Syria 2012: Our Own National Disgrace

Syria 2012: Our Own National Disgrace

            While many of us don’t know about the 500,000 women and children (and over 1 million people) killed by the U.S. Military in Iraq, far less of us know about the United States very recent involvement with the conflict in Syria.

            As the Syrian government, under Bashar Hafez al-Assad, continues to slaughter hundreds of defenseless civilians every day, hundreds of thousands of people are now displaced within Syria. The humanitarian situation may not be as rapidly deteriorating it once was, but the group United to End Genocide has boldly made it their mission to go after the source that can be targeted most successfully: the United States. The fact is that the United States is doing business with the same company supplying weapons to this brutal regime responsible for the deaths of up to 12,000 Syrians. As the United to End Genocide emails read, "While the United States calls on the world to sanction Syria's government, our own Department of Defense is signing contracts with a company that has provided $4 billion dollars' worth of weapons to the Syrian regime. This is unconscionable. " They continue, "Condemning Syria's regime is not enough. We must also condemn those who are engaging in business with the regime — and especially those that provide the means to enable the continued slaughter."

The United States- guilty of blatant acts of terror throughout it’s past and present from Iraq to Vietnam, from Central America to Syria, should be held accountable. We don’t need radical and baseless conspiracy theories to prove that the U.S acts as a force of terrorism. It’s really quite undeniable.

While there is no international criminal law definition, the most widely accepted and easily understood definition of terrorism, used by the U.S government, the UN and The New York Times, comes form the Parliament of Australia. According to the Parliament, terrorism is the systematic use of terror through violet acts which are intended to create fear and are "perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal." As philosopher Noam Chomsky points out, the United States defines the textbook definition of a terrorist state- constantly using terrorism by the means of achieving a political goal. Whether the political goal in Iraq was overthrowing Saddam or obtaining oil, killing over a million innocent people, with no official declaration of war or approval from the United Nations, was a way of achieving this goal. It’s just as “textbook” in Syria, as the United States is helping to perpetuate violent acts carried out by Assad’s regime to incite fear.  Quite simply, by cutting deals with an arms supplier that kills civilians, the United States is achieving a political goal by the means of violent acts.

While the U.S is very publicly supplying humanitarian aide to Syria’s rebel groups victimized by Assad’s reign of terror, they are just as publicly refusing to supply weapons to these desperate rebel groups in fear that the weapons could end up in the hands of al Queda. Publicly, America provides minimal assistance to the good guys in Syria, but connects them to Al Queda so there will be no qualms about not helping enough. And of course privately, we have not hesitated to get in bed with the Syrian government- supplying their arms dealers with loads of cash- an act of far greater assistance considering the lopsided military conflict in Syria could easily be looked at by historians years from now as the government’s genocide of dissenters. Moreover, as the U.S remains the leading weapons supplier to Saudi Arabia, there is no way around the possibility that weapons we give to Saudi Arabia could end up in the hands of Syria.

So, what can be done? Well, United to End Genocide thinks the pressure should be put on the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta. He has the power to suspend all contracts with the Russian state-owned arms dealer that supplies the Assad regime with weapons it has been using to viciously kill it's own people.

United to End Genocide is not alone. Allied organizations from around the world have launched identical campaigns demanding that Secretary Panetta use his unique power to immediately cut ties with the Russian firm. According to now confirmed research done by the organization Human Rights First, the firm, known as Rosoboronexport, signed a $375 million contract with the Pentagon earlier this year. According to the research, this U.S. contract comes with “an option for $550 million in additional purchases, raising the total value of the contract to nearly $1 billion.” Isn’t it nice to know that pubic money is being used to cut deals with weapons firms that supply brutal regimes with the tools to kill innocent people.

As many Catalyst writers have written about in detail, America lost 3,000 people on September 11^th as a result of terrorism. Over 422,000 New Yorkers were diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the attacks. Yet, pretending to have learned a valuable lesson about the ugly impacts of terrorism, the U.S government, under Bush and then Obama have engaged in terrorism that has had the same effects on people (loss of life, PTSD and all) as the 9/11 attacks and it’s time we start providing detail to these stories too. Millions of people in Iraq and a growing toll in the tens of thousands in Syria (not to mention other countries and conflicts) have fallen victim to terrorism made possible by the United States. As a wealthy, charitable and at least somewhat democratic society, should we really be engaging in such blatant terrorist activity? Surely the media has failed to alert the American public of this crisis. Organizations like United to End Genocide can only do so much to raise awareness and put pressure on the government to do the right thing.

But just like Osama Bin Laden was brought to justice, we need to see American war criminals brought to justice too. Instead of pressuring Russia to end its support for terrorist crimes against humanity in Syria, the America is expected to hand over a billion dollars to very same arms dealers that are enabling the atrocities. This is criminal, and if we wish to be a nation that seeks justice over acts of terrorism, we must prosecute to the fullest extent, all those involved in this business. Until then, lets put enough pressure on Leon Panetta and hope this crisis can finally end.