Corruption and Leadership – A Brief History of Syria and How We Got to the Syrian Civil War
When the last remaining French forces pulled out of Syria, a former French Mandate since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it was seen as a beacon of promise in the graveyard of empires. The Syrian Republic was founded on the 24th of October, 1945, as a parliamentary republic, the first of its kind in the Middle Eastern area. Syria was even one of the 50 founding members of the United Nations. Yet a series of heads of states who thirsted for absolute power trotted on the very constitution the republic was built on. Such is the case with the Assad dynasty regime who has ruled from the 1970 to present day.
On March 15th, 2011, protestors took to the streets chanting, “God, Syria, and freedom only.” Thus began the series of protests that fell under the larger Arab Spring protest movement that unfolded during that decade. In the city of Homs, protestors were fired upon by Syrian military, killing at least six and wounding hundreds, acceptable due to the Emergency Law verdict. The Emergency Law was created by the Ba’th Party to give the government nearly unlimited authority to restrict individual freedoms and to investigate and detain suspects when national security and public safety were deemed to be at risk. According to Noah Tesch, Britannica Encyclopedia’s Middle Eastern editor, the Syrian government had long maintained that these measures were necessary to defend Syria from plots by its rivals in region, namely Israel, and to combat Islamic militancy. However, in practice, the Emergency Law verdict is used to protect single-party rule and with extreme measures to put down and eliminate opposition. The repeal of this law was demanded by the protestors amid the Arab Spring protests. What many people don’t realize is that this law as actually abolished on April 19th, 2011 as a way to diminish the momentum of the protests. The protestors didn’t buy it. What ensued became the Syrian Civil War we know today.
When comparing the Syrian protests to others that happened during the Arab Spring time, the demands and beginnings seem no different. What is noticeable, is the response that came from the Assad government. The brutal iron fist that rained with bullets down onto the protestors sparked the defecting of many key military generals from the Syrian Armed Forces. Generals such as Major General Abdulaziz al-Shalal, the commander of Syria’s Military police, now join the rebel factions in the fight for protecting the citizens of Syria and the voice of the people. Now if the commanders were truly as influential as they claimed to be, I believe that this conflict would have ended before it began. The Syrian protests would have played out like the Egyptian protests of 2012, where the Egyptian Armed Forces forcibly brought down Morsi’s presidency. Though casualties were sustained by civilians and military alike, it was not nearly as high as the estimated death toll in Syria (over 220,000), nor did it result in a civil war. I think the core problem with the defecting generals and the birth of the Free Syrian Army to fight against the Syrian Armed Forces is the amount of influence these generals have on their soldiers. If the Syrian protests and political revolution was the will of the people and the military is supposed to be for the people, then Assad would have no army to bomb his citizens with. Clearly there is a rupture in loyalty within the Armed Forces. But what’s interesting to consider is that perhaps what the Free Syrian Army is fighting for isn’t as appealing as they think it is. Perhaps this “revolution” or toppling of the Assad regime wasn’t well thought through enough to convince the entire military to carry out the deed.
As the war draws out, the Free Syrian Army has been greatly weakened with time and lack of supplies. I don’t think the army defectors that the Free Syrian Army council is comprised of had thought their actions thoroughly. Had they have the gumption to unite the army and pledge loyalty to the citizens, rather than Assad, then perhaps we wouldn’t see the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the 21stcentury. Having the emotions to do what’s right is respectable, but when it comes to political revolution, one must lead with the mind, not the heart.
