As Americans hear seemingly endless debate about Syria — debate that mostly involves political analysts and reporters based in Washington — there is probably an increasing amount of Syria-fatigue setting in. Haven’t we already heard more than enough?
The reality, though, is that there is a world of difference between hearing people talking about Syria and knowing that much about what’s going on there.
August 21 has been marked as the day everything changed, but how many Americans are aware that since 1,400 people died on that day, another 1,400 Syrians have subsequently been killed?
These were the deaths that few in the Western media see any reason to mention.
64 deaths yesterday, 87 on Thursday, 72 on Wednesday, 66 on Monday, 107 on Sunday, 118 on Saturday, and on and on — the daily deaths in dozens that have become the signature of Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
Why not expand the list a bit? Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen…
Oh yeah, and I left out pretty much all of North Africa. Does a thoroughgoing knowledge of the particulars of any of these conflicts really make a world of difference in our understanding?
From what I can understand, Syria is really several parties all vying for control of the country and involved in the killing of civilians. Again, it’s all in what definition fits your agenda. Countless Americans are dying for lack of health care, inadequate nutrition, dismal living conditions, etc and that’s on a daily basis. 1.5 million American kids will go to bed hungry tonight. How many homeless will die tonight? How about the Indian reservations?
All the while millions of us live in extravagant homes, drive enormous vehicles, etc while we expend huge amounts of tax dollars on expensive military hardware.
In the cynicism of old age, I am amused at how we separate how people die based on what we do is OK but what others do is not. To me the human animal is a brutal, violent animal that hides behind a façade of caring and religion. Assad is a brute while we are a loving caring people. Give me a break!!
Yes, Eugene, if you’ve never run across it there is a fascinating book by an anthropologist named Colin Turnbull called The Mountain People. It is about his time spent among a tribe in Africa called the Ick in which the bonds of human compassion have utterly broken down, even within the nuclear family. It is grim reading and in reading it I couldn’t banish the nagging thought that we are the Ick and that the temporary abundance of energy which we enjoy allows us to deceive ourselves.