VIEWPOINT: Fighting Assad’s Forces with a Free Syrian Army

Over the past six months, the Assad regime has systematically violated and strangled the basic laws for human rights in Syria. It has committed an organized and inexcusable amount of killings, torture, rape, organ theft, skinning, scorching and kidnapping of children from their families – to name a few.

The regime has also used its entire arsenal of weapons against unarmed peaceful demonstrators. These weapons include tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, warplanes, helicopters, naval forces, in addition to a plethora of internationally prohibited weapons, such as explosive bullets, nerve gas, and nail bombs.

Calls for an armed insurrection against the regime have not shown any results, but have only provided a justification for the government to continue and, in some cases, intensify its violent crackdown. The regime’s brutal and vulgar attacks have created a hostile environment in which civilians are desperately looking to protect their friends and families from further assaults. It has created an environment where further violence, hate and anxiety germinate.

The counter-army

In a response to the indiscriminate murder of peaceful protesters and the crimes committed against the innocent, many Syrian soldiers defected and picked up arms to defend themselves. Of those, there is the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has been waging successful operations against the regime’s militias in Homs, Idlib, Damascus, Der Azzour and Hama. If the FSA could be better managed, properly armed and supported, the scale of its operations could extend all over the country. NATO could provide support at a very low cost. It could also provide the FSA with a physical base in Turkey from which it could safely carry out its operations.  Any bases it would have within Syria would be aggressively removed by the regime.

Furthermore,  NATO could provide supervision for the FSA. In doing so, it would ensure that attacks are properly planned, monitored and executed in accordance with the ethics and laws of war, and that Assad militiamen, rapists and murderers be taken to international criminal courts and not executed on spot.

Once the FSA was formally established and rooted in a geographical location outside Syria, massive defections and new recruits could be expected. Thousands of Syrians working with the regime are awaiting this scenario to defect.

More importantly, the FSA would function as a safeguard from vigilante justice against regime supporters. It also is a force that would be capable of leading the country  out of the current chaos and mayhem into a post-Assad era.

The FSA is the only organized body that could instill a sense of security and give Syrians faith in an army that protects people, not a regime.

In this screen shot from a YouTube video an officer and soldiers appear to be announcing their from the Syrian army.

Regime’s Achilles heel

The regime is not as strong as it would like to portray itself to be. It acts hastily and without much planning, management and supervision. The regime thought it had designed an indestructible and impenetrable army to keep it in power. But Maher’s Fourth regiment and Bashar’s Presidential Guard have experienced considerable defections, some of which have caused major damage. Although the Assad regiments have been groomed in the past half-century by father and son, Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, to answer only to them, one reality they have not been able to change:  they have not turned humans into robots that unconditionally carry out all orders they receive.

Many defected soldiers have confessed they fired in the air and not at demonstrators simply to avoid retribution from their commanders. Every one of these defectors is living proof that the regime has been unable to create a united army that is capable of murdering innocent people. With most looking for peace in Syria at the moment, Assad is finding it hard to find more recruits to feed his murderous machine.

The FSA has already proven itself worthy, capable and efficient, and it should be thought of as an investment in Syria’s future. There are hundreds of thousands of families who have been affected by the regime’s crackdown since the uprising began and even since the regime itself was established in 1971. Most of these families support and perceive the FSA as the most viable option for a bright future in Syria.

Non-violence noble, but not always enough

Peaceful demonstrations may still work in some areas, but not in most. Peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged where lives are not directly at risk. Syrians do not want to bury their sons, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers anymore. There is no accountability or prosecution seen by the Syrians of those who shoot to kill innocent people; how can they ever respect such a regime? Peaceful demonstrators with legitimate demands should not face death by snipers, random heavy machine gun attacks, arrests or death by torture.

Relying on peaceful efforts preached by those disconnected from the Syrian majority will not be enough to topple the regime. We need to make waves and explore new means to gain freedom, justice, and equality. Observing and allowing Assad to do as he pleases with the lives of Syrians while the world watches and condemns, is simply not acceptable or sufficient. The Syrian FSA needs to be armed and supported with a buffer zone. Or else, Syria will descend into a civil war triggered by Assad’s sectarian violence and provocation, and then regional and international states will be have to step into the mire of a second Iraq.

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