I hear the roar of pain from my Syria, hear it loud, hear it every day, in minute detail, with names of friends and relatives attached; it not only breaks my heart but in Syria it breaks whole lives.
Let no one deny the horrific massacres of Syrian civilians by the Assad government, no matter what position one has on the imminent U.S. strikes on Syria. Yes, there is a part of me which responds to news of possible strikes with, “Smash the Butcher of Syria.” But the U.S. is not proposing strikes because it’s crying its eyes out over Syrian suffering, or out of goodwill toward the legitimate uprising for which millions of Syrians have been risking their lives and suffering agonies. A U.S. strike is not a prayer-answer to the Syrian humanitarian crisis—it means more civilian agonies, because Syria is not Kosovo, which was protected by U.N. peacekeepers in the aftermath of NATO bombing.
If the U.S. can move off its ass enough to strike Syria militarily, it can bloody well put equivalent hard work into arm-twisting the Butcher of Syria to a Yemeni-style transition, tightening the noose on Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah provisions to the Butcher, and clearing the U.N. Security Council of vetoes for action against the regime for its use of chemical weapons. Political transition is better than military strike.
The U.S. continues to drag its feet on the Syrian revolution precisely because the revolution was begun by grassroots women and men who are not anybody’s proxies, who struggle now both against the regime and imported agendas, Islamist and Western. The U.S. has tried to develop a dog in the race, and has largely failed. General Martin Dempsey, chair of the U.S.’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, says, “the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not.”
“There is nothing there,” says former U.S. military chief for the region General James Mattis. I know intimately that there is something there: a few million ornery, disenfranchised, utterly marginalized Syrians risking everything to create a country where they and their children can live with dignity. My axis is them. U.S. strikes are not designed to help them in that struggle.
Born in Syria, Professor Mohja Kahf teaches Middle Eastern studies and Arabic literature at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. A poet, book author, and activist, she tweets for the Syrian revolution @profkahf.
[Photo: Protesters in Aleppo, Syria, on August 23, 2013, after the gas massacre, from Stop the Killing.]