By James E. Jennings*
ATLANTA, USA | 9 December 2024 (IDN) — In American slang, “the big enchilada” means something of supreme importance, more than any other item among a slew of alternatives. Historical comparisons over long millennia in the Middle East show that Syria, not Iraq or Palestine, is the keystone of the Fertile Crescent. Controlling Syria is required for military and cultural dominance of the region.
Whether the subject is history’s first empire—the Akkadian, led by Sargon the Great about 2300 BC—or the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, British, French, Russians, Iranians, or Americans—Syria has been central to their success in dominating the Middle East. Sometimes it took centuries to decide the outcome, but Syria remained the epicenter.
Now that the Ba’ath regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has collapsed and he has fled to Moscow, Syria’s long and painful civil war may be over. Or it may simply be entering a new phase.
One thing is clear—the US is already at war in Syria with some of the factions, as President Biden acknowledged in his remarks on Sunday. US troops in Eastern Syria, he said, have already struck several bases and locations where Islamist groups sympathetic to Da’ish/ISIS are operating. Military sources report that the US in the last few days has bombed dozens of places—up to 75—in Syria, looking especially for WMD.
At least since 1918, and now since 2011 . . .
At least since 1918, and now since 2011, instability, repression, and bloody civil war have surrounded the Syrian people’s long-suppressed desire for democratic rule. If that is not achievable nationwide, people want at least sufficient political control to retain security for their own community.
The level of bloodshed in that nearly 15-year struggle has been unbelievably high, with more than 600,000 lives lost, 13 million internally displaced persons, and 6.7 million having fled the country in the “Great European Migration.”
It is not necessary to recite four millennia of Syria’s painful history to see that Twentieth-Century western Colonialism has failed in Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, as has also the “Shi’a Crescent” plan backed by Iran, comprising Iran, Iraq’s Shi’a majority, Syria under the Assad autocracy, and Lebanon’s now-beleaguered Hezbollah.
Zionism has apparently failed too, with a divided Israeli population in the streets and a Götterdämmerung state policy that says in effect, “Let’s solve the problem of race hatred by burning everybody’s house down, even if it eventually includes our own.”
Da’ish fanaticism was supposedly crushed by a US supported coalition battle at al-Baghuz Fawqani in Syria in 2019, but like the many-headed Hydra of the myths, ISIS’ dreadful ideology has not yet been fully exterminated.
Tragically, 64 civilians were killed in that 2019 American assault near the Iraq border, according to an investigation by the New York Times. The 11 November 2021 article disclosed that US warplanes dropped two bombs on a crowd of people, mostly women and children seeking refuge on the banks of the Euphrates River.
The investigation claimed that US drone operators in Qatar saw the crowd, knew they were civilians, and were stunned when first a 500 lb. bomb was dropped, followed by a 2,000 lb. bomb on the wounded survivors.
Eventually the Pentagon investigation claimed that only 4 civilians were killed. US Secretary of Defense Austin promised a new investigation over three years ago based on appeals from Congress for clarification, but those requests have not yet been resolved.
It remains to be seen whether the victorious Syrian opposition coalition now in charge in Damascus, with both Islamist and pro-democracy elements, can be coherent going forward, a highly doubtful prospect.
So far, the civilians celebrating on the streets in Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and now Damascus, are joyful, hoping that this long, grim, bloody war may be over. We can only hope that their joy is not short lived.
As of now, Jabhat al-Nusra’s founder, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, is the leader of the new governing alliance. Renamed several times, from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, “Front for Victory in the Levant,” and now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) or “Association for the Liberation of the Levant.”
However, US war planners are not likely to give Islamist groups a chance to rule, even though the broad coalition front has announced that it intends to include all groups in a Syrian national alliance.
Russia, Iran and Turkey, although involved to a considerable extent in Syria during the civil war, appear to be turning away from direct involvement, having allowed the Syrian army to run out of money. Their stance could change at any time since this has been a proxy war from the beginning.
And what will the United Stated decide to do? Nobody knows. But if ignorance of history is any guide, the future appears less than rosy. So far, it’s “Bombs Away!”
We could repeat the adage, “Ignore history and you’ll be condemned to repeat it,” but it’s too late for that. The Vietnam era chant, “Give Peace a Chance” might fit in here. There are no signs that Washington has learned anything in Iraq, Palestine’s West Bank, Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, or Syria. Get ready for the fight for the “Big Enchilada.”
*James E. Jennings, PhD, is a former Professor of Middle East and Islamic History who led a delegation of US Academics for Peace to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the war. The group urged political reform and alignment with the Western Alliance. As President of Conscience International, his was among the organizations in the forefront of relief efforts in Greece for those fleeing Syria during the war. [IDN-InDephNews]
Image: View of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Created: 8 April 2010. CC BY-SA 3.0
