Why Mirrors Might be Banned in Syria One Day

So let me get this straight. First the Assad loyalists insisted that nothing unusual was happening in Syria and that this was all a conspiracy by the international media to manufacture a revolution. Then they insisted that there are armed salafist groups running around destroying, pillaging and looting. Then they said that Syria's two biggest allies in the region (after Iran, Hezbullah and Hamas), Qatar and Turkey, were fomenting a revolution. Then they ransacked the Qatari embassy. Then they said sorry to Qatar but Qatar wasn't interested. Then all of a sudden they remembered the Alexandretta province, ceded during the time of the French Mandate in Syria, but conveniently forgotten for the past ten years as they cuddled up to Erdogan, watched Turkish drama series and took their cheap holidays to Istanbul. Oh, and at first they blamed the Saudis and Bandar bin Sultan, but now they don't mention that anymore. They also remembered the Golan Heights after it has been occupied by the Israelis for forty years, and decided to stage a 'spontaneous' demonstration at the borders, but then they decided that was a bad idea after the Israelis shot over twenty of them dead, and the Syrian army didn't fire a single shot to protect them.

Now they believe that the Arab League is also part of this conspiracy, and condemn the Arab League for trying to promote internal dialogue between the regime and the opposition. Finally, they say that the West is conspiring against Syria. But they neglect to mention that the West, in all fairness, has always been conspiring against Syria. So instead they say that the entire Arab Spring was planned all the way back in 2001. These are the same people who will tell their friends knowingly about a Masonic, Zionist, Imperialist conspiracy to rule the world, and that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are real, and that the Youtube video, "The Arrivals" is a serious exposé, nay, that it is even a documentary. They will also tell you that all Jewish office workers were told not to show up to work at the World Trade Centre on 9/11, and they will say that Bin Laden doesn't exist and is an American agent. Now, we're supposed to believe them about what is happening in Syria because they say so.

The Assadists always ask," so who is killing all the members of the security services that have died", but they never ask, "who killed Hamza al Khatib, or Ibrahim al Qashoosh", or thousands of others like them. They also never ask why thousands of Syrians have been arrested, and they never ask why torture is routine in Syrian prisons, and they never ask why peaceful demonstrators in the heart of Damascus or Aleppo get attacked by thugs with sticks, knives and electric batons.

I find myself wondering, what is wrong with these people? That they refuse to see what is before their very eyes. It is not an excuse to say we were ordered to do so, and it is no excuse to say that we were forced to support the murderers. I know of people who were not ordered, were not forced, and are not intimidated, yet they are blindly cheering for a regime that kills and murders its citizens. The only refuge their lie now has is the fiction that there are armed gangs wreaking havoc in the country, and of course this fiction is conveniently protected by the regime banning international media, and impartial observers, to the parts of Syria where the army and the regime's gangs are being deployed. These twin pillars keep the apologists' fragile worlds from crumbling, and from their facing the reality that they are apologists for murder and oppression in its ugliest forms. As prisoners are released from Israeli prisoners in a dodgy deal by Hamas, Syria's ally, at a time when it is politically expedient to do so (to detract from plans to have a Palestinian state recognised) some of them will be exiled to Syria, and so they will leave a small prison cell for a bigger prison cell. It pains me to say this, but an Israeli prison cell is probably the Four Seasons Presidential suite compare to Assad's torture chambers. The supporters of Assad will not allow themselves to utter such facts. Hell, I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror if I did what they do. Maybe they will ban mirrors in all of Syria one day as well.