Every day seems to bring fresh, horrific revelations of atrocities in Syria, which Amnesty International says amount to crimes against humanity. The latest news concerns the Sunni village of Al Heffa in the northwest, where UN monitors found ”fiery devastation, the smell of death, vacated homes, looted stores and vestiges of heavy weapons.”
The Obama administration remains committed, it appears, to staying on the sidelines of this growing crisis, but it is finding it hard to ignore entirely the cause of the rebels. Thus, the Wall Street Journal reports, U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives have increased contacts with the opposition. But rather than provide arms directly to the Free Syrian Army, the U.S. representatives are content to let Gulf states do the dirty work. As the Journal notes, the “U.S. in many ways is acting in Syria through proxies, primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.”
On the surface this may appear to be “smart power” in action: Why should the U.S. take the lead if allies are willing to do it? But actually this is a fundamentally dumb and dangerous policy which risks repeating the same mistake the U.S. made in the 1980s when we subcontracted the arming of the Afghan mujahideen to the Pakistanis and Saudis. Who did these fundamentalist-dominated states choose to support? Not surprisingly, the bulk of their support went to brutal Afghan fundamentalists such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyr–closely connected to an obscure Saudi financer named Osama bin Laden–rather than to more moderate and pro-Western figures such as Ahmad Shah Massoud. We are now paying the price for building up Haqqani, Hekmatyr, et. al: They have gone from fighting the Red Army to fighting NATO forces and their allies in Afghanistan.
For this reason, I am considerably alarmed by news of the growing Saudi, Emirati and Qatari role in Syria. These are not the countries we want determining the future of Syria. Yet the longer we stand on the sidelines, the more their role will grow. Heaven help us if their proxies come to power in Syria as they eventually did in Afghanistan.
Newsflash: Syria under Bashar Assad in 2012 is not Afghanistan occupied by the Soviet Union in the '80s. What is required for starters today is not flawed reasoning by analogy to what transpired in Afghanistan, with its singular make-up and history, but thoughtful analysis of the present circumstances in Syria and the United States' interests where Syria is concerned, so those interests can best be served. n nWho ought to do what with regard to Syria, and will they do it? How about Turkey, which is being and will be affected by what is going on next door to it, and has the most military might to project there? It's easy to say that the United States should be more actively and directly involved, but there are those troublesome details of how to go about it so as to make a less bad outcome more likely there than now threatens.
Running a war through proxies was a mistake. But if Syria isn't the Emirates' war it isn't anybody's. In Afghanistan it was an American initiative to arm the mujahideen to roll back the Soviets and the initiative was then reshaped by the ISS who with the Saudiis went for their own dogs, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyr. But the Gulf states have even more reason to put a firewall against Iranian-Alawite-Hezbollah alliances that have already taken the fight to Bahrain. This is their initiative and they aren't our proxies. It makes no sense that we are supposed to be bigger players in their own neighborhood than they are. Even with a bigger footprint we still could end up as just one more militia running around. And if the claim is no no no, the Gulf states are, relatively speaking Sunni interlopers with different tats, colors, and accents from the locals, that still doesn't tell you what America, even multi-colored, rainbow, prophet-friendly America would be doing and with whom. Israel is next door but that won't happen because: a) Israel doesn't want to get involved (even though they are, unlike America, literally next door) and b) Israel isn't considered a part of the Middle East but a Jewboy state to be shunned when it comes time to make these calculations. Which leaves America running an all-in all-forces war of occupation (ha ha) or going back full circle to the same usual suspects.