Getting It Together

They just can't get it together. Syrian society, reflecting that of most of the Middle East, is irremediably fractured. Apart from the tribal enmities, the clan suspicions, the sectarian hatred, the ideological splits, and violent Islamism, there seems to be a profound inability to think in terms of nationhood. As in everyone pulling together to produce a common good that will be useful to all, and which will improve the quality of life for everyone involved.

A shared society and a shared investment in the future. A national aspiration to succeed. To be responsible to and with one another. To set aside differences in the greater interests of unity and prosperity. All people everywhere are concerned for the welfare of their offspring. What is it about the Arab/Muslim mind that they cannot conceive of living together peacefully, as a society of multiple interests and shared values? If only for future generations to experience stability.

The main Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Coalition, took its seat at the Arab League this week, replacing the ousted regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among them there is stark division. The former president of the Coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, led a delegation of Coalition political executives. It was he who addressed the Arab League, not Ghassan Hitto, recently elected the planned interim Syrian government's prime minister.

Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz al-Khatib is watched by members of the media at the opening of the Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: EPA

 

Two prominent opposition figures, George Sabra and Suheir Atassi were also present to round out the delegation representing the new Syrian government-in-waiting. A government-in-waiting that is assailed with complete disarray. The election of Mr. Hitto has been vehemently denied as representing the wishes of all the Coalition units who claim that he does not represent their interests and they will not recognize him officially.

How's that for unity in a purported coalition of disparate interests with a common goal who came together ostensibly for the purpose of presenting a united front of opposition against a government determined to remain in power? What obtains for the political arena is also representative of the military presence within the opposition dominating the conversation in Syria.

The rebel Free Syrian Army's leader, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who laid claim to represent the military option to defeat the regime's well-polished military machine has just been the subject of an assassination attempt. And he wasn't the first one; another FSA commander, according to local journalist Ous al-Arabi, had experienced a similar attempt at assassination last month in eastern Syria.

On this second and more recent occasion, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, formerly a General with the Syrian military who defected and became head of the FSA, had leg amputation surgery in hospital following the detonation of an explosive near his car during a trip to rebel-held Deir al-Zour province. Though it is as yet unknown who was responsible for the attack, local activists feel it was likely a rival rebel group.

The Free Syria Army is an umbrella group that operates under the fiction that it represents all rebel fighters under a unified command. Reminiscent of the various tribal militias operating independently and without needed co-operation during the insurrection that took place in Libya. The new Libyan government has never succeeded in de-militarizing the militias, in convincing them to surrender their arms, to join with the national military.

"We are the future army of the new Syria", Colonel al-Asaad had triumphantly announced in October 2011 at the time of his defection from the regime, when he helped to publicize the presence of an armed insurgency. That united opposition of a "rebel army" in reality is a disunited multitude of different armed factions, governed by rival warlords. Sounds like Afghanistan, doesn't it -- during the Northern Command operations; many of those warlords now in parliament.

There is now an Office of the Chiefs of Staff, led by General Salim Idris, aligned with the opposition Syrian National Coalition. Where is their widespread authority within Syria? Everyone is busy functioning independently of each other in funding and arms and fighting. Fractured, at cross purposes with another, how do they plan, ultimately, to prevail?

Looks, sounds and feels like the Middle East in extremis.