The editor of a Kuwaiti daily claims the regime of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad is more criminal than that of Saddam Hussein’s and predicts the Baathist regime in Syria may suffer the same fate as that in Iraq.
Over the past week, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, editor of Al-Siyasa, wrote a series of articles critical of the Syrian regime, according to translations provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
In one article titled “Damascus On the Path to Baghdad’s Abyss,” Al-Jarallah warned Syria to learn “the lesson of Iraq.”
“The coalition forces that liberated Kuwait in 1991 erred when they refrained from completing the mission and liberating the Iraqi people by continuing the advance to Baghdad,” wrote Al-Jarallah. “In 2003, the forces did not repeat the mistake – yet some will tell them: ‘You liberated the Iraqi people; why didn’t you complete the mission and liberate the Syrian people?!’ This possibility definitely exists at this time, and we hope that … young Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad is aware of this dangerous situation and is capable of stopping it and of neutralizing the dangers without shame over the insult to national, pan-Arab, and party purity.”
WorldNetDaily has reported the U.S. put Demascus in the diplomatic crosshairs last week over reports that top cronies and relatives of Saddam Hussein – not to mention Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – have found their way into Syria and that Syria provided Iraq with illegal weapons it used against coalition troops.
“We think it would be very unwise if suddenly Syria becomes a haven for all these people who should be brought to justice who are trying to get out of Baghdad,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell. “Syria has been a concern for a long period of time. We have designated Syria for years as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
Syria’s deputy ambassador to the U.S. Imad Moustaphi denied the claims, calling them “a campaign of disinformation” to distract attention from civil disorder in Iraq.
Al-Jarallah calls the Syrian denial worrisome and pans the threat by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shar that Israel will “pay the price if what happened to Iraq happens to his country.”
“There is no need for Al-Shar to resort to Saddam’s mistaken rhetoric. Syria does not need its leadership. … It must not threaten to use means it does not possess. Syria must not close its eyes to the international situation, because closing its eyes will not help it, and will not prevent [American] action in Syria if [such action] is decided upon,” Al-Jarallah wrote according to a MEMRI translation.
Other reports in the Arab press suggest the Baathist regime in Damascus is weakening as a result of the spectacular and humiliating defeat of Saddam and that a purge of the old guard leadership may be orchestrated by Assad himself.
Al-Jarallah urged such internal regime change in his article, warning Syria to “adapt to the international facts and to free itself from the enslavement of Baath opinions, slogans, and ideological sources.”
In “More Criminal than Saddam Hussein,” Al-Jarallah wrote the regimes of Saddam and Assad are “two faces of the same coin.”
“This regime established a party that claimed, in its sources and its principles, to be the party that defends freedom, human rights, national dreams and pan-Arab hopes – the party that stands for social justice, distributes resources, cares for the citizen and advocates other utopian and romantic ideas,” wrote Al-Jarallah. “Yet after the party seized control and established the regime, it quickly cut itself off from its principles. It led factionalist movements while calling for unity. It ripped the social fabric, while calling for national unity. It took over the resources of the people, while calling for distribution of resources.”
Al-Jarallah compared the morality and behavior of the Baathist regime members of both countries and found them to “differ not a whit.”
“The men of the regime and their cronies spread corruption and humiliate and torture the people. We see them in the gambling clubs squandering millions. One spent $8 million at the green tables,” he asserts. “The aid money that came to the regime to build the army went not to the army, the regiments, or the brigades, but into the pockets of the president’s brothers, sons, and family members.”
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