August 31, 2013

Just between us, we Syrians for the Revolution ...

Without rehashing the problems we’ve all discussed amongst ourselves for the better part of two years on our role in supporting the revolution, we should now pause to consider why even a huge chemical massacre, which killed some 1500 in minutes, resulted in the usual general apathy and even aggressiveness from the chattering classes.

There was nearly nothing the political opposition could have done to alter the course of events in Syria, or to influence the stunning developments in countries which have a stake in it. Without powers to support the revolution in real terms - politically, financially, militarily, or humanistically -, coming out of the nightmare imposed by the Assad regime seems impossible.

The Coalition and other opposition cannot really be blamed for having sought the support of governments with blatant double standards and less than clean agendas. When struggling to be free from the devil incarnate, one does not have the luxury of selectivity and must accept the promise of helping hands. After all, those who can deliver Syrians from Assad are those who sit on the Security Council; two of them openly arm, finance, support and protect Assad, the other three potentially offer some hope - at least in pressuring the first two to abandon the regime responsible for such massive crimes against an entire country, and to get the rest of us to a big meeting room to save what Assad hasn’t yet destroyed.

However, the Syrian National Coalition, and the Council before it, and every opposition entity (especially those known as "patriotic opposition") have failed miserably in their duty to inform the world about the nature of the revolution, and the actions of the Assad regime. Opposition figures spent 30 months debating each other (to put it mildly) mostly in Arabic, rather than engaging the world in other languages. There has been no coherent, professional, systematic, effective communication campaign, despite the mountains of evidence of the regime's crimes against humanity, provided by people in Syria who risked their lives to document, film and send them to the world via the Internet.

The opposition must bear the blame for having failed to counter the offensive misrepresentations of the revolution in mainstream media, the ruthless propaganda of the regime, and the misleading narratives of the anti-imperialist brigade soldiers who compensate for limited knowledge about Syria with sensationalist conspiracies and doomsday scenarios worthy of menhebakjis, should anyone dream of stopping Assad's barbarity.

The opposition has failed in proving to the world that this is a revolution which continues to be a revolution, alongside the armed resistance which started after months of peaceful protests and disobedience, and alongside the now blatantly public interference of foreign armed militias supporting the regime, and foreign armed militias opposing both the regime and the resistance. This is certainly not a "sectarian civil war" and it does not have an equal "both sides of the conflict" and it was certainly not "hijacked by Al Qaeda."

The opposition has not carried the Syrian predicament beyond the confines of Arabic-language media, and has made no sustained effort to fight those who discredit the revolution. And now, the opposition has shined by its absence in the aftermath of the barbaric Ghouta massacre.

Clearly, the opposition can and must continue with political diplomacy, with fundraising, with organizing humanitarian aid, with supporting the Free Syrian Army in any way possible; these all remain urgent priorities. But it should now leave the communication to others. Nobody should be speaking in the name of independent Syrians for the revolution, when so many are already speaking for themselves. Independent Syrians for the revolution, your page is coming up.

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