Now it is Assad for Syria – what if …?

Recent reports in the media indicate that analysts now consider the best option for Syria (and for stability in the Middle East) is if Assad regains control of Syria. Well now – isn’t that good news!

Ooops! Sorry we made a mistake!

I have said before (as my one loyal reader has pointed out) the Syrians are an intelligent people with a very long, if rather turbulent, history going back millennia. As I also pointed out it is very poor policy to try and pick winners when it comes to any country’s governance, but particularly in the Middle East. And then what about the one hundred thousand (and counting) Syrian casualties later?

For the sake of humanity and in the name of whatever you consider God to be, leave Syria to the Syrians and back off!

And now there is Afghanistan. The Afghanis are an intelligent people with a very long, if rather turbulent, history going back millennia. They have fought off invaders ranging from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan to the more recent Soviet invasion and prevailed. Once more – trying to pick winners in this area of the world is an impossible, and pointless task.

In their recent history the Afghanis have lost many uncounted thousands of civilian casualties to the Taliban, the Soviets and NATO (read USA) actions. More importantly are the people any better off with NATO interference? 

The Afghanis are capable of sorting themselves out, one way or another. Just leave them alone. Back off!

Will this be another “Ooops” moment? You bet.

Now, just for a moment let us speculate. What would have happened if former President G W Bush and his cronies had come to a similar conclusion about Iraq? Maybe, just maybe, Iraq (and stability in the Middle East) would have been better off under Saddam Hussein. As afore mentioned, it is very poor policy to try and pick winners when it comes to any country’s governance, but particularly in the Middle East. And particularly for the five hundred thousand plus (and counting) Iraqi (and US and allied) casualties later.

Just like the Syrians and Afghanis, the Iraqis are an intelligent people with a very long, if rather turbulent, history going back millennia. Mesopotamia – the Land between the Two Rivers – was the cradle of civilization and extends at least as far back as recorded history, to about 3000 BC (remember the Babylonians?).

Ooops! Sorry we made a mistake! But was the mistake about the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) or was the mistake about invading Iraq in the first place?

Or maybe both? Why can’t we (that is the USA and the West) just leave well alone and back off?

Not again. Please!

Oh dear, Oh dearie me! Here we go again. More interference in another country; more mayhem; more misery; more deaths; more displaced people; more refugees. And for what? Pray tell! Pray explain!

Syria!

We are, once more, hearing the rattle of sabres. We are, once more, hearing the “Ka Ching” sound from the armament industries around the world as they work out how much money they will make from a possible (probable?) foreign engagement in the internal affairs of the Syrians.

While I will admit that the Assad regime may be not to my liking or, as is evident, to that of the “West”, so what! It is certainly apparent that poison gas was used by someone in Syria (and this is not the first time such an atrocity has been committed in the Middle East) but I do not believe that it is up to anyone else except the Syrians to sort out Syria’s problems. Any intervention in Syria raised the spectre of imponderable and unintended consequences.

Just remember the – I am sure – unintended consequences of granting part of the land of Palestine to Israel. The results of which are still being played out – some sixty thousand dead and counting.

Just remember the – I am sure – unintended consequences of the intervention in Vietnam and the shocking effects of Agent Orange on the population, which is still being played out. This was poison on a grand scale.

Just remember the – I am sure – unintended consequences of the intervention in Iraq and the chaos that resulted and which has yet to play out. At least one hundred and sixty thousand dead, and counting.

Leave Syria alone. Let the Syrian’s work through their problems – I repeat their problems – and learn to accept whatever result eventuates, good, bad or indifferent. They started it, let them finish it. The Syrians are an intelligent and capable people. They have had problems going back thousands of years and they have sorted themselves out – one way or another. They have survived as has the rest of the world – no matter who governs Syria.

Provide humanitarian aid when it is requested by anyone. Certainly! But not arms or armed intervention no matter who requests it.

LEAVE SYRIA ALONE, IT IS NOT OUR PROBLEM.