Syria’s Shame
26 April 2011
The Syrian government’s violent and bloody crack-down on its own citizens protesting for change demonstrates how unable this incompetent regime is to govern its own people. This is Syria’s shame and it is an acute embarrassment to many of its population.
It is manifest that some Arab regimes have squandered many decades of opportunity to learn how to run a modern country. The time of reckoning has arrived and it seems that they learned nothing from affairs in the modern world. Their playboy lifestyles has taught them nothing of the principles of proper rule. After a tentative attempt to end fifty years of ‘emergency rule’ the only way the Syrian regime can respond to public protests is to crack down once more. This demonstrates how thankful we should be that the Egyptian army had the sense to know how to handle the unrest in their country, but Syria has followed Gadaffi’s lead because it simply does not have ‘the common touch’ - nor even common sense. It is shameful that a long-standing regime has learned nothing about how to use power and authority for the good of its people, and it demonstrates the native wickedness in the human heart.
Nelson Mandela renounced violence and embraced peace; Robert Mugabe had an opportunity to follow suit and failed miserably. Egypt, Libya and now Syria show us that peace is not inevitable and it needs men of vision to broker it. “Blessed are the peacemakers” said the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:9). The IRA took a long time to learn the route of peace, prompted by events when it became apparent that America’s ‘war against terror’ might include itself. Ulster is more stable as a result, although there is an uneasy tension as ‘the real IRA’ demonstrate that men of violence have a blind zeal which is very difficult to convince otherwise.
Meanwhile, the nakedness of David Cameron’s response in Libya is now exposed in Syria, as it becomes apparent that Britain and NATO cannot afford another military response, far less afford the Libyan response. The Iraq war is supposed to have taught us to have a follow-through plan, but it is manifest that the only follow-through plan in Libya is this creeping agenda of regime change promoted by David Cameron. A lot of goodwill is being squandered by this creeping agenda. If NATO had confined itself to a defensive effort to defend Libyans, then even ‘boots on the ground’ would have been accepted by the liberated. The moral victory, accompanied by modern internet communications, would have destroyed Gadaffi’s credibility. Instead the creeping agenda of regime change has the smell about it of wanting the job over and done quickly to limit financial and political cost, but it has galvanised resistance among Gadaffi’s supporters - and there is no guarantee that a victory will come quickly. Syria has seen this and has decided to follow the Gadaffi model of stiff resistance. David Cameron and his allies thought that Egypt would simply be a model to other countries: if they had a grasp of human nature and human history they might have read the situation differently.
Instead of wasting western armaments trying to show who is boss, western leaders need to shame these useless leaders into an acknowledgement that they do not know how to run a country. These governments have taken western technology, western money, western weapons, and sent their children to attend western universities - but to no effect in the one thing that matters - they have failed to learn. They may have bought their degrees from western universities but they have not learned how to use their God-given authority to the common good and benefit of their people. God will call them to account for this abuse of authority, but meanwhile multitudes suffer.
The financially bankrupt West is speaking of sanctions as it cannot afford any more military solutions. The morally bankrupt West finds its armoury is getting bare. However, it does not cost the exchequer very much to name and shame these useless leaders as failed leaders. It is manifest that these regimes have failed to learn one iota of the first principles of governing a people. They don’t know how to govern; they know only how to maintain themselves in power - and even this knowledge is being tested to its limits by courageous protestors.
We need better leaders all round the world - in the west, east and middle east. It is time for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be heard once more in the corridors of power.
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8 Aug 2011 Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Syria
23 Feb 2012 On Question Time, Simon Scharma was so indignant at the failure of Russia, China and India to support the Arab League solution for a UN Security Council Resolution against Syria’s genocide that he wanted them named and shamed and to make “a big moral noise”. 10 months on since this news item, the international community has failed to act. Dithering at Syria’s perceived strength and our precarious financial situation is no argument against the use of the moral argument, not only with Syrian rulers (they do not merit the term ‘leader’) but with other world leaders who shrug their craven shoulders and ask: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Gen 4:9. The poverty of this spirit manifests the need for Christian principles among these leaders. This craven spirit has only encouraged the Syrian regime. President Assad’s father was responsible for the death of 20,000 people in past crack-downs, and Assad is now deliberately targetting civilians and even journalists reporting on their activities. It is time to act - rather, it is ten months overdue.
