Syria: Being killed twice - by weapons and by media
Afraa Dagher is commenting the war in her homeland Syria.
The globe is witnessing a long and brutal war on Syria. To be honest, most of the planet does not know where Slovenija is. And I am sure it was similar with Syria before the war. You lived in peace. With your own sociopolitical problems and goals. Where there any tell-tale signs of the oncoming war?
To most people around the World, Syria was a rather unknown country until the war, I fully agree. I know this from my own experience. In June 2006 Israel attacked Al Dahieh a suburb of Lebanon. The media blamed the resistance movement Hezbollah for the attack. The horrible destruction caused by Israeli rockets on the residential buildings and the massacres that followed were not mentioned in the mainstream media. So, I rushed to an Internet café next to my home to inform people about the attack. I was a student at that time. I tried to inform others about the attack on some websites and they asked me where I am from. When I replied Syria, they were obviously ignorant about my country. In contrast, I perceive Syria as a very important country in the heart of the Arabic world. However, I believe that Syria was always well known to the Western leaders. Therefore, we are being attacked by Zionist-Imperialism as a project of the US, Israel and its allies for the New World Order.
This was evident already in the plan presented by Condoleezza Rice and her campaign for the New Middle East, that started with "creative chaos" in Egypt and Libya. This global agenda of aggression against our countries started with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of "Weapons of Mass Destruction". Now we all know that it was just a fake pretext. They are using the same plan in Syria. Fooling the people into waging war.
The second biggest problem in the Syrian war is the mainstream media. The hypocrisy was evident even in a seemingly benign smear of Asma Assad. Before the war the Vogue praised her as “a desert rose” and in the next moment she was the wife of “a brutal dictator”. No questions asked.
Before the war, the western media was not hostile towards Syria. It seems the media owners were not yet instructed to demonize the Syrian president and the First Lady Asma Al Assad. Before the war, the western media were attracted to the image of young Assad, who was educated in the UK, along with his wife, who also graduated there. Since the beginning of his mandate, Assad has aspired to build a secularly oriented Syria. Progress was soon evident in the development of science, informatics, medicine, and economy. That made Syria a promising country in the Middle East, with no debt to a Central Bank and with an increasingly modern way of living. But, the West wanted to disrupt this independence with chaos masked as a regime change. With these intentions, various mercenaries were dispatched to Syria.
Despite the smear campaign, Asma Assad is still regarded by many Syrians as an inspiring example of our development. She is involved in several projects for education and she also established a Centre for autistic children. Her work and appearance are in stark contrast with the reality of women in countries like Saudi Arabia, where women were not even allowed to drive cars until last year. Not to mention all the other severe inequalities they face. Despite all that, Saudi Arabia is respected as a western ally.
In your video, you try to warn the public about the misleading imagery of suffering children. All such images try to prove that the Syrian government is killing its’ own population. Who is taking these photos and why?
My education in Syria comes to mind. We were thought, that any pain of any human is our pain. I remember the images of children under the Israeli occupation or the pictures of the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prisoners. Sadly, there are my fellows Syrians on such pictures now. Many images from Syria you see are constructed and completely fake. Their purpose is to deceive the international public and promote the war in Syria. Our people are being killed twice over. First by being attacked by the so-called moderate rebels, who are armed with very sophisticated weapons! Can you imagine being killed by such rebels in your own country? They have rockets and mortar shells with slogans about death if you do not join their Wahhabi religion, or if you stay loyal to your country or government. What kind of “freedom fighters” kill anyone, who is opposed to their agenda? And yet, they talk about freedom! Their Western allies, with the help of mainstream media (MSM), are destroying our country. Second, even their humanitarian organizations like the White Helmets or the so-called Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) are killing Syrians. The latter is an Al Qaeda branch in Syria and a member of the Al Nusra front. These “freedom fighters” are the source of information for the MSM. They represent themselves as the victims, while the real civilian victims are ignored by the MSM. They blame the Syrian Army for the deaths, though in reality it is our army that is protecting us against the US-backed mercenaries, who have the agenda of breaking Syria apart.
The mainstream media constructed an idea of a group of paramilitary fighters in Syria called “moderate rebels”. They are supposed to be against ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Syrian Army respectively. Many independent journalists have gathered strong evidence that “moderate rebels” are non-existent. They are mercenaries working together with the western allies to ruin Syria and its secular government. Like in the case of Iraq and Libya. What is your experience with “moderate rebels”?
In 2011 the term "moderate rebel" was created. There was no "ISIS" or Al Qaeda at that time in Syria! Their slogan was: "We are going to send Christians to Beirut, and Alawites to their graves"! The aim of this slogan soon became real: displacement and systematic killing of Syrians. That was the goal of this brutal proxy war on Syria. And still, the western media promote such “rebels” as moderate! When the manipulating media realized that they failed in destroying Syria, they turned them into "ISIS" - same Wahhabi ideology, but under a different brand. They kept driving the same Toyota cars! We in Syria support our Arab Army. They are not mercenaries but sons, husbands, and brothers from Syrian families. It is evident that they do not support the Wahhabi appearance. The Syrian Army is composed of well-educated men that would sacrifice their lives to save us. All other fighting factions such as Jaish Al Islam or Ahrar Al-Sham are nothing but terrorists backed by the West.
In your video, you also warned that some mercenary soldiers from Syria are coming to Europe as “refugees”. Can you explain the situation? Because we know that there are also genuine refugees from Syria.
This question has two aspects. First, we know that the West wanted to use those refugees as a playing card, against our government for the purpose of “regime change”. They claimed that all Syrians are fleeing from this government! However, not all refugees in Europe were Syrians. Some were from Africa, yet your media introduced them as Syrians. Let’s also not forget Turkey's role in allowing the refugees through its territory into Europe. Many refugees in Turkey were manipulated and were used to fight against their own people. Some foreign fighters, who were sent to Idlib from recently liberated provinces like Aleppo, want to leave Syria and return to their homelands via Turkey. And secondly, it is true that not all refugees are terrorists. Many really fled the war in Syria. Especially in 2013 when President Obama wanted to bomb Syria under the pretext of an alleged “chemical attack”. Many Syrians fled because of the economic sanctions, that had a detrimental impact on our lives and made all Syrians feel besieged. However, we also cannot deny, that those who joined the so-called “Free Syrian Army” are now present in Europe. They could be used as terrorist cells. They carry the banner of terrorists instead of the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic. I think it is the duty of your countries to check the background of all refugees. It is important to distinguish between those who belong to the radical mentality and those Syrians who fled the war in want of a better life.
From a geostrategic perspective, it appears that Syria is yet another victim of the foreign allied military powers to seize your land and oil. What would Syrians like for themselves apart from peace?
Well, Syria is a civilization before being a state. I borrowed this quote from our diplomat dr. Bashar Al Jaafari. Syria, as you mentioned, has its important location on the Mediterranean Sea, it is a bridge between Europe and the Middle East for gas and oil pipelines. In addition, our wealth are those same natural resources. We also border Iraq and Lebanon and Iran is close. These states are also our allies. Many Syrians would sacrifice their lives to defend our homeland against this agenda, that aims to empty Syria of its people.
And what would be your message to the politicians in Europe?
My message is ENOUGH WAR. And stop taking the liberty of talking on behalf of Syrians. We can talk for ourselves. Stop fooling your people and promoting war. The taxes that your people pay for your bloody conflicts in the Middle East should be used for peaceful means.
Photo: SANA
