Syria, geopolitics and the left
Syria, geopolitics and the left
Santiago Alba Rico — The role and bias of this geopolitical obsession becomes very clear as soon as one compares the different attitudes toward Palestine and Syria.
I became much more critical of western "leftists" after seeing all the word salad about "NATO made the russians do it" following Feb 22 and the general support for russian occupation of Ukrainian territories.
To be honest, I don't understand their fascination with Assad. I can sort of see some logic for their support of russian genocidal imperialism (in a twisted, hypocritical way). But Assadist western leftists never made any sense at all.
P.S. This is of course not all western leftists. There are those who are consistent regarding Syria, Palestine and Ukraine.
But Assadist western leftists never made any sense at all.
"West Bad, therefore, anyone against the West, Good"
They'll fall over themselves to defend the ultratheocratic Houthis and even the Islamic Republic of Iran, whilst simultaneously claiming that they only supported Assad because his 'secular' regime was better than the dreaded possibility of a theocracy.
The kind of 'leftists' who supported Assad have no real principles.
It's easy to say that a brutal dictator must be deposed, but it's important to understand what happens after they're removed. Is his removal worth the risk of another theocracy in the region? The track record does not look good, but I guess we'll find out.
I think the root of the Palestinian issue has to do with the direct funding of Israel by the USA. The regimes in play in Syria aren't so cut and dry with things like funding and direct aid. That's a remarkable difference despite geolocation.
I also think if you asked ten people about what 'should' happen with Palestinian or Syria you'd get ten different answers regardless of political leaning. Which is probably part of the problem as to why there's a bottomless well of bad takes to reach for.