Massacres: What exactly does Assad want in Syria?

- DR. ABDUL RUFF

[Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal, Specialist on State Terrorism ;Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Commentator  on world affairs, Analyst on Middle East, Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.) Former university Teacher; website: http://abdulruff.wordpress.com/mail: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com]

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When a leader allows mass massacres in order to stay in power, which is not just mischievous insanity but also anti-Islam, anti-humanity. But that is exactly happening in Syria ruled by al-Assad who afraid of facing polls. Assad’s survival tactics have polarized Syria along nonsensical divide lines, between the supporters of a Sunni insurgency and those Sunnis and various minority groups that conceive of as a heretical government in Damascus. Mounting tensions have led to armed clashes between different armed groups along a sectarian divide..

UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has finally admitted that a sectarian civil war is raging in Syria. The report notes with sectarian divisions affecting Sunnis, Alawites, Armenians, Christians, Druze, Palestinians, Kurds and Turkmen, “Entire communities are at risk of being forced out of the country or of being killed”. The regime itself is perpetrating sectarian atrocities alongside its supporters in various unofficial Shabiha militias.

Once again divisions have taken a sectarian dimension—a pattern that can repeat itself throughout the Middle East.

While the US military build-up takes place in Jordan and on the Turkish border, propaganda efforts will continue to portray the insurgency as a democratic movement pitched against a regime. The US, Germany and the Netherlands have dispatched Patriot anti-missile systems and hundreds of troops to Turkey’s border and are clearly seeking a pretext to use them. Already on December 12, the US alleged that the Syrian military had fired six Scud missiles at the Sheikh Suleiman base north of Aleppo, which had been occupied by the FSA.

Arming of the opposition by Washington and its allies continues, in anticipation that Assad’s downfall will weaken Iran and further consolidate US hegemony over the oil riches of the region. On December 17, it was reported that US cargo airplanes carrying military equipment have landed in Jordanian airports over several days and that US military forces in the country have been significantly built up. The argument has already repeatedly been made by the advocates of war that only decisive intervention now can ensure that Assad’s downfall will see his regime replaced by a “democracy” and prevent the danger that “chemical weapons” will fall into the hands of so-called “jihadist groups”.

The casualties have been on the rise as more and more Muslims a re killed in the clashes. Cross border incursions take place almost daily and have led to dozens of casualties, while clashes between pro and anti-Assad forces have seen hundreds killed in border areas.