Syrian gore or US awe: looking for the moral high ground

Mike Carey

On the ABC's AM program, US president Barack Obama was quoted as describing the killings in Homs as outrageous.

Outrageous in what sense? That they were not as numerous as the civilians killed in the American assault on the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004? Barely noteworthy when compared to Israel's 2008 bravura performance in Gaza when Operation Cast Lead saw so much lead cast that about 1,000 civilians, including lots of kiddies , out of a 1,400 total were dispatched without much complaint from the White House. Not a first division death toll at all when measured against the lethal effect of western sanctions against Iraq after operation Desert Storm in 1991.

When asked on US television, if she thought that the death of about half a million Iraqi children, due to sanctions, was a price worth paying, then-US secretary of state, Madeline Albright replied:

"This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it."

Now, that's a beautiful set of numbers!

It's almost up there with George Bush's 2003 shock and awe extravaganza. The US news-sharing website, Information Clearing House has been keeping a tally and as of St Valentine's Day 1,455,590 have, in its words, been "slaughtered in the US war and occupation of Iraq". Even if it's half wrong the blood harvest is immense. That too, completely ignores the supreme crime committed by the 'Coalition of the Willing'. What did the post-WWII, International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg say about waging an aggressive war "essentially an evil thing... to initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

I fully understand that many wrongs don't make a right but western hypocrisy leaves me numb. How can the United States, Great Britain or Australia lecture Syria and expect to be taken seriously?

Mind you, Western motives might be totally cynical and pernicious. According to Debkafile, an Israeli website with close links to intelligence sources, British and Qatari troops are already directing rebel ammunition supply, communications and tactics in the battle for Homs and that concern topped the agenda in talks between president Assad's officials and the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Mikhail Fradkov.

If that is true then it is following a well-beaten path established in oil rich Libya. It's now clear that foreign Special Forces led the rebels on the ground there, covert arms supplies were parachuted in by France and Saudi Arabia and Qatar, provided fighters, funds and diplomatic cover.

But Syria doesn't have oil.

The Syrian crisis provides an excellent opportunity to fracture the so-called Shia crescent which runs from Iran, through newly rebadged Shia Iraq, to Alawite Damascus and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Gulf States and Saudi Arabia would much prefer to see the Sunni majority wrench the reins of power from the Alawite Assads who are regarded as Muslim heretics . For the US, it's a proxy war against Tehran. For president Barak Obama some Syrian blood can be spilt, mollify the Zionist lobby in an election year and all without having to fire a shot.

Al Qaeda boss, Ayman al-Zawahiri issued his call to arms on Sunday after two bombs exploded, killing Syrian security forces and civilians in Aleppo. Already an Iraqi security force report has warned of a flood of fighters and arms flowing out of Iraq into Syria, a move the Arab League has set to formalise. The old firm, the US and its extremist Mujahideen is back in business, only this time its Syria not Afghanistan.

As we've seen from the figures above, the fear of civilian deaths is no real disincentive to western intervention. Even though Syrian Christians, who pray in the language of Jesus Christ, Aramaic, have already become extremist targets don't expect any American sympathy. Assyrian Christians and Mandaeans (who venerate John the Baptist) were left to hang out to dry, literally, in neighbouring Iraq after 2003 and Palestine's ancient followers of Christ may as well not exist in God fearing America which prefers to side with fundamentalist Jews in Israel and wait for the Rapture.

Perhaps we could appeal to an American love of real estate. I realise Syria only has Hadrian's Gate, not a whole wall, but I would hate to think that any number of Roman ruins were well, further ruined in a sectarian war. The magnificent Omayyad Mosque which was a Byzantine Cathedral and has a shrine, which may contain relics of John the Baptist, surely must be left untouched and, one would presume, Saladin's tomb, on its northern wall, would remain sacrosanct.

But then, the 'Coalition of the Willing' did such an expert job in protecting priceless Sumerian collections in occupied Iraq, not! The looters ran riot as US troops watched on. Sunni fundamentalists, not unlike those heading to Syria now, obliterated the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

The simple solution is to construct a faux Damascus, complete with exotic souk, next to the mock Jerusalem, which already exists somewhere in Florida. Just down the road could be a Disney version of The Hague, replete with lawyers, dispensing victors' justice at a sham International Criminal Court. As the brutal treatment of Moamar Gaddafi in Libya demonstrated, they will need actors to play the Assads because they're unlikely to survive a rebel win. The ICC is regarded by many as a sham court because the United States does not recognise its jurisdiction despite initially signing the Rome Statute governing its formation.

This is not to downplay the urgency of finding a way to stop president Bashar al Assad from murdering his own people but there is no high moral ground.

Mike Carey is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and producer who was executive producer of SBS Dateline. He has worked for the ABC, SBS and Al Jazeera living in South-East Asia and Brazil.