My Country, at Its Best
Regimes come and regimes go, but friendship with the people of a nation endures. You earn that friendship when you stand with them in their darkest hours:
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of the opposition stronghold Hama on Friday, bolstered by a gesture of support from the American and French ambassadors who visited the city where a massacre nearly 30 years ago came to symbolize the ruthlessness of the Assad dynasty.
The citizens of Hama, who supported the Muslim Brotherhood in their last great uprising, today decorated the car carrying America’s Ambassador with roses and olive branches.
The courage of the Syrians is something to behold. I hope the North Koreans will exceed it one day. They’ll have to.
The Syrian people are also setting an example for the Iranian people. Joshua, I can see that you’re proud of America and proud of Ambassador Ford. Are you also proud of Secretary Clinton and President Obama?
Not really. It took them five months of slaughter to do this much, while Hillary Clinton still clung to the hallucination that Bashar Asad was a reformer. Let’s see if they finally start making contact with the opposition, getting an understanding of its ideological dimensions, and lending more aggressive support to those elements that would move Syria in a better direction. Frankly, this should have happened four months ago, in Dera’a.
Their choice of Wendy Sherman to run our Asia policy doesn’t suggest we’ll perform even this well when it happens in North Korea, or China.
It’s great to see this, though as you note it’s a pity it came so late. However, it seems that tends to be the pattern. It was very disheartening how cold so many western countries including the US and France were at first towards the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, and it’s a great shame they’ve allowed the brutal Bahraini regime away with their shocking campaign of repression.
Actually, perhaps this is not the place but now that I’ve mentioned Bahrain, I hope you’ll forgive my indulgence in a topic of personal importance to me: a friend and former colleague of mine, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, has been imprisoned there for over 90 days and was recently sentenced to life imprisonment on charges including “terrorism” as a result of his human rights activities.
Abdulhadi founded the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and went on to Coordinate security and protection for human rights defenders all over the middle east with Front Line for several years. He resigned in March of this year and, by popular demand, joined the peaceful uprising in Bahrain, and was subsequently arrested in April.
While in detention Abdulhadi was tortured to such an extent that he required facial surgery. He has also been sexually assaulted.
It sickens me to think of what has been done to him, not only because on a personal level I know him to be such a gentle, humble, courteous, peaceful, kind and good natured man, but it’s even more disgusting considering he’s dedicated his entire working life to trying to protect others, in his own country and throughout the middle east.
Meanwhile the Bahraini Royal Family has, of course, accused him of inciting violence, terrorism, plotting with Iran, and other such nonsense. And, to no small extent due to the silence of the international community on the issue — to whcih Bahrain is very very well connected — they’ve been able to get away with it.
As I said, perhaps this isn’t really the place to bring it up, but this is a human rights-focused blog, so perhaps this will be of interest to some readers. If so, please find further information here . You may wish to sign Front Line’s open letter to the King of Bahrain concering Abdulhadi’s case, along with that of medical professionals who’ve been persecuted as part of the crackdown, or email this urgent appeal to your nearest Bahraini embassy. Considering the aforementioned lack of international pressure on Bahrain, I’d be most grateful if some of you may consider raising the issue with your elected officials too.
Poor DS agents. What a security nightmare.
Funny, that was also my thought. They do look nervous.
Syrian government thugs stormed the US and French embassies in Damascus last night, clear violations of American and French sovereignty, not to mention serious violations of multiple treaties that form the bedrock of international relations as we know it. And yet, Washington is merely “deeply disappointed.” I wonder: why do we continue to support Iran’s proxy Apartheid state? From the American government’s perspective, what is gained by standing by Assad? Are we afraid of an Iranian backlash or afraid of the potential for the rise of a fundementalist Sunni state?
I’m still hoping the Turks go in guns blazing and make sure Assad and his sycophants get their pink slips.