So, just what can be done about Assad and Syria?

by Ian Williams Tribune Sunday, July 15th, 2012 There are many reasons to be cautious about interfering in Syria but they certai nly do not include the trite and reflexive anti-interventionism of the attenuated avatars of the Comintern, nor even the latters knee-jerk defence of (mostly) une lected thugs, no matter how courageous, strong or indefatigable they appear. Ant i-imperialist war groups in the West have been busily burnishing the revolutionar y credentials of characters such as Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad both of whom were happy to act as torture franchisees for Western intelligence agencies, and both of whom have failed one litmus test for the so-called anti-imperialist left by frequently stiffing the Palestinians. Those not blessed with anti-imperialist amnesia might recall Gaddafi deporting a ll the Palestinians in Libya at one point, or the role played by the Syrian Baath ists in colluding with Phalangist pogroms of Palestinians in Lebanon. And both L ibyan and Syrian regimes, so eager to condemn their dissidents as terrorists, were long-time safe havens for indisputably terrorist groups, whose modus operandi no self-respecting socialist or Marxist could or should defend. At the United Nations over the years there has always been an expedient alliance of such tyrannies to defend each other from criticism. Their common element is an ostentatious disregard for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, usually camouflaged with anti-imperialist rhetoric. Syria, Libya, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran and in times past, I raq, even when the latter two were in conflict, connived to see each other seate d on UN human rights bodies. But then, in this new era of what one might call nationalist socialism, it is di fficult not to gasp when hearing how often sovereignty now trumps all for so many would-be leftists for whom questioning the right of a sovereign tyranny to assault its own people is backing imperialism. Workers of the world unite, you have noth ing to defend but your barbed wire land-mined frontiers, does not really cut the Marxist mustard. It writes the International Brigades out of history, along with the memory that in Spain non-intervention was the call of those who wanted Franco to win. Lenin and his chums accepted the aid of the Kaiser to get through to Ru ssia, and Roger Casement took the German guns, in support of their revolutions. Generations of previous freedom fighters, from Byron in Greece, to Garibaldi in Latin America, interfered in sovereign states with British imperialist support. So what can be done about Syria? One thing is sure: If twere done when tis done, th en twere well it were done quickly. While Moscow points to the disorder in Libya a s the consequence of intervention, in fact the situation deteriorated in part be cause of Moscows protracted refusal to let the Security Council send a stronger m essage to the strongman and his supporters. Once action started, Moscow abdicated from its opportunity to help chart its pat h. The first free elections in 60 years in Libya owed nothing to Russia, nor to the useful idiots of the anti-war coalitions who equated supplying small arms to t he oppressed with supplying gunships to the oppressors. Similarly, the chaos in Syria, which started with the repression of peaceful dem onstrations, has become worse, in part because the regime and its supporters, co erced or voluntary, have assumed Russian support. If Moscow pulls back, it impro ves the chances of the regime compromising in a negotiated transition that avoid s the social meltdown of Libya. Active Russian support for a no-fly zone would s end an even stronger signal. In any case, while dismissing the expedient dogmas

used to oppose the principles of responsibility to protect, which was adopted, nem con by the UN summit, if negotiations fail, there are indeed practical consider ations, the main point being caution about whether action would make things wors e. Syrias geopolitical position and history severely limits the potential for foreig n intervention, which in any case needs a UN mandate. The United States, Britain and France are all out of the question as, of course, is Israel. It leaves Turk ey in the frame. Ironically Ankara improved its credentials by refusing to take advantage of the clear casus belli that Damascus provocatively or incompetently offered by shooting down the Turkish plane.