Washington: At the same time murderers were attacking Paris, the West’s top diplomats were traveling to Vienna with the goal of replacing a mass murderer, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. The world’s attention is now on Daesh, taking the pressure off the Syrian regime right at the moment when pressure might have been effective.
The Syrian regime has avoided large-scale fights with Daesh.
Al Assad wants Daesh to remain an imminent threat, so the international community will see two options: keep Al Assad or let terrorists take over Syria. Al Assad created the chaos that allowed Daesh to rise. His regime now has a strategy that bolsters Daesh’s hold on northern Syria: The US-backed Syrian rebels who are supposed to be fighting Daesh are being slaughtered by the Syrian Army and by Al Assad’s Iranian and Russian allies. Al Assad’s brutal campaign against Sunni communities drives thousands of young Syrians to join the terrrorists.
And now that Daesh has pulled off a series of devastating attacks in Paris, Western governments are promising a “ruthless,” “merciless,” “pitiless” war against the group. But none are mentioning Al Assad.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday what most Syrian opposition figures say repeatedly to anyone who will listen: Al Assad is the magnet for the terrorists, and Syria will never be free from terror until Al Assad is out of power. Kerry wants him to step down.
“I hope it will happen. I pray it will happen. Because if it doesn’t happen, this war won’t end. This war can’t end as long as Bashar Al Assad is there,” Kerry said in Vienna when announcing small progress in the multinational talks to start a Syrian peace process.
Kerry pointed out that over 300,000 have died in Syria, the vast majority at the hands of the Al Assad regime. He mentioned the barrel bombs, the torture of civilians in custody, the use of chemical weapons, all by Al Assad’s forces. Only if Al Assad steps aside can the world join together to fight against Daesh, he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was sitting next to Kerry and was quick to disagree. Following the Russian government line, Lavrov pointed out that the US led the drives to topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, leading to growing terrorism in both countries. He then argued that the Paris attacks point to a need to keep Al Assad in power.
“The Paris attacks have shown, alongside with Daesh claiming responsibility for it, that it doesn’t matter if you are for Al Assad or against him; Daesh is your enemy. So it’s not about Al Assad,” Lavrov said.
Al Assad himself tried to spin the Paris attacks into a justification for the international community to support his government. France has long been a supporter of the Syrian opposition, a policy Al Assad says has encouraged terrorism.
“The question that is being asked throughout France today is, was France’s policy over the past five years the right one? The answer is no,” Al Assad said Saturday.
Looking at the reactions of top US officials and candidates in both parties Saturday, it appears that Lavrov’s preference, to focus on Daesh and not Al Assad, is winning out. The New York Times reported the Paris attacks may lead to a more aggressive US war against the group. Commentators predict the American public will now wholeheartedly support that action. Some are calling for the US to “roll on Raqqa,” the caliphate’s capital.
“The question of whether President Al Assad needs to go or whether he is part of the solution here, we need to look at again,” former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell said on “Face The Nation” Sunday morning, arguing for cooperating with the Syrian Army against Daesh.
“Clearly he’s part of the problem, but he may also be part of the solution.”
Former White House official Dennis Ross tweeted a response: “Bashar Al Assad is not the answer to defeating Daesh; he helped produce them, buys their oil, is the cause that draws foreign fighters to them.”
At Saturday night’s Democratic debate, each candidate promised to fight Daesh but none mentioned Al Assad. Even Republican candidates who have been staunch advocates of arming the rebels fighting Al Assad, such as Senator Marco Rubio, focused their reactions to the Paris attacks on Daesh instead.
“The attacks in Paris are a wake-up call. A wake-up call to the fact that what we’re involved in now is a civilisational conflict with radical Islam,” Rubio said in a statement.
Some experts warn that even if you completely destroy Daesh in Syria and Iraq, if Al Assad is allowed to continue his campaign of terror, another ruthless organisation will just appear and take its place. That’s why Kerry’s drive to replace Al Assad, despite a low chance of success, is crucial.
“Making sure Al Assad is not the answer is key to a viable settlement,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “At the end of this process, it has to be a viable agreement that puts a country back together or we are going to have terror attacks in the US”
World powers can avenge this week’s tragedy by killing members of Daesh. But if the goal is to destroy Daesh for good – as President Barack Obama says - then the campaign must be matched by a renewed push to oust Al Assad. There is a lot of temptation, in the wake of the horror in Paris, to treat only the symptoms of instability in Syria. But the Al Assad regime is the disease, and the symptoms will not go away until Al Assad is gone.
