Red Line Crossed : Syria

Finally the world powers decide that the Red line is crossed with the usage of chemical weapons.'

Curiously for me, if people die of bombs and rockets and bullets, it is a yellow line, but if they get killed of chemical weapons, it is red line. For the last 3 years, I have been advocating for an action against Syrian forces to stop the massacare, but it was still a yellow line.

Now, when things have become so bad with Jihadis and Al Qaida and hundred other groups fighting against the Syrian army, it hardly makes sense to move further into the conflict.

Mind, it is the same Intelligence services, who said, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and nothing was found. For this time sure the chemical weapons have been used. Of which there is no doubt. But let fair chance be given to the Syrian Govt to show that they were not the ones to use it.
If actually proven that the Syrian army used chemical weapons, they should be beaten to pulp. No mercy.

Further, the argument being used is that , the attack on Syria is not for regime change, but to stop chemical weapons being used. It should be both.

I was listening to the speech of Comrade Cameron and then a spokesman of US white house and then the  French minister, loudly talking about that UN conventions on chemical weapons and the world cannot accept this usage etc etc.

Will I ever forget in my lifetime the usage of Agent Orange, the chemical weapon by US army in Vietnam war , where 400,000 people were killed and till date people suffer. Does morally US have an argument against Syria on Chemical weapons.

Nevertheless, if it stands up today to correct the situation, I am quite in support of military intervention in Syria and I have been asking for it for years. Though, now I personally feel, it is time to move Assad out and allow the new leadership to take over. It can still be mix of the Syrian rebels and the current leadership. There is generally a fatigue with the war and both parties might accept the situation.

Let us wait and see, what further happens.

Egypt and Syria Revisited

Egypt
Islamist accept to negotiate with the military and request for stopping the crackdown. Media quietly ignores this after flashing out days of killings and protest. None of the global media tried to pose reasonable questions during the debates and interviews.  Result was 1000s of lives lost. It is no more die for Morsi,, but live for Morsi. If only this little thing could have been understood by the leadership of MB and his supporters.

If only media plays a somewhat constructive roll, then to flare up the subject, much can be saved in time. Anyway, now MB has written itself off for a very long time to come. Underground or overground, the love for MB will only dwindle as it did not show this political maturity of " Live for Morsi, against Die for Morsi".

MB should also ask itself this question, why despite its benign work for the last 70 years, the people don't trust them. Why there is so much resentment in Egypt against MB. How the world has changed the perception of religion to be a spiritual force and not a political force. Why religious agenda gets booted out in each country and secularism is accepted more sparingly without the need of commotions and purging.

In Egypt case, clearly the global media did not play a constructive roll and played a theoretical roll of supporting elected democracy, but failing to offer a viable solution in a situation of conflict. They charged up emotions and made the people believe that conflict with the army finally may pave results. What is the outcome now?

Syria

Again, the media is playing a roll same as in Egypt and creating a situation of further madness. It is already too late now for the Western powers to do anything in Syria. In some of my earlier blogs , I wrote about chicken hear-ted diplomacy in Syria and that resulted now in Syria going into the hands of Dogs. It is now no more Syria liberation from Assad, now the battle has been taken over by jihad-is and Al Qaeda .

Western powers will be very foolish to displace Assad now. It is very very late. Any removal of Assad makes the country slip into the hands of Al Qaeda.

Assad would have not been such a fool to invite the UN chemical weapons team and then bomb his own neighborhood with chemical weapons the next day. I would quite accept the Russian theory on this of attack by the rebels , specially at the time, when the UN inspectors were there.  This is certainly a war game being played out. Whatever, it is the price being paid by the innocent civilians and it is a shame to see so many die for nothing.

Assad came out to be a very shrewd politician. Iran, Russia and China supporting Syria makes it almost impossible for any western army to get into a war situation. The fact that Syrian army has resisted the conflict so long, it has reassured Assad that there is still time for him there.

Best is to have a political solution in engaging with Assad and persuading him to step down and give way to a new leadership. All it takes is removal of Assad and everything changes in Syria.

It is too late now to get into a war. More important is to avoid Syria going into the hands of Al Qaeda.

Meantime, the catastrophe of millions of refugees ,pouring into Turkey and Kurdistan continues.

Egypt on Fire

Police crackdown on the protesters and consequent of 1000s dead has left the world really remorse d. I wrote in my last blog that military should refrain from violent use of force and it made the same mistake.

They should have allowed the protesters to continue with their protest. There was very little global support for the protestors. The fact that the interim government had already laid out the time table for the next elections and installed a technocrat functional government, it was good enough for the time being. Now MB has come out of being a victimized lot and gets support from many more.

MB has shown that it does not have political maturity. Otherwise, no way, its leaders would have gone to confront the army and made claims of do or die for Morsi. The whole thing has become very messy now and MB has written itself off from the political scene of Egypt for a long time to come. The army will not allow the MB to come to power again for long time.

If MB was smart, they would have found a political way in the situation and secured their future. However its leadership threw its followers into such a bloody conflict and it still continues. The loss of dead people is the price which the individual families will pay for a long long time and MB leadership will get away with its biz as usual after some time.

Say, I was a voter in Egypt, how would I care, if Morsi is there or another president is there, even if I elected Morsi as my choice. Presidents come and go, what is the big deal. Assuming, I am a member of the party, which elected Morsi, I would still know that the party has a majority and would not shy away from elections. However, this is what is called dirty politics. Where you want to shed the blood of innocent comrades and then win sympathy of their blood and come to power again. Is this really worth ?

MB comrades have to find sense and stop this resistance and get a political solution. Any resistance will have blood shed, sometimes excessive, sometime restrained, but the outcome is still blood spilling. The leadership in MB has to address its people that enough of this has happened and they have the numbers to come to power again.

On UN security council, it should commission a team to talk to the protesters and bring semblance of order, then giving big peace and reconciliation speeches.
However, in the Egypt experience, one thing has emerged for the world that no more Democracy will be about simple winning elections. It will be about delivering results to the people. Though in this case , it is a coup, but I will be happy, if there is a system which pulls the government down with people dissonance, other then army power.