An Attack On Syria, US Conspiracy or God's Will?

From the currency traders on the streets of Tehran to the Iranian refugees scattered across Turkey, from high-ranking Revolutionary Guard commanders to the die-hard supporters of the Rouhani cabinet, the tireless Iranian leftists inside the country and abroad to the dogmatic, radical Shia clergy, all have the same concern these days: Syria's war. The mountains of Facebook comments and status updates, the myriad of Internet articles and blogs, and the horrific images of the Syrian chemical warfare victims all dominate the Iranian internet sphere, reflecting the shared nature of this concern. The sampling of blog posts below highlights the range of views and concerns Iranians are bringing to the debate.

In a poignant piece about the situation, the blogger Dariush Mohammadpour writes, “When Assad’s hands were becoming stained with the blood of his own people, he could have reminded himself that no amount of power in all of our planet could have been worth shedding one drop of blood.” Obama and other powerful figures could have and still can ask themselves what could have been done before, so that things would not deteriorated to this point. Couldn’t they have blocked Saudi Arabia and Qatar and prevented the Salafis from shedding so much blood on the pretext of fighting Assad? The Islamic Republic is far from blameless, given in its own enabling role in Syria. Indeed no one is blameless in the face of Syria, before this great stain of human shame and dishonor. We are all guilty, more or less. We are all at fault. We are all dishonored.”

Mohammad Moini, however, blames the Syria catastrophe mostly on Muslims. “Muslims have independently led the biggest share in the Muslim killing project, and side by side of the anti-war population of the world, some Muslims should be happy that the Catholics and the Protestants of the British Parliament did not support the attack on Muslim Syria! It is disgusting, and beyond that, it is very sad that none of the huge inter-governmental organizations, that are only good for cheap talk and group photos, from the Non-Aligned Movement to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League—none of them have been able to do anything to prevent the continuation of the killings in Syria, which have now exceeded the horrific number of 100,000, and the displacement of two million others. All eyes are now fixed on five countries with veto power, who have atomic bombs, and ulterior motives—none of whom, thank God, consider themselves relatives of God like Muslims do—and it is not clear if and when they could be able to stop these crimes in Syria.”

Blogging on the Khabar Online website, however, Mohammad Reza Noroozpoor pointed his finger at the West, citing Mark Twain’s famous line, “God created war, so that Americans would learn geography,” and compared members of the US Congress with the British House of Commons. He described US Congresspeople and Americans as those who “have no idea where on the planet Syria is located, or at least would not be able to identify it on a map of the Middle East,” and yet vote for a war with Syria. He goes on to describe members of the British House of Commons as individuals who, considering the history of colonization, “are fully aware of the anti-war feelings that have seeped into the entire society and know that, unlike Americans, their constituents have no belief that their government is Superman or the savior of the world.” The author has concluded that “it is fundamentally harder to deceive a European than an American, because of his level of awareness about the world around him.”

Rasoul Jafarian, former Head of the Iranian Parliament Library and another blogger on Khabar Online, has reacted more sharply, reporting on “the convergence of the interests of the Al-Qaeda Empire and those of the US over the issue of an attack on Syria. Jafarian accuses the US of creating Al-Qaeda. “During what happened in Afghanistan and in the US, it appeared on the surface that the Al-Qaeda was confronting the US, and now, on the Syrian front, Al-Qaeda is side-by-side the US and the Jabhat al-Nusra and other Salafi organizations are present in these events through US support. It’s interesting that an Islamist Turkey, despite all its claims and even after observing America's support of the fall of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is happy to see the US arrive the region and encourages it.” The Shia cleric predicted, “If Assad falls, a bloody war between the Salafi and non-Salafi Syrian forces will ensue, during which hundreds of thousands may be killed. Right now we observe that after ten years, between 20 to 200 people are killed daily in similar battles in Iraq. Additionally, in Syria, there will most probably be a mass murder of Shiites and Alawis, and naturally the responsibility for this will rest with western governments and the US at the top of them.”

Omid Hosseini, author of Ahestan blogs, similarly blames US officials by accusing them of repetitive lies for starting wars. “If people of the world were not under the influence of the US media and their propaganda horns, they would learn the truth about this story very well, whether ordinary people or media and political analysts,” he wrote.

But Syria is a major issue among hardline Iranian bloggers as well. The conservative author of “Age of Innocence” blogs referred to a quote from Charlie Chaplin’s film, the Great Dictator, “Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people,” and wrote that events in Syria clearly show that “it is only the downfall of the US that can free this world from hardships and unnecessary wars.” Emphasizing that the authenticity of the published films of the chemical attack victims and the related statistics are highly suspicious, he predicts that the Rouhani government will not mind sacrificing the Syrian regime for its relations with the US. “Personally, I have no hope in this Moderation Government, because no government wants to engage in a war in the beginning of its formation, especially members of this Moderation Government and their supporters who chanted “Neither Gaza, Nor Lebanon [I will give my life for Iran]” slogans. But if we are talking about Islamic countries, then we can expect Iran to do whatever it can to help Syria in its war with the West, because everyone knows that Syria is paying for two things: its animosity with Israel and its friendship with Iran.” While the hardline blogger believes that “if the war against Syria is started, have no doubt that the next one in line is Lebanon and Hezbollah, and the third one will be Iran, and the Moderation Government will certainly never see the end of its eight- or even four-year term,” he believes that if the US attacks Syria, “there must be a much more important reason” behind God’s work.

Mojtaba Naderi, another hardline blogger, has written a poem to welcome the Americans:

If hyenas behave as hyenas do

Or if wolves have rabid thoughts

Or if jackals let the chains off the dogs

Or the wolves consider their deceitful ways again

O unawares crow

Tell the leaches for us

If they wish to suck blood in our forest again

We shall destroy the fort on top of their people

So that they will remove the rubble for a long time

Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine are Islamic people

Fear the day that enemies harm our friends