Esprit de Corps

Written by Scott Taylor

Last week there was a significant increase in sabre-rattling for an international military intervention in Syria. Armed clashes between the rebels and security forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continued to escalate despite the shaky ceasefire agreement brokered by United Nations Special Envoy Kofi Annan. While there are presently a handful of UN military observers present in Syria, the Assad regime’s long-standing exclusion of access to foreign journalists has meant that, since the outset of hostilities 15 months ago, it has been extremely difficult to ascertain any verifiable account of the conflict.

While the Syrian opposition spokespersons living abroad portray themselves as defenceless protesters, the raging gun battles and growing list of casualties among security forces would indicate a rather well armed and determined rebel force. As was the case in the Libyan uprising last year, the only thing that unifies the polyglot collection of Syrian rebel factions is their desire to oust the current regime.

Beyond that objective, the aims of the Syrian rebels are widely divergent and range from enforcing Islamic fundamentalism to establishing Kurdish separatism. Despite what such a scenario would mean for the future stability of Syria and the entire region—one need only look to the current state of violent anarchy in post-Gaddafi’s Libya— Canada’s bellicose Foreign Minister John Baird, has already added his hearty voice to the Syrian rebel cause in demanding that “Assad must go!” To add further weight to this demand, last week Baird went one step further by ordering the expulsion of diplomats from the Syrian embassy in Ottawa. The reason for the sudden deportation and cessation of diplomatic relations was in protest to a massacre that occurred in the central Syrian town of Houla on Friday, May 25.

As usual, the accounts of the Houla incident vary greatly, but the single consensus on the casualty list indicates that more than 100 were killed, including 49 children. The rebels claim that it was the handiwork of pro-Assad paramilitary troops; the government claims the entire incident was staged by the rebels to provoke an international military intervention.

Despite the fact there has been no independent verification of who is responsible, the Assad regime has now been branded by the western media as baby killers. This was clearly illustrated in a pair of graphic editorial cartoons that appeared in Canadian newspapers last week. The first depicted a Syrian tank crewmember painting a series of baby carriages on the side of the smoking gun barrel to signify his martial pride over his recent kills. The second one showed Russian President Vladimir Putin dressed as a policeman holding back would-be rescuers, while a mad dog (the Assad regime) ravages a baby in a pram. This, of course, is not good news for al-Assad. While very few Canadians understand the complexity of Syria’s ethnic and religious factions, or have any real grasp of the regional implications in the event of a violent regime change, we all know that it is evil to kill babies.

At the turn of the last century, when a colonial war erupted in South Africa, few Canadian young men even knew what a Boer was. However, once it was proclaimed that Boers were bayoneting British babies, our recruiting centres were flooded with volunteers.

Similarly, early news reports of German “Huns” butchering Belgian babies in World War I helped inspire thousands of Canadians to enlist in the Expeditionary Force. In August 1990, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, few Americans had much empathy for the Kuwaitis. The western media machine had long since demonized them as fat cat oil sheiks during the oil crisis in the 1970s. However, following the October 1990 testimony of a young Kuwaiti girl at a United States congressional hearing, it was revealed that the evil Iraqis were actually baby killers.

As an eyewitness, the teenager tearfully recounted how she had watched helplessly as Iraqi soldiers dumped newborns out of incubators and left them to die. Of course, it mattered not in the long run that neither the Boers nor the Huns or the Iraqis ever actually committed such atrocities. In fact, the tearful teenaged “witness” turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who had never left the US. What is important is that baby killer equals evil, and once branded as such, any military intervention against such forces will be heartily supported.

Al-Assad’s days are now numbered, regardless of who is actually responsible for the Houla massacre.