Assad's Worst Nightmare

By: Marwan Arikat ------------------------------------------------------------------ In the 2003 Arab summit and shortly before the US invaded Iraq, Bashar Assad of Syria berated the other Arab countries over their silence (and consent) to the US invasion of Iraq. He talked about the evils of allowing imperialist nations to intervene in what he regarded as an Arab internal affair. In addition, he warned the Arab countries that they will be the next target of foreign imperialism and intervention if they do not prevent the US plans to invade and occupy Iraq. Back then, he was regarded, by many people in the Arab world, as a shrewd, farseeing politician who displayed an uncanny wisdom for his age, he was extremely insightful to the extent that his own late cunning father seemed obtuse in comparison. However, the current brutality and violent suppression of the Syrian uprising by his army, security forces, secret police, and government thugs or "Shabiha"proves that Assad has reverted to the primitive mindset of the rest of the other Arab leaders and to the monstrosity of his old-man. This can't be the same perceptive, sagacious, smooth, and savvy Assad of 2003! In 2003, the educated, civilized and articulate Assad reached-out and appealed to the hundreds of millions of Arabs and non-Arabs around the globe. Now he seems incapable of establishing an adequate and a very simple dialogue with his own people. Furthermore, the vicious and cruel crackdown against the (unarmed) Syrian civilian demonstrators makes Assad look like the ignorant and imbecile savage leaders of Libya and Yemen. Moreover, Assad's crimes against his own people and the appearance of mass graves in northern Syria will inevitably pressure foreign countries, especially western nations, to intervene in Syria's internal crisis, thus, fulfilling Assad's worst nightmare. Additionally, Assad initiated foreign intervention in his own country the minute he asked for the support of the persian régime to help him suppress the Syrian local uprising. Iran, one of the Middle Eastern regional imperialist superpowers, was more than happy to mobilize thousands of its notorious and ruthless Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) in support of Assad's grip on power in Syria, because Assad was always regarded as an Iranian proxy. Also, the Iranian régime always dreamt of gaining a foothold along the Lebanese and the Israeli borders in order to directly support and arm its own proxies in Southern Lebanon, Hizbollah. It is worth mentioning that the (IRG) happen to be experts on the suppression of uprisings because they practice it everyday in Iran. The Iranian intervention in Syria has triggered a a chain reaction in the region. For example, Turkey, another imperialist power and a rival of Iran in the region, is building up its troops along the Syrian borders and is threatening to intrude on Syrian territory to prevent the influx of Syrian refugees, escaping Assad's massacres, to Turkey. Likewise, Israel, which is currently deploying its elite units to its northern borders with Syria, will not set idle and accept the presence of Iranian troops in Syria or Lebanon. Besides, Israel is the only nuclear superpower in the Middle East and any Israeli intervention in Syria will cost the Syrians more than the Golan Heights, which Syria lost to Israel in the 1967 war. Also, any Israeli intervention will lead to the globalization of the conflict, because both Israel and Iran are armed to the teeth and both possess weapons of mass destruction. Thus, Assad, who was worried about the impact of foreign intervention in neighboring Iraq on his own country, will now have to deal with foreign intervention in his own backyard, thanks to his brutal and inhumane policy toward his people. Isn't that an Irony?