Syria and the Black stuff

I’ll be honest. I know nothing much about Syria. I don’t know its economy, what its main export is, what it is popularly known for. All I know about Syria, is that it is an Arab country that hates Israel. Which I can also say about most Middle-Eastern Arab countries with a predominant Muslim population. A check on the internet shows that it exports, surprise, surprise, oil! Agriculture is also one of its main economic drivers but because it has the black stuff, its gross domestic product per capita is quite high, at least compared to ours.

 Syria seems to be on the news quite often lately. It is one of the Arab countries to sprout an Arab Spring, or uprising to be more accurate, such as Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Yemen and others. But unlike its neighbors, with the exception of Israel of course, it has chosen to turn the spring to a bloody river. I’ve heard Haffez al-Assad, the predecessor of the current Syrian president, called “The Butcher” as a non-flattering moniker. Of course, it was uttered by an Israeli. He was the president of Syria for 30 years, holding on to power until the day he died. His son, Bashar al-Hassad, conveniently became president. I would assume that he also inherited his moniker.

 Syria is the only country caught up in the Arab Spring that chose to shoot its citizens calling out for change. Assad would have none of the democratic processes being called out for in other Arab countries. So instead of listening to the calls of its people, he chose to silence them. Every time Syria is mentioned in the news, it is because government troops have fired into the demonstrators and killed several. It has been like this for months since it all began in January of this year.

 The Arab league has followed the US and calls from the UN to impose sanctions on Syria. But it is now at the brink of civil war. And the sanctions do not seem to worry its leaders. That’s what having oil does. It makes you arrogant. It makes you belligerent. It also asks the question, why is a country like Syria still allowed to exist? If the powers of the West have entered Afghanistan and Iraq with the exception of removing the powers that be, why not Syria? Why doesn’t the US and the UK go in with guns blazing in the name of democracy?

I guess they don’t have that much black stuff like Iraq.