I just returned from Syria, second on the list of the neocon’s “Usual Suspect Hit List,” after Iran. Syria has not yet been formally designated as a spoke on the Axis of Evil, but they often appear under the honorable mention category in our president’s speeches. I wanted to see for myself if Syria was the despotic state I had always envisioned.
I am not often surprised, but Syria surprised me. I, like most Americans, figured Syria for an oppressive, women-hating, torturing, human-rights violating, terrorism-sponsoring, corrupt state. Instead, I found a county that – while “not perfect,” as our guide from the ministry of information told us – is beginning a new era.
Here are a few little known facts about Syria: Christmas is a national holiday for the government and the 10 percent or 1.7 million Christian population. Women wear miniskirts and drive cars, the few who can afford them. You can get a government job without being a member of the Baath Party. Our Syrian – Sam, from the Ministry of Information, for example – supported his brother in law, a non-Baathist, in the last election. English is mandatory. Religious tolerance is mandatory. They hate Islamic fundamentalism. Syria makes our Saudi allies look like the Gulf Gulag by comparison.
Of course, there are some negatives – which I pointed out to the gracious Syrians. When I brought up the subject of torture, the editor in chief of the Baath Party newspaper said, yes, this is a problem, but it is not our biggest problem. Just like you have Guantanamo Bay and that is a problem for you, but it is not your biggest problem.
I asked about Syria’s long history of funding terrorism, to which they strongly disagreed and said that they were the first victims of terrorism in 1972 when Islamic fundamentalists blew up 300 people in downtown Damascus. I argued, “But what about the money and weapons you send to the suicide bombers in Israel?” A professor of politics at the University of Damascus answered with a question: “Were the Americans terrorists struggling against British occupation?” Every Syrian, to a person was unified on one topic: Israel is the enemy and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I gave every Syrian I met my standard litmus-test question: “Does Israel have a right to exist.” The answer was unanimous: “Israel does exist, we have to accept this, and they have to accept that Arabs exist” … an interesting concept.
The Syrians were not short of opinion on any topic, ranging from Monica Lewinsky – which one young female student from the University of Damascus said, “was arranged by AIPAC [the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee] because Clinton was close to brokering peace in the Middle East” – to Iraq, where the Syrians are convinced they can be of great help to the United States. They have a long file on the Baathists of the Saddam regime. As they say, “We understand the Iraqis.” But they desire to assist under the control of the United Nations.
I asked if they could be so helpful, why didn’t they police their borders better, to which they replied, “It is a large border … with all the military intelligence and capability of the United States, why should we guard the border for you? Turkey guards the border for Turkey, you should guard the border for you.”
I hate to admit this, but the neocons were sort of right about some things. Private ownership is contagious. Syria is privatizing everything from banking to education and, in the meantime, people are starting to feel like there is a “new day in Damascus.” Saddam Hussein is captured and the region is open for business. It takes money to do business, and it was clear to me after about two hours in Damascus that Syria has very little money. The country is, like Iraq, frozen in a 1970’s motif ranging from decor to infrastructure.
The Cold War was an interesting time. We armed Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the former Soviet Union armed Syria and Iraq. Unfortunately, they also gave them their bureaucratic, centralized ideology along with their bullets. When the Soviets went bankrupt, Syria went bankrupt. The only thing keeping them afloat was buying cheap oil from Saddam and selling their oil at top dollar. Now they are looking west for money and know-how.
The European Union is answering the call and passed a Syrian trade agreement last week. Meanwhile, back at W’s ranch, the U.S. Congress passed the Syrian Accountability Act. So let’s see, the neocons agree that liberal economies help to create liberal democracies, that free trade is good, but just imposed a trade embargo on Syria.
Some say Syrian reforms are just a communist plot and that only a few corrupt families control wealth. I asked the head of the Syrian Chamber of Commerce about this on the night Syria announced the E.U. deal. He said, “a tight economy leads to a concentration of wealth.” Sounds pretty close to how things are in the good ol’ USA.
What about our loyal chums in Great Britain? Surely, they see Syria for its true self. Baroness Simon, the British foreign minister for Middle Eastern Affairs was also in town. She was there to discuss, terrorism, the Middle East peace process and Iraq. She said that while Great Britain and Syria disagreed strongly prior to the war in Iraq, now that it’s done, they both agree that a stable and prosperous Iraq is the goal for both countries. I asked her to comment on the difference in the British position on Syria vs. the United States and she said, “We have the same objective, but different means of achieving it.” Yeah, we want to isolate them into fanaticism and the rest of the world wants to get them hooked on MTV.
Speaking of MTV, you won’t find the Golden Arches in Damascus, but you will find a satellite dish on every roof. So what’s the point of state-controlled media when most Syrians can watch 150 channels at night and surf the Internet? You can even check your e-mail in Syria. I spent an hour in a Syrian Internet cafe, sipped Coca Cola, surfed the Internet, and downloaded my SPAM while Whitney Houston played in the background. Yes, Yahoo was blocked, but the Fox News website was not. It cost me the equivalent of 50 cents an hour. The cafe opened one month ago.
Lets see, here’s a country that is slowly reforming, shuns religious fanaticism and thinks Osama bin Laden is “evil” … I wonder if a couple of those 87 billion we’re spending in Iraq might be better spent to help Syria accelerate into the 21st century in exchange for a little corporate knowledge in Iraq. It’s not exactly “free trade,” but our troops could sure use some help right now.
