. The people, meanwhile, even if inclined toward one side or the other, are horrified by the scale of the savagery, and increasingly demand only calm.
The real disaster, however, is the attitude of the combatants outside Syria, who take stands with no thought for the consequences of their role in expanding the sea of blood.
Those who are urging the Syrian people to keep fighting, and are devoting their political, financial and military resources to prolonging the civil war, are criminals. One can only wish them an unpleasant death, as dark as their oil, and befitting of their stupidity. Their actions will bring the bloodletting in Syria to their own countries sooner or later, and once the fires start raging around them, nobody will be able to rescue them.
Faced with all this, what use is it to denounce or condemn the killing? What court could bring all the criminals – of every type, hue and rank -- to justice? What prison could hold them pending their eternal damnation? And what mind could imagine that any of them can be entrusted with the affairs of a country and people?
Syria is beginning its third year of mass death. All the signs indicate that we should expect more death and more corpses. Everything being said, whether in public or private, points the same way: getting the Syrians to do more killing in order to win the battle on the ground. There is no sight more painful than a people whose roots in that earth date back thousands of years, before the emergence of the modern world, being lectured by an American, European or Arab mercenary.
Writing about Syria today, and trying to think about it using the usual criteria for gauging right from wrong, seems like an exercise in futility.
And for anyone expecting a replay, there is no point in repeating earlier advice, assessments or observations, or warnings about what could be coming in the name of reform, change and freedom.
It has all been swept away by the torrent of blood, whose stain cannot be erased by fire.
Only one thing may be said about Syria today: Go forth ye who can – be you deity, citizen or sorcerer – and smite all who resemble the devil. Ask not their names, identities or demands. Just smite them. And once you have banished Satan from the paradise of Syria, let whoever is left alive bring the country back to life.
Ibrahim al-Amin is editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
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