The Dividends of Courage

Syrian refugees in their thousands have fled to the border with Turkey, fearing for their lives. History is not that remote in memory that they cannot conjure up a fate as grim as that visited by Bashar al-Assad's father on his restive population. Those who are in the Red Crescent refugee camps set up in Turkey await the outcome of the imponderable. Those who sit on the border, hesitating to cross into Turkey await international rescue, enabling them to return to their homes.

It happened in Libya, after all.

"What is the United Nations doing? Nothing. They are just talking and doing nothing to help. Why were they so quick to help Libya, but do nothing for us?"

An eminently reasonable question, requiring an equally reasonable response. They're so right there, the United Nations is doing nothing much about their plight. Syria, after all, is a respected member of the United Nations and was given much applause for its sterling work on behalf of its citizens by its friends at the UN's Human Rights Council.

Of course their religious, ethnic, tradition-and-heritage-bound counterparts in neighbouring Arab and Muslim countries aren't doing much to help them, either. Although some of them do profess to uneasiness; why, the Arab League went so far as to criticize the regime's violence, claiming Arab states to be "angry and actively monitoring" the crisis. So wait for it, dear anxious refugees, just be patient.

And oh yes, there is one neighbour that is actively involved. Remember Iran, and your country's intimate relations with the Ayatollahs there? Well, Iran is involved. Iran would very much like to see this crisis settled, and that would mean that the Syrian refugees return to their homes, their farms, villages, and towns and resume normal life. That would please Iran enormously.

And it would settle down those within Iran who look with curiosity and a strange envy to what's occurring in Syria. They too would like to muster sufficient collective strength of character and determination to re-mount their own protests. They too suffer greatly in their country which constantly violates their human rights.

What's that? You say you cannot return because your wells have been poisoned, your livestock slaughtered, your crops destroyed and your trees uprooted, your homes sacked, and you fear the fate that descended on relatives when they attempted to return and their young daughters were raped by Syrian troops?

Ah, precisely, that is why you have armed yourselves, to be enabled to protect those near and dear to you.

Yes, you began your protests as a symbolic gesture that you felt would impress the regime with its peaceful intent, simply requesting that some freedoms be extended to you. You assembled with words, not weapons, hope not aggression. And this, you say, is your reward? Your government has sent in helicopter gunships and tanks to fire upon helpless civilians. That is unfortunate.

But you see, the West, and more particularly, NATO, is in no position to intervene, as it happens. Your country's friends and allies would not look kindly upon such interference as is occurring in Libya. Yes, it's true that Bashar al-Assad is the Syrian counterpart of the monstrous Moammar Gadhafi, but Russia and China are powerful dissenters within the UN's Security Council.

So proceed as you are doing, for it is to your credit not to go quietly into that dark night. We hear your pledge: "For every one person the regime arrests or kills, there are ten more to take their place and continue the fight". Decimation and attrition adequately describe your situation. You've wedged yourself most unfortunately into a truly compromised situation.

Courage does not always pay anticipated dividends.