April
22, 2003, 8:45 a.m.
Syria, Attacked
An Arab newspaper
takes on the leftover Baathists.
By Arnold Beichman
he
idea that Arab opinion is monolithic has just received a shattering blow.
A Kuwaiti daily newspaper has published a series of articles startlingly
critical of Syria, French President Jacques Chirac's favorite-of-the-week.
The all-out editorial attack on Syria by a pro-Kuwait government paper
comes at a time when Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has been warned,
sweetly by Secretary of State Powell, harshly by Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld to get out of the Baath-tub and consider the looming possibility
of "regime change." No American official, from President Bush
down, would dare say the things that this Arab daily has written about
Syria including accusing President al-Assad and his family of personal
corruption. Nor would any American official dare say publicly that Syrian
leaders are "leading the Syrian people to suicide."
The articles,
written by the editor of the Kuwaiti daily, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, start with
this headline: "If Syria Follows Iraq 's Example, It Will Share Iraq's
Fate." Interestingly, the writer criticizes the U.S. and the Coalition
in the first Gulf War in 1991 for not having continuing on to Baghdad and
overthrowing the Saddam regime. Writes Mr. Al-Jarallah: "Now there
are critics who are saying, 'You liberated the Iraqi people, why didn't
you complete the mission and liberate the Syrian people?' " Obviously,
if the writer is reflecting Kuwaiti government opinion, Kuwait would welcome
Syrian regime change, by force if necessary.
Another article,
titled "More Criminal than Saddam Hussein" is extraordinary
in its violent language to describe Syria:
This regime is
identical to the regime of Saddam Hussein. The two regimes are the two
faces of the same coin. This regime established a party that claimed,
in its sources and its principles, to be the party that defends freedom,
human rights, national dreams, and pan-Arab hopes...Yet after the party
seized control and established the regime, it quickly cut itself off
from its principles...The Syrian regime is built in the image of the
collapsing Saddam regime. It is no different from it at all. The morality
and behavior of its members differ not one whit from the morality and
behavior of the Saddam regime...The men of the regime and their cronies
spread corruption and humiliate and torture the people.
Kuwait, of course,
was the casus belli in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring
Kuwait and committed unbelievable atrocities. And had it not been for
American intervention there would be no Kuwait today. The Kuwaiti government
looks upon Syria as an enemy country.
The articles in Al
Siyasa, which ran between April 15 and 19, have been translated by
the Middle East Research
Institute.
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he
idea that Arab opinion is monolithic has just received a shattering blow.
A Kuwaiti daily newspaper has published a series of articles startlingly
critical of Syria, French President Jacques Chirac's favorite-of-the-week.
The all-out editorial attack on Syria by a pro-Kuwait government paper
comes at a time when Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has been warned,
sweetly by Secretary of State Powell, harshly by Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld to get out of the Baath-tub and consider the looming possibility
of "regime change." No American official, from President Bush
down, would dare say the things that this Arab daily has written about
Syria including accusing President al-Assad and his family of personal
corruption. Nor would any American official dare say publicly that Syrian
leaders are "leading the Syrian people to suicide."
