Syria’s Jungle

The level of violence in Syria, on both sides, has reached cataclysmic proportions. Those against the Assad regime (Like myself) blame Assad for turning the war sectarian and those who support Assad blame the response of the Jihadists on the nature of Islamism and our normal expectations for its violence.

Whether you blame one or the other or blame both equally, the violence has reached such catastrophic levels that it is bound to blow up the assumptions we based our calculations upon. It may also plunge us into further confusion over how to resolve the root problems of the region.

Just last month, a video surfaced of a 14-year old rebel taking part in the beheading of two pro-Assad fighters. Prior to this and other videos, many showed pro-Assad forces beheading rebels (One actually showed a Jihadist carving the heart of a fallen Syrian soldier).

Just consider how old Ahmed Jibril of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is (circa 1938) to grasp what this 14-year old is capable of inflicting unto the region in 2070 or even 2080. Are our children inheriting worse conditions than the ones we experienced?

The part we need to be concerned about is the reason why both sides are posting such atrocities online for the world to witness. Usually, mass murderers hide their crimes, but in Syria, it seems both sides wear their beastly actions as Medals of Honor. The little concern the Assad regime and the Jihadists have for accountability should be of concern to all of us, especially to those countries where the rule of law reigns supreme.

It looks like both sides are secure in the knowledge no one will hold them accountable.

The jungle now called Syria, many seem to favor an approach of non-intervention to keep a lid on the violence, will come back to haunt us again when either the savagery of Assad remains in power or a new radical power to control our future as a result of the apathy demonstrated by the Obama Administration towards the radicalization of Syrians.

No one is suggesting a process to calculate the future value of today’s damage and its cost on the Levant. Obama’s White House lawyers seem only to be concerned with mincing words to fit the personality of their Commander-in-Chief.

No one, because of a certain religious historical perspective or plain modern anger, seems to be analyzing the effects this savagery will have on the future generations of Muslims and Islam or the minorities already dehumanized by the Assad regime to defend it.

It does not mean that by extricating ourselves morally from this theater of fireworks, the shrapnel, today still suspended in mid-air, will not land on our homes in the future.

Every time we believe Syria cannot get any worse, events on the ground suggest otherwise. What is in store tomorrow is anyone’s guess but I can almost guarantee it will not be better than today if we do not intervene to remove Assad from power and fragment the Islamists into harmless little pieces.

We must never forget to ask ourselves this question: What if the Muslims are upon a 30-year war that may not produce the same results as those produced in Europe in the mid-17^th Century.

My bet is that it will get worse.