Values and Interests: A comparison between global concepts on the Syrian war

It is a difficult task for politicians to keep the rules of both political practices and the behavior reserved for human values at the same time. The citizens, who expect successful outcomes to keep national interests, and show a human attitude on the issues of global conflicts, will watch them carefully. All politicians assert that they are working for human values and human rights, and all of them want to help liberate oppressed people from terrorism and dictators. But although there is a theoretical consensus on all these good principles, we still see the flames of war, often under the name of revolutions, all over the world where there is support for one party or another.

I have personally lived in Syria during this war, and of course earlier, because Syria is my country. I know a lot about the facts in Syria, and my knowledge is perhaps broader and deeper than many. I know the people of this beautiful land from all regions, along with all their beliefs and races. There have been some objective conditions (negative) that have been invested in by some people and are considered to be the reason for the war, in addition to other more important reasons, some of which have been confirmed by President Bashar al-Assad himself.

Whatever the case, war broke out and destroyed the country, burned our fields, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and caused the displacement of millions of Syrians. Syria now, which was one of the safest countries in the world, is a central point for terrorism, and its people live in a sorry state of poverty; there is a lack of the beneficiaries of this war.

We want to ask whether this war would have reached this level without those outside interests that have never related to the interests of the Syrian people? Whether it would have continued for five years without the relations between regional and global forces that support some terrorist groups in Syria?

We are not in a position to analyze the interests and foreign goals of the different parties that have become predominantly known to many of the observers. But we want to speak about the concepts and behaviors of all these parties that are involved in the Syrian war.

We have to talk about the concepts of two parties: the Americans and their allies from the Western and regional countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, as a party that supports the Syrian opposition. On the other side are Russia, China, Iran, and Hezbollah, which are supporting the legitimate government.

When we want to talk about concepts, we have to clarify what we mean when we use the term "concept". Here we mean the collective vision of the communities on various issues. These concepts are formed through the historical development of communities; of course the media, belief systems, and institutions can affect these concepts. The values of the French Revolution, for example, were formed after the French Revolution, and the Second World War led to the creation of the United Nations and the UN Security Council, and created the necessary international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights legislative environment.

The political behavior of the parties of the United States and its allies is the behavior of a two-way contradiction. One behavior talks in public about peace, and another behavior secretly orchestrates war and supports it by all means. It is no longer a secret that the United States has strayed too far from the values of the American Revolution, which established a prevalent and elaborate concept for the American people. Now they are moving away from their democratic values, which we can see from observing their behavior while attempting to solve the Syrian Crisis. We can see the same deviation from European values in the behavior of France and Britain.

The regional allies of the US in the Middle East are unabashed in saying that they have adopted a policy that does not align with the basic international norms or any of the world’s humanitarian concepts. They strongly supported the people who dug graves and tore out the hearts of the soldiers and ate them proudly in front of the camera.

Saudi Arabia makes a great effort to lead the Muslim world. If they want to achieve that, they will have to adhere to the tolerant values of heaven. They say that they want to help the Syrian peoples and also that they are working to remove the injustice done to Syrians, but at the same time, they support all those who are killing the Syrian people, and of course, all the terrorist groups, including groups classified as terrorist groups by the UN Security Council. They are supporting them with money, weapons, and a media platform. It's ironic that they support democracy in Syria, yet they live in a country that does not have the slightest idea about the concept of democracy, something even they do not claim. Saudi Arabia is the global leader of the very dangerous religious concept of "Wahhabism ", which has had an obvious effect on many countries of the world, whether through historic support for terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Russia, and other countries, or through building mosques in different Western countries to spread Wahhabism. This is evidenced by the recent attacks in Brussels; those responsible for the attacks were young people that were born in Europe and had European citizenship. But they were reared and fed on the Wahhabi Ideology that is promoted by Saudi Arabia in these mosques.

As for Turkey, we are led to believe that they their experience of a democratic and secular rule spans many years since the end of World War II. This democracy, as it seems to be, was just a cover that hid the true intentions of the Ottoman spiteful man, who hated his neighbors only because they historically rebelled against him and his colonization. He kept dreaming and waiting for an opportunity to realize his dream of rebuilding the Ottoman state, which was created by sword and blood, and all the people, who were ruled from this state, suffered. This modern "Turkey" had the best relations with its neighbors, particularly with Syria, until the beginning of the Syrian crisis, when it flipped over from the first day of this crisis because they thought that it was an opportune time to extend their influence outside of Turkey, naturally by supporting the same terrorist groups that are supported by Saudi Arabia. I think that the joint support of these two countries (Turkey and Saudi Arabia) for the same terrorist groups allows us to say that both countries are carrying the same concept, the concept of "Wahhabi Ideology", a concept that disbelieves in others, justifies murder, and even justifies the use of all inhumane and illegal means to achieve its goals. The shoot down of the Russian Sukhoi plane is yet another example of the Ottoman treachery and this Wahhabi concept, which justifies the investment in any opportunity to achieve its small goals. The developed relations between Russia and Turkey were not taken in consideration, and as a result they were damaged. Furthermore, and more importantly, the lie about the transition from the Ottoman concept to modernity and the concept of democracy was revealed.

This short study about the US’ concepts, their allies in the West, and their regional allies allows us to make the following conclusions:

·         The Americans and Westerners have a great concept of preserving the values of humanity, democracy, and human rights, but the politicians are practicing a policy that does not match these values in order to achieve the interests.

·         The regional allies (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey) secretly practice the concept of Wahhabi Ideology, practicing a policy that coincides with this concept, but even they are exhibiting a contradictory behavior by claiming to be pro-human rights.

Russia (in corporation with China) can maintain their behavior as it matches the values of the Russians. Russians have the same concepts as the Westerners, except that they are developed in accordance with several aspects such as friendship, patriotism, and sacrifice for the sake of the nation and even for a friend. Russia entered the Syrian war to defend their national and strategic interests, fight terrorism, which threatens the world as a whole, and stand by the Syrian people, because Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, has historically maintained strong relations with Syria.  

Russia's partners in the war against terrorism in Syria are Iran and Hezbollah, and they claim that they are fighting for their interests, but they are standing beside a country that stood previously beside them. At the same time, they are fighting terrorism because it is the most dangerous issue that can be used in the very near future against them. They belong to the same concept that considers the Wahhabi Ideology as a real danger not only for them, but also for all minorities in the region and for the whole world.

I think that all the people in the world who are carrying the concept of freedom, democracy, international law, and human rights are beginning to understand the necessity of standing strongly against the Wahhabi Ideology, which has destroyed countries, is now destroying others (Syria is one example), and will destroy many more, especially in Europe, if we do not fight them and their supporters, whether they are states, organizations or individuals. 

History will remember that Russia, as a global power, stopped the extension of the Wahhabi Ideology through its contribution in Syria, and put the foundations in place for an international war against terrorism, planting hope among the people, and showed the possibility of overcoming it. It is a new global concept that contains not only the ideas of the concept, but also the responsibility to believe and act within it.