If it took almost three months of fierce fighting for Assad, with Hezbollah’s help, to dislodge the rebels in Qusayr, and it took the rebels two weeks to gain control of a checkpoint in Dara’a, how long will it take to free Syria from Assad? These are questions the West fails to ask.
If the West really wanted Assad removed from power, why does the West support the very Islamist elements that coalesce his staying power amongst the minorities?
If the West keeps corralling the sectarian battles raging in Syria and Assad keeps spreading them elsewhere, how long will it take the West to realize the perpetuity of the Syrian civil war means it already lost every future war in the region?
If you compare the trust the West earned during Desert Storm as compared to the mistrust it has captured as it dithered on Assad, what will the impact be on its interests amongst a new realization by leaders unwilling to stick their necks out in the future the way the West was unwilling to stick his for them today?
If the supposed neutrality of the Lebanese army routinely protects Hezbollah’s interests, how long will it take to free Lebanon from Hezbollah when reluctance on freeing Syria from Assad is the norm?
If the West is willing to eradicate the terror of al-Qaeda but is unwilling to eradicate state-sponsors of terror like Syria and Iran, why does it expect to be safe at home if the victims of this policy have turned into angry, hardened, and religiously-inspired fighters because of Syria?
If the aim is to uproot international terror, where does the belief that washing one’s hands from a regionalized sectarian war means cross borders terror will subside come from? Where is that data? Is the West now applying Tversky’s Elimination by Aspects to fight terror?
If the West does not fully and unequivocally take the security of all the minorities of the Middle East seriously from the coming onslaught by the Islamists, it opens its own borders to the same onslaught.
When one indigenous people is willing to stand as a shield to one’s beliefs and values, protecting it is a duty to oneself, not a burden; the same way it is a duty of all Muslims to protect from Islamic extremism.
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