SYRIA: REALITY OVERWHELMS NEOCON DREAMS

The neocon dream of the Syrian people rising up to overthrow President Bashir al-Assad and replacing him with a Western-friendly secular democracy is turning into a nightmare for them as it becomes increasingly obvious that Islamists are clearly gaining control of the Syrian revolution and the government that replaces al-Assad is as unlikely to be any more friendly to Israel and the US than al-Assad was. Indeed, if anything, it’s beginning to look as though it’s a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ as far as the Israelis and the neocons are concerned to the point where the neocons are now openly suggesting that the US should intervene and fight the rebels if it looks like the jihadists are likely to dominate a new government in Syria when and if al-Assad falls.

Clearly the neocons haven’t learnt from the outcomes of any of the Arab Spring revolutions which all started off being supported by the neocons as part of their push to ‘democratise’ the Middle East yet nearly all ended up being condemned by the neocons as each revolution turned to a neocon nightmare when Islamists dominated elections. In short, the people used their new-found democracy to reject Western style democracy.

As I have said on a number of occasions, regardless of who ‘wins’ the civil war in Syria –  whether it be al-Assad, (I don’t think so), the secular revolutionaries (looking less likely), or the Islamists (now looking much more likely) – none of them will forget that Israel still occupies the Golan Heights and that the Syrian people want it back. As I have also stated, regardless of who wins, the new regime in Syria may well see it in their interest to form an alliance with Hezbollah in order oust the Israelis from the Golan Heights and protect south Lebanon from Israel’s attempts to invade and occupy that area of south  Lebanon up to the Litani River.

For the neocons, the war in Syria is not going their way – but then none of the wars that have either been started by neocons or backed by neocons have ever gone their way. Everyone of them has been a disaster.