Why Do You Not Write About Syria?

If I write about Israel’s crimes, I receive mail asking me why I do not write about Syria. And if I write about Muammar Gaddafi the day he was ousted, I receive other mail asking me the same question. The reader Hisham Sabri, who appreciates the fact that I have never visited Libya or Baghdad, asks me why this ‘humanitarian position’ on my part did not include the people of Syria. With words of calm and love, I say that Damascus is a hundred kilometers away from Beirut, while both Baghdad and Tripoli are far away. What’s more, there are close relations among families and daily exchanges when it comes to Damascus and Beirut. People from the two countries intermarry and visit each other frequently, and my parents took me to Damascus as a child, and I have visited the city as an adolescent, and then in all stages of my life to this day. I suggest that the readers leave politics aside and think of the people. Can I live in Beirut and not visit Damascus? The ambition of Beirut’s Sunnis, if they became wealthy, was to marry a fair Damascene beauty from amongst the women who were ‘out of sight'- as this would have kept them away from sunlight and a little chunky because they preferred to stay at home. If any of the readers wish to follow up the matter, they can contact me directly and I can send them the names of two of my closest friends in high school in Beirut, and how each of their mothers was from Damascus, while both of their fathers were cloth merchants at the Sursock market. Why do you not write about Syria? I have indeed written five times about Syria since the situation deteriorated there, and I would have most definitely written more if I could have visited the country. However, I have sent two requests for a visit and I am yet to receive an answer. On the other hand, I went to Bahrain twice, and wrote about what I heard and saw there on both occasions. I also wrote about Egypt more than I did about either Syria or Bahrain, because Egypt is open to visitors, and hence, I managed to travel there on three occasions since the collapse of President Hosni Mubarak's regime. Meanwhile, I did not write once about Yemen, even though I have known its president since his first day in office, and the same applies to Sudan, as it is not possible to visit either country. There were those among the readers who supported every word I said in my last article on Syria. This was the case with the reader Ibrahim Zabad, who sent me a message in English from California, where Ibrahim received his PhD in political sciences from the university there. This is while there were also many who objected to what I said. I welcome the readers, whether they agree or disagree, and I shall try to address some errors. The reader Talal al-Otaibi said that I use a 'lenient tone' with a brutal regime, even though half of my last article had criticized the killing of protesters and enumerated the mistakes of the regime, and I have objected to firing at the protesters in every single article I have since written on Syria. To Otaibi I say that some of the news about the conduct of the regime, i.e. the revenge attacks, torture, mutilation and amputation are almost unbelievable, but there is mounting evidence of such practices. Dr. Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, meanwhile, spoke of past articles that I wrote, in which I ‘glorified’ the Syrian regime. I hope Dr. Ahmed can show me and the readers those articles, because I did not see such ‘glorification’ anywhere. My last article mentioned that Dr. Bashar is smarter than his advisers, true, and he is a doctor so he must be smarter. Yet, the phrase was meant to criticize the advisers who have gotten us in this situation. What was even stranger than the above were the two points raised by some messages: - Steve Jobs was the most successful CEO of the largest technology company in the world. I wrote about his genius in order to raise the morale of the Syrians, since his father is Syrian. I also wrote before that about the governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels, whose name was proposed as a possible candidate in the U.S. presidential elections, since he is also of Syrian origin. But I found that some readers saw that article to be tantamount to ‘whitewashing’ the regime, as though the latter was Steve Jobs’s father. - I had said that Syria and Iran have defeated the United States in Iraq through terrorism. Many readers denied this, however, although my information is accurate and I had checked it with the Iraqi President and the U.S. ambassador in Damascus. The reader Sami Tabet expressed his disbelief that Iran would send terrorists to Iraq, when it is the biggest beneficiary of the country’s occupation. While this is indeed true, the reader chose to overlook the reason I had cited: The declared official policy of the Bush administration was 'regime change' in Syria and Iran, and for this reason, both countries reacted by resorting to the weapons available at their disposal, and then defeated this administration. Today, I tried to meet the readers halfway to explain some points, and I hope that I have indeed succeeded in this. However, I want to conclude with another topic. I had received a message that pleased me, from Walid Abdul Hamid al-Baccouche, son of the former and late Prime Minister of Libya. I had written expressing my regret that my friend Baccouche had passed away before seeing Gaddafi go, and the message from his son was to thank me and salute the victory of the Libyan people, and we all indeed salute this heroic people. khazen@alhayat.com