Thanks to modern technology, resistance members in Syria last week had a secure conversation with some foreign-policy mavens in Washington. What they told us boils down to this: A revolution is under way. On one side is the dictator Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran’s rulers, Hezbollah and Russia. On the other are ordinary Syrians facing bombs and bullets with the kind of courage exhibited in Tiananmen Square. Meanwhile, those who should be their allies dither.
“Why is Syria not as important as Egypt and Libya?” asked “Muhammad,” a resistance leader on the call connecting the Foundation for Defense of Democracies with an undisclosed location outside Damascus. “We are facing a killing machine.”
The regime is estimated to have slaughtered more than 7,000 Syrian men, women and children to date. “We are not asking for any boots on the ground,” he added. What do they want instead? Supplies, equipment, secure communications technology — and, yes, the means to defend themselves, their families and their communities.
Recent Mideast upheavals, mislabeled “the Arab Spring,” have so far brought change only to countries in which those in power had been cooperating with America. By contrast, the 2009 uprising against Iran’s anti-American theocrats was brutally suppressed while Western leaders said barely a word. If Assad remains in power, the lesson will be: It’s less dangerous to be America’s enemy than to be America’s friend.
Muhammad called the diplomatic dialogue over Syria that has been taking place at the UN a “farce.” Another resistance leader said that the Arab League also has proved useless and, besides, cannot be trusted. As for Turkey, Muhammad said it is “only capable of words, it seems.”
America is seen as their last, best hope because, Muhammad said, Americans are “the only ones who protect democracy and human rights in the world.”
These besieged revolutionaries may not appreciate how disillusioned many Americans have become. American power has been deployed to defend Kuwaitis, Bosnians, Kosovars and, yes, Iraqis and Afghans. We did not necessarily expect deep affection in return, but we were hoping for better than the animus that is directed toward us by so many in the Islamic world.
All of which misses this point: Americans should assist the revolutionaries in Syria based on strategic self-interest as much as altruism. Assad is our enemy. He facilitated the killing of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, and arranged the assassinations of pro-Western Lebanese leaders who dared defy Syrian domination.
He’s the handmaiden of Iran, the most significant national-security threat facing us today. Perhaps soon to be armed with nuclear weapons, Iran’s rulers intend to lead what they see not as an Arab Spring but as a global jihad against the West. But because they’re Persian and Shia, they need a bridge into the Arab and Sunni worlds. Assad has been providing that bridge.
Assad’s downfall would represent a major strategic defeat for Tehran. It also would fan the suppressed flames of revolution in Iran where, thanks to increasingly tough sanctions, the economy is in steep decline.
Iran’s rulers get it. The head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, is reportedly in Syria with hundreds of Iranian storm troopers, training Assad’s forces.
The day after our Internet conversation, at least 137 civilians, including 11 children, were killed by government forces. Hadi al-Abdullah of the Syrian General Revolutionary Council, based in Homs, told a reporter for Al Arabiya that missiles were being launched from a nearby military college and that helicopters were “targeting all those who are trying to help the wounded.” He asked: “Is this not a massacre?”
Of course, it was. But the international community is selective about which massacres require action and which may be regretted and dismissed. Our friends in Syria are right: If Americans won’t provide leadership, no one will.
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.