The international community, led by Russia and the United States, has managed to introduce “vagueness” into the political lexicon.
The various meetings over the past weeks on the Syria crisis, whether incorporating various nations or high-level talks with a select few, have produced the total opposite to what is expected from political developments.
Instead of clarity and purpose, these talks produce announcements that manage to say nothing in many, gushing words, using misinformation, innuendo and downright lies. This vagueness has been the cover for a massacre of thousands and displacement of millions, and those who speak it do so unflinchingly.
Perhaps Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has taken note of this phenomenon of voicing opinion and statements that contradict facts, developments and history.
After spending much of the past five years silent as his regime suffered under opposition attack, he seems to have suddenly woken up to parrot his own brand of blinkered statements. Assad speaks as if his words have relevance, yet he is merely a spectator, playing second fiddle to world and regional powers. And when he does speak, his words are laced with delusion and are devoid of any sense of shame.
He blamed Europe Friday for the refugee crisis, and urged those who have fled to come back – but to what country? He and his allies have forced Sunnis from Syria, and are besieging those who have not yet left, intent on their destruction, the most flagrant demographic crime seen in this region in decades.
Assad and his supporters, indirectly including the Obama administration, should ditch the theatrics. The least they could do is admit that the only thing they care about is the regime’s survival and powers guaranteeing their strategic interests.
