Brutality in Syria
by David Atkins
This is horrifying:
Ammar Cheikh Omar recalled the first time he was ordered to shoot into a crowd of protesters in Syria. He aimed his AK-47 just above their heads, prayed to God not to make him a killer and pulled the trigger.
Mr. Omar, 29, the soft-spoken and wiry son of Syrian parents who emigrated to Germany in the 1950s, grew up in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, a prosperous village of half-timbered 16th-century houses, where he listened to Mariah Carey and daydreamed about one day returning to Syria.
Today, he is still trying to make sense of his unlikely transformation from a dutiful German student to a killer for the brutal Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and, ultimately, a defector. “I was proud to be Syrian, but instead became a soldier for a regime that was intent on killing its own people,” Mr. Omar said on a recent day, chain-smoking at a cafe in this Turkish border town. “I thank God every day that I am still alive.”
Human rights groups and Syrian activists said he was one of thousands of Syrians who had inadvertently found themselves deployed as foot soldiers for a government that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since the crackdown on demonstrators began in March.
What to do about situations like this is going to need to be an ongoing discussion, not just in America but around the world. The tradition of pacifism and anti-imperialism on the Left would indicate that Syrian problems are Syrian, and that nothing should be done beyond sending sternly worded letters and maybe a few targeted sanctions. The tradition of intervention on behalf of the weak and defenseless on the Left would indicate that the world has a moral obligation something to step in.
But what would stepping in look like? Would it do more harm than good? What would be the blowback? It's hard to say here that Assad is a dictator backed by the West, as has so often been the case elsewhere. In this case, it's the Russians who have strategic resource interests in Syria and have been trying to keep Assad in power. But obviously, having America act as the world's policeman hasn't worked out so well for the last 50 years or so.
These are not easy questions; no one should pretend that they are, or that anyone has all the answers. But it's hard to obsess over minor issues in the tax code or reproductive access domestically, while shrugging in helpless resignation over what's happening in Syria right now.
The world has increasingly global problems, and we should be seeking global solutions so that one day the Assads of the world can never be in a position to do this again.
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