The photographs of Syrian refugees, women and children, as they knock on the doors of the world for entry depicts a colossal, heart wrenching tragedy. It points to a crisis that the West has created in West Asia that has killed thousands and millions of people across the region, and displaced even more.
Syria was a crisis created by the US, fed by its Nato Allies, where, in the most cynical manipulation of the truth, these countries poured weapons and funds into the region that finally created the Islamic State. Syria, a sophisticated, calm country was attacked with Washington determined to bring down the regime, but President Bashar al Assad hung on with the help—surprise, surprise—of his largely Sunni Army that has stood by him throughout. Incidentally, while on the subject, Assad is married to a Sunni woman, and most of his advisors and cabinet ministers, as well as the Defence Chief are all Sunnis.
The barbaric attack, and then of course the resistance by the Syrian Army, has turned the country into a permanent war zone. The US still wants Assad out with the result that the Russians have moved in, to ensure that Syria too—like Iraq, Libya—is not thrown to the wolves. Both Iraq and Libya have been plunged by the American invasions into permanent war zones, with the weak ineffectual governments that were set up, unable to control the situation at all. In Iraq, the US had to turn to Iran for help and this then became the basis for the nuclear deal between the two now.
Europe is divided over the refugees, with terrible images escaping from Hungary as it unleashed its security forces against the refugees trying to gain entry. Others who gave in to local public pressure to open the doors after the photographs of little Aylan washed ashore by the waves made the front pages across the world, are now immediately tightening laws to prevent further entrants. Xenophobic articles have already started appearing in the media about immigrant problems, suggesting that terrorists have moved into the region along with the immigrants.
But the worst of all have been Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf countries. Laden with money and resources they have shut and padlocked their doors, refusing to take in the refugees. So thousands of them have tried to get into boats to sail to Europe, which is exactly how Aylan lost his life along with his sibling and his mother. Their father was the only distraught survivor for whom life had ended even before it had begun.
It was not so long ago that Egypt kept its border with Gaza tightly shut, refusing to allow the Palestinians an escape route as they were bombarded and killed in thousands by Israel. The photographs of the attack that had millions protesting against Israel did not move Egypt, even though by closing its borders it had effectively turned Gaza into a concentration camp from where the people could not escape as Israeli jets pounded them, and Israeli ground forces committed the worst atrocities.
Humanity seems to have become a casualty in world diplomacy today, moved only by commerce, and by so called national interests that are at best narrow, limited, and anti-people. The Rohingya Muslims in boats pleading at the national shores of Bangladesh and South east Asian countries for entry, and being turned away into the wretched seas that could and did spell death for many, is again a recent case in point of the inhumanity that seems to characterise what passes for governance.
In the case of Syria, the US has deliberately and wantonly created the Islamic State, as it was clear to all in Syria right from the very beginning that the funds and arms being pumped would find their way into the wrong hands. The Salafists, al Qaeda were all involved in fighting Assad and eventually the more hardened amongst the lot, the more extreme variety, got hold of the weapons and emerged out of the US led war as the Islamic State.
It was the same in Afghanistan, where the al Qaeda was virtually born through the US support for Osama bin Laden who then became the ‘enemy’ created by cynical, short-sighted politics; the same in Iraq where a terror free country was destroyed, plundered and thousands killed, giving way to terrorism and daily violence; the same in Libya where again the stability given by Gaddafi was overturned with his death and the country has been in constant violence since; the same in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is killing the hapless population with air strikes on a daily basis; the same in Gaza and West Bank where Israeli soldiers and settlers have the run of the territory.
Strangely enough, the Indian media is completely silent about the permanent war in West Asia, with its interest limited to the visits, if any, by the Indian Prime Minister, a bit on the Indian diaspora, and occasional concern if some Indians happen to die as some did in Yemen recently for reasons other than the war. This ostrich approach, and abject failure to report on the neighbouring region reflects a disturbing insularity that feeds into an approach that is making the world smaller, restrictive and narrow.
