Syria Escapes Libya’s Fate

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=news-section&page=news-section&code_title=55

The Island (Sri Lanka)
October 6, 2011

Syria escapes Libya’s fate

An attempt by the US and its allies to turn Syria into another Libya has been foiled by China and Russia by vetoing a US Security Council resolution condemning Damascus and calling for ‘targeted measures’.

The defeat of the European-drafted resolution against Syria has come as no surprise because the Security Council stands sharply divided over the blatant abuse by the US-led western coalition of a UN resolution to effect a regime change in Libya on the pretext of protecting civilians in that country.

The US says it has been outraged by what China and Russia did. Its envoy, Susan Rice, called opposition to the anti-Syrian resolution a ‘cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people’. But, when her Syrian counterpart Bashar Jaafari, promptly pointed out that the US was using its power of veto to protect Israel and such action could be considered aiding and abetting genocide, she beat a hasty retreat and staged a dramatic walkout.

Jaafari is obviously defending a repressive regime, but one fails to see why the US has got so outraged. Does it have any concern for human rights? In 1986, it was the only country that voted against a Security Council resolution condemning Iraq (then under Saddam Hussain’s jackboot) for mustard gas attacks on the Iranian troops. The First Gulf War and sanctions the US engineered subsequently left over 500,000 Iraqi children dead. Over 600,000 Iraqi people have perished since the invasion by the US-led forces of their country in 2003. Tens of thousands of victims of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant the US military sprayed on forests during the Vietnam War have been denied compensation. The US-backed anti-Gaddafi war has so far killed over 50,000 people in Libya as the rebel leader himself has admitted. In Afghanistan and the frontier provinces of Pakistan many civilians are being killed in US drone attacks. And Washington is championing human rights!

“Today, the courageous people of Syria can see who on this council supports their yearning for liberty and universal human rights and who does not,” an indignant Rice told the Security Council. How would the people who were oppressed by the US-backed brutal dictators like Suharto, Marcos, Pinochet, Papa Doc, Baby Doc, Shah et al have felt on hearing Rice’s statement? What about the people suffering under the pro-American repressive regimes in Yemen and Bahrain? Why hasn’t the US taken up the cudgels for those civilians crying out for help? Why isn’t the US championing the cause of the hapless Palestinians? It has threatened to use its power of veto to scuttle their move to achieve nation status through the UN, hasn’t it?

Germany has told the Security Council that the world should show solidarity with Syrians on the streets. Yes, that must be done! But, the problem is that it is not out of any love for them that the US and its allies are trying to move the UN against Syria. They want to oust Assad, who is loyal to Russia and China, and install a pro-western puppet regime in Damascus as part of their strategy to consolidate their power in that region. If they are really driven by a strong desire to protect human rights and promote democracy, as they claim, let them fight for the rights of the people of Yemen and Bahrain as well.

There seems to be only one way the ordinary Syrians could be extricated from the present mess. The western coalition must refrain from backing armed groups in Syria and trying to abuse the UN to bomb that country into submission; China and Russia ought to use their influence over President Assad to make him act with restraint, be tolerant of dissent and expedite the implementation of his promised democratic reforms.

Short URL: http://www.americanpendulum.com/?p=7870