Thursday, July 27, 2006
Syria's Assad not taken seriously; Bush to blame
David W. Lesch is a professor of Middle East history at Trinity University in San Antonio and now a guest columnist in the Washington Post Op-Ed section. He is lamenting our refusal to talk directly with Syrian President Assad about the ongoing problems in the Mid-East.
“Indeed, one of the few Americans with whom he has had contact in the past few years has been a professor (me) who wrote a book about him -- not exactly high-powered diplomacy.”
Ours is not, however, a random, petulant refusal as even Professor Lesch seems to recognize:
“Along with accusations of Syrian support for the insurgency in Iraq, Washington began to view Assad as being on the wrong side of the war on terrorism.”
I say “seems to recognize” because remarkably he never once mentions Hezbollah or Syrian’s support for it as a potential reason for our discomfort in talking with Syria. In fact, he never uses the word “Hezbollah” once.
Any current commentary about Assad and Syria that ignores Hezbollah is immediately suspect but Professor Lesch gives us other reasons to question why anyone would want to study Middle East history at Trinity University.
“There are many reasons for the current crisis in the Middle East. It is largely the result of American weakness and perceived illegitimacy, stemming from U.S. folly in Iraq, which has allowed state and sub-state actors to assert themselves.”
I can understand that Mr. Lesch, being a college professor, is probably bound by some union-like rule to blame anything and everything on the Iraq war but such statements are just plain silly. Even if we accept his premise of weakness and illegitimacy, the largest part of the blame for the current crisis has to be assigned to the terrorists organizations that initiated the latest round of conflicts – you know, Hamas and Hezbollah. While Hamas is arguably a power unto itself, Hezbollah is Syria’s protégé and it strains credulity to not perceive Syria’s machinations in the Lebanese happenings.
The whoppers continue:
“Assad wants to be taken seriously. He believes the sincere overtures he made to the United States and even Israel in his first few years in power were categorically rebuffed -- and in fact they were.”
“Sincere overtures”? This man is exhibiting a classic case of the Stockholm Syndrome. Here is Bashar Al-Assad addressing the Syrian Parliament after assuming the Presidency:
"I will not forget to mention our brave people on the Golan, who cling tenaciously to their country and their Arab nationality, [while] rejecting Zionist existence in all its forms, and we say to them: 'We are with you and our steadfastness together is the guarantee that our land will be liberated.' In Lebanon, the brave national resistance wrote the best anthem of heroism and martyrdom which will always remain [as a model]that will live on with future generations…." Special Dispatch Series - No. 116
In January 2001 after a meeting with the head of Pakistan:
"The Arab-Zionist conflict is a struggle between truth and falsehood; between the spirit of tolerance and peace of Islam and the Zionist path of racism and aggression, as represented by Israel... It is a struggle between the desire for a peace based on justice and the granting of rights to their lawful owners, on the one hand, and the Israeli criminal aggression and barbaric crimes, on the other. Israel has been committing [these crimes], ever since it was [a bunch of] racist gangs; and it still commits them [now] that it is a state based on loathsome racist values and hatred towards Arabs and Islam." Special Dispatch Series - No. 177
Now those I believe are sincere overtures.
Professor Lesch concludes:
“In coming weeks, one hopes, the Syrian president will be talking with someone from the United States other than a professor who wrote a book about him.”
…because then anyone who wrote a book about President Assad may well be in demand...Methinks it is not just President Assad who wants to be taken seriously.
“Indeed, one of the few Americans with whom he has had contact in the past few years has been a professor (me) who wrote a book about him -- not exactly high-powered diplomacy.”
Ours is not, however, a random, petulant refusal as even Professor Lesch seems to recognize:
“Along with accusations of Syrian support for the insurgency in Iraq, Washington began to view Assad as being on the wrong side of the war on terrorism.”
I say “seems to recognize” because remarkably he never once mentions Hezbollah or Syrian’s support for it as a potential reason for our discomfort in talking with Syria. In fact, he never uses the word “Hezbollah” once.
Any current commentary about Assad and Syria that ignores Hezbollah is immediately suspect but Professor Lesch gives us other reasons to question why anyone would want to study Middle East history at Trinity University.
“There are many reasons for the current crisis in the Middle East. It is largely the result of American weakness and perceived illegitimacy, stemming from U.S. folly in Iraq, which has allowed state and sub-state actors to assert themselves.”
I can understand that Mr. Lesch, being a college professor, is probably bound by some union-like rule to blame anything and everything on the Iraq war but such statements are just plain silly. Even if we accept his premise of weakness and illegitimacy, the largest part of the blame for the current crisis has to be assigned to the terrorists organizations that initiated the latest round of conflicts – you know, Hamas and Hezbollah. While Hamas is arguably a power unto itself, Hezbollah is Syria’s protégé and it strains credulity to not perceive Syria’s machinations in the Lebanese happenings.
The whoppers continue:
“Assad wants to be taken seriously. He believes the sincere overtures he made to the United States and even Israel in his first few years in power were categorically rebuffed -- and in fact they were.”
“Sincere overtures”? This man is exhibiting a classic case of the Stockholm Syndrome. Here is Bashar Al-Assad addressing the Syrian Parliament after assuming the Presidency:
"I will not forget to mention our brave people on the Golan, who cling tenaciously to their country and their Arab nationality, [while] rejecting Zionist existence in all its forms, and we say to them: 'We are with you and our steadfastness together is the guarantee that our land will be liberated.' In Lebanon, the brave national resistance wrote the best anthem of heroism and martyrdom which will always remain [as a model]that will live on with future generations…." Special Dispatch Series - No. 116
In January 2001 after a meeting with the head of Pakistan:
"The Arab-Zionist conflict is a struggle between truth and falsehood; between the spirit of tolerance and peace of Islam and the Zionist path of racism and aggression, as represented by Israel... It is a struggle between the desire for a peace based on justice and the granting of rights to their lawful owners, on the one hand, and the Israeli criminal aggression and barbaric crimes, on the other. Israel has been committing [these crimes], ever since it was [a bunch of] racist gangs; and it still commits them [now] that it is a state based on loathsome racist values and hatred towards Arabs and Islam." Special Dispatch Series - No. 177
Now those I believe are sincere overtures.
Professor Lesch concludes:
“In coming weeks, one hopes, the Syrian president will be talking with someone from the United States other than a professor who wrote a book about him.”
…because then anyone who wrote a book about President Assad may well be in demand...Methinks it is not just President Assad who wants to be taken seriously.
