Libya is an easy target. It’s leader is a buffoon. It’s geopolitical location is not sensitive. It’s oppression is blatant. Take it on! Its almost a juvenile response not inherently, but contextually.
Here is another Arab country, Syria. It’s leader is Western educated. It’s geopolitical location is sensitive. It’s oppression is blatant. But the UN, NATO and the Obama administration pretend that Syrias leader and location should shield it from the same moral and military might imposed on Libya.
The position of the UN, NATO and Obama on Syria is inconsistent, to put the matter quite charitably. In fact, there is no fundamental difference between the repression in Libya and in Syria. Both regimes kill innocent protesters. Both regimes have a decades-old record of brutality. Both regimes are dictatorships.
But the world, including Obama, is soft on Syria because, bottom line, the world is afraid to take on Iran. To wit:
Syria is an Iranian ally. Syria allows arms from Iran to cross its territory for Hezbollah. Syria offers asylum to terrorists in Damascus. Syria has designs on Lebanon as part of a grander design on Israel just like Iran. Syria took over Lebanon after its civil wars, then was forced out by George Bush, but cleverly returned through Hezbollah. Syria attempted its own nuclear program. Top to bottom, Syria and Iran act hand-in-glove against peace with Israel and against the existence of Israel.
Around Iran, the true issue in the Middle East is joined. Syria is too close to Iran for the world to face up to the challenge of our time: potential nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
The UN and the Obama administration have been pretending that Iran can be stopped through sanctions. Chief witness against that supposition: Syria. It gets away with murder, literally. Sanctions do not stop Iran and do not stop its ally, Syria.
In a way, the attack on Libya, while inherently life-saving and critical to international conscience, is a cheap shot. An easy take. Not, of course, that any military action is anything but the most serious act any nation can take, but in terms of fall-out, of regional stability, of nuclear proliferation, even in terms of military tactics, Libya is isolated. No domino effect in Africa is on the horizon.
Not so Syria. It is cramped between Lebanon and Iran, just north of Israel. An attempt to stop the killing and suppression in Syria is fraught with potential fall-out. But as the dangers rise, so do the potential benefits. A defanged Syria would have a sobering effect — indeed, a militarily chilling effect on Iran. That’s the prize. That’s what the world is still afraid to pursue.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
