When Syrian Soldiers Become Victims: The Syrian Regime Has Killed And Continues To Kill Its Own People
03 October 2014
By Diana Moukalled
I have discovered I am not the only person who
suddenly feels alert or wary when scrolling down their
news feeds on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. This is
especially true when I see a picture of a head or a
body looming at the bottom of the screen. No sooner do
I hold my breath in anticipation of once again seeing
a severed head being brandished in front of the camera
than someone comes along and justifies bringing images
such as this onto my and hundreds of others' screens.
These days, full as they are of blood and killing, the
motives of those who post photographs and videos of
decapitations, crucifixions and executions range from
spreading news to expressing horror to, of course,
showing their pride in these acts.
The fact that these images are becoming almost
"mainstream" puts the differing aims of those who
spread them on an equal footing. We have been blind to
the changes that have occurred within us—the
diminishing of our humanity that we endure by
accepting, and becoming so desensitized to, such
images.
Here we are then, about to reach the end of the fourth
year of living with the reality of widespread death
and destruction, which, in the last two years
especially, has reached a peak in terms of the stream
of violent images reaching us online.
We feel such misery, we who were naively deluded back
in 2011, when we remember how we thought we were
moving towards having our dreams and wishes for
freedom fulfilled in our countries. Now there is
darkness and blood and death, all overflowing to the
extent that one need only open one's eyes for a brief
moment to want to immediately shut them again.
What can one do in the face of these insane violations
of our most basic right—the right to live? How can
this have been dismantled with such ease and
intensity, to the extent that we are unable to fathom
the meaning of the death of an individual, any
individual?
Proof of this is the debate surrounding the images of
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—or "Islamic
State"—executing Syrian soldiers after taking over the
airbase in Tabqa. This incident shows the kind of
circumstances we are living in right now, ones that no
longer stir in us the kind of feelings and questions
one should associate with such things. Here they are,
Syrian soldiers being dragged and stripped of their
uniforms, some shot and others dealt with in the way
only ISIS has become so adept at. The comments then
flood in over the pictures, with a large proportion of
those posting and spreading the images condoning the
criminal actions they depict and seeing the Syrian
soldiers as being no better than their executioners.
Here we saw how easy it was for some to accept what
happened, to even be happy about it out of spite
towards the soldiers, who were conscripts. We all know
how much choice such conscripts have when it comes to
fighting in the Syrian war, how they are recruited by
the regime and driven to their places of death without
anyone from that regime so much as batting an eyelid
over their fate.
In moments like these we discover what we are and what
we believe in. The right to life is not a luxury; the
idea of human rights not merely a book that we open up
and leaf through in our spare time. Condemning the
regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in no way,
shape or form justifies the actions of ISIS's fighters
against its soldiers, whose lives the regime seems
always ready to trade with and abandon.
The Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein, during his last
moments before his death at the hands of vengeful
executioners, became a victim. The Libyan tyrant
Muammar Gaddafi, in his last moments, dragged across
the ground, violated and tortured, became a victim.
These are simple truths from which we cannot deviate.
Fighting against the excesses of political regimes,
and the killers and deviants they employ to do their
dirty work, requires a moral framework and values that
are total anathema to those regimes and the crimes
they commit.
Yes, the Syrian regime has killed and continues to
kill its own people. But ISIS's atrocities cannot
achieve justice; they will only spread more death and
destruction. What happened to the Syrian soldiers at
the hands of ISIS was abominable. Our acceptance and
tolerance of it deadens us for a while . . . only for
us to go back to drinking our coffee with our friends
once we are done.
Diana Moukalled is a prominent and well-respected
TV journalist in the Arab world thanks to her
phenomenal show Bil Ayn Al-Mojarada (By The Naked
Eye), a series of documentaries on controversial areas
and topics which airs on Lebanon's leading local and
satelite channel, Future Television. Diana also is a
veteran war correspondent, having covered both the
wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, as well as the
Isreali "Grapes of Wrath" massacre in southern
Lebanon. Ms. Moukalled has gained world wide
recognition and was named one of the most influential
women in a special feature that ran in Time Magazine
in 2004.