The TELY group (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen) have won the first stages in their march towards democracy. Their populations were able to change the regional geostrategic map through toppling their dictators. We are now waiting for Syria and Bahrain to do the same: Syria, through collapsing the fascist system of the Baath party heady by a family business which may be called Al-Assad, Inc. That system was established in 1970 through a bloody coup. Bahrain, through modification of its system of governance, possibly a la Morocco, might enable its Shii majority to participate in a democratic system, while staying safe from the grip of a theocratic Iran.
The Arab Spring is a variety of seasons. Its most ominous chill is not in its variety of directions. It is in its most determined adversaries, namely, Russia, China, Iran, and Hezbollah. We may call this quartet the anti-democratic axis. An axis is a group of partners sharing the same objectives through a variety of methods. An axis is not a community of commonly-accepted values. It is a bundle of sinister objectives pursued through a diversity of national or sectarian policies.
The anti-democratic axis which is standing in the way of the Arab Spring cannot be victorious. The Arabs of Syria and Bahrain, together with the West assisting them in a variety of ways, cannot but ultimately prevail. For the anti-democratic axis is using the kind of obstructionist tools which are hopelessly outdated.
Examples: the double veto by Russia and China prevented the adoption earlier this month by the UN Security Council of a resolution intended to stop the grisly slaughter of protesters by the huge death juggernaut of Bashar Al-Assad. Arms from Russia, acquiescence from China, intervention on behalf of Al-Assad by Iran and Hezbollah are all necessary adjuncts of the most brutal suppression of the Syrians search for freedom. But the external supporters of Al-Assad reign of terror are bound to fail because they are on the wrong side of history.
Both Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah (the Party of God!!) are military, ideological and logistical supporters of a dying Syrian regime. Neither the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, nor the Iran-Syria mutual defense pact, nor the attacks by Hezbollah operatives on Syrian refugees in Lebanon are a match for the massive march for freedom by millions in Homs, Deraa, Aleppo, Hama, Lathakia, Idlib, Damascus and Ain Al-Zoor. It is a massive wave determined to bring the Assad regime to its pre-destined end. The Syrian National Council has been legitimated by 60 States which met earlier this month in Tunis. Even dictatorship has a shelf-life; the love of liberty is an eternal human quest.
How does the quartet of evil (Russia, China, Iran and Hezbollah) justify its unprincipled stand against the pro-democracy hurricane in the new Middle East? They say that the pro-democracy wave is engineered by both the West, some members of the League of Arabs States, and outside saboteurs and terrorists!! They say that the Libyan model has proven that the West is riding the crest of the Arab Spring to effect regime change. They say that Syrian sovereignty is under attack. They say that only through dialogue could the Syrian mess be taken care of, and that peaceful methods are the only means to reconciliation.
Let us briefly examine the hypocrisy of all these fake arguments. Like a sudden earthquake, the Arab Spring sprang suddenly through years of combustible suppression of dignity and human rights. Its engineers are the millions gathered, largely unarmed to demonstrate against totalitarianism. The West, through legitimation by the League of the Arab States and eventually by the UN Security Council, came to the rescue of Libyans when crazy Qaddafi was on the verge of slaughtering the Libyan masses in Benghazi. Better a change of regime which has lost its legitimacy, than a systemic and prolonged aggression against the principle of "rule by the people for the people", and not by a corrupt dictatorial cabal.
Regarding Syrian sovereignty, the anti-democratic quartet is following its own bankrupt ideology which puts the State ahead of the individual who is the true repositor of sovereignty. And what dialogue are they seeking? What kind of dialogue should we expect between a mass murderer and his Syrian victims?
The hypocrisy of the anti-democratic quartet is manifest: Both Russia and China fear an equivalent of the Arab Spring ripping through their oppressed Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Iran and Hezbollah are blind to the reality of their isolation in a progressive Middle-East.
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