Arab tyrants are scapegoats not culprits. Shame on the double-hype of the West
Very hard to argue with any of it. Just look at this (were it not so tragic) potentially hilarious chart of all the myriad militia groups roving around with varying views about Assad:
…and then think of the further rag-tag of gun-toting infantile misogynists unavowedly against the country’s leader: various entrails, in no particular order, of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Libyan Al Q’aida, plus of course the current Antichrist of choice, ISIS. Then in turn ask several of the groups ‘rebelling’ against Assad what they think of ISIS….and then in turn put the same question to those currently broadly in favour of Assad.
Assad is right: most of the combatants in this hitherto relatively stable country have been imported and radicalised by the US. The Russians are in there for the same reason they’re in the Ukraine: they see it as a historical sphere of influence. The West spouts drivel about liberty and Arab Springs without knowing a damn thing about Arabian culture, and then bleats when Putin bombs militias who, only a few years ago, they’d have been ready to bomb themselves.
Evil will indeed triumph if good men do nothing; but it will also win if bad men do something. Egypt, Libya, Iraq and now Syria are in a mess because energy-obsessed badass geopoliticians did something self-interested over and over again. Is the world a better place without Saddam, Mubarak, Gadaffi? Would Syria be a better place without Assad? And think the jury can’t make its mind up because the jury is ignorant.
Most Arabs despise democracy and just want to be left alone to do business in a stable environment. If the West cared about democracy, it wouldn’t have allied itself to the horrific Saudi Arabian régime.
Hypocrisy and hyperbole are the currency of ‘great’ Powers in the Middle East. Arms merchants and oil oligarchs call all the shots – be they Saudis, Texans or Russians. Political leaders and journalists who suggest otherwise are either liars or useful idiots. Arabs always have and always will squabble – as do Islamics. All of these factors have made the Middle East a poisonous nest of violent confusion and growing anarchy. It’s time we got past oil, paid the Arab people some hefty reparations, and then left them to it for good.
Last night at The Slog: Time for more balanced minds to read the Paedofile
