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Cherchez le... Syrian
by Thanos Kalamidas
2007-06-15 10:54:35 |
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I’m pretty sure you all know what ‘Cherchez la femme’ means but for the last two decades in the Middle East it seems that partly due to a few centuries of French influence this has changed to 'Cherchez le …Syrian!'
The first time might have been coincidence but then too many coincidences have happened in the last decades to poor Lebanon, especially when you consider that the murdered is always an anti-Syrian Lebanese official – it doesn’t matter how high or low they are in Lebanese political life. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that there is only one suspect and that’s the Syrian regime. Of course, there were a few pro-Syrian victims but, with the Syrian regime behind them, you can only suspect that they kill their own only to cover their ass… however twisted that may sound.
Walid Eido was the victim this time. He was one among 10 people killed in an explosion in Beirut. At least another dozen people were wounded from the blast and surprisingly Mr. Eido was the third member of the Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentary majority to be killed in a bomb the last two years.
Do you want more coincidences? Just two weeks ago the UN Security Council voted to begin a tribunal trying suspects for the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was another strong persona in the Lebanese anti-Syrian front. However, without any surprise, Damascus denies any involvement in the events. How will anybody ever believe them?
Let’s have a look at the other side: Damascus! The ruler since 1963 is the Baath party and its leader, president or whatever else you want to call him, Bashar al-Assad, is the son of Hafez al-Assad! Dictatorship rights in Syria is an inheritable trait. I presume a lot of bells rang now. Hafez al-Assad was lucky, he died early and he didn’t see the end of the Baath party in Iraq and the end of his colleague Saddam. His son, the new emperor, sorry the new president is lucky to see the end moving closer and feeling the breath of the superpower down his neck or better over his neighbor Iraq.
Since the invasion to Iraq and the attack on the Twin Towers, Bashar al-Assad has tried hard to prove that he’s not his father. He tries hard to show that he is a modern leader who wants to protect his republic and the Palestinian people. And let’s say that I am naïve enough to believe him. The man is definitely not his father but he is definitely his father’s son.
He’s using the same network, the same policy and most likely the very same people, why things then should have changed? If Bashar al-Assad wanted to show a democratic face he should have resigned just after his father’s funeral and called for democratic elections legalizing all the parties and calling back from the exile all the opposition.
Lets naively say that Bashar al-Assad believes what he says and let's say that he has no clear idea of what’s going on in his country – not a surprise with a dictator – that means that except a bad leader he is totally an idiot as well and despite this fact we are still looking for the Syrian responsible for all that happens in Lebanon.
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