Russia in Syria!

Was published in Arabic in October 10, 2015

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

Firstly: This email message reached me recently: "Peace be upon you Dr. A. S. Mansour. I am not a Quranist, and I am not a political activist. From a humanist point of view, I am against terrorism to be sure. You know of course that Russia is about to begin its military intervention in Syria. I suppose that Russia might win under the certain following conditions. 1) If Russia would seek to create a political solution to the Syrian crisis via "the Geneva I Conference on Syria". I think that the Syrian crisis will be solved only through the political solution within international agreement. 2) I think that Russia is to cooperate with armed opposition factions in Syria in their war against ISIS. 3) Russia should protect civilians from air missiles. 4) Russia should ensure the unity of the Syrian lands. Finally, what is your personal opinion about the Russian military intervention in Syria?"

Secondly: We write our opinion as follows.

1- This Russian military intervention is expected and waited for, because it will occur within the fixed policy of the struggle between Russia and the USA. This is related to the former historical enmity between the USA and the USSR. After World War II, and the emergence of two supreme powers and their struggle and enmity, the option of a military war was no longer available due to the nuclear deterrence. Instead, military alliances and cold war emerged as well as wars within countries allied to either the USA or the former USSR. In the times of the apogee of the American hegemony in many parts of the world (in the 1950s, 1960s, and the early 1970s), the USA tried to siege the soviets and the communist bloc in the Baghdad Pact. This was faced by the positive neutrality and the non-alliance states under the leadership of Egypt (President Gamal Abdul-Nasser), India (Nehru), and former Yugoslavia (Tito). These three states leaned at the time toward the USSR and against the USA policies. The USA continued its hunger for power and hegemony and insatiable desire to control as many countries as possible, and this led the USA to fall into the Vietnam quagmire. The former USSR managed to make use of the folly of the USE policies. As a result, the old Russian hopes to reach warm waters were fulfilled. Russian influence became great in Syria (Hafez Al-Assad), Libya (Gadhafi), and Iraq (Saddam Hussein). The USSR fell into the quagmire of Afghanistan. As a result, the USA managed to take revenge from the USSR. At the time, the Egyptian policy underwent a change under the rule of President Sadat who leaned toward the USA and the Open-Door Policy toward the West and the USA in the military and economic fields. Sadat made alliances as well with the KSA and Wahabism. Wahabism spread in Egypt gradually, slowly and steadily in the middle of 1970s via petro-dollars of the oil-rich gulf monarchies especially the KSA. The USSR lost in the Afghani quagmire. Later on, the USSR came to an end. Russia tried to gather the scattered pieces of the former USSR. Later on, Putin emerged as the new Caesar or Tsar. He tried now to retrieve the former Russian hegemony enjoyed by the former USSR. The coming Russian military intervention in Syria is an aspect of this Russian ambition.

2- The USA made use of the situation of Russia in the Afghani quagmire; likewise, Putin made use of the situation of the USA in the quagmire of Iraq. Later on, the USA left the Iraqi quagmire, with dire consequences. This USA terrible mistake (the invasion of Iraq) forced the USA to pay huge costs during this invasion and occupation as well other huge costs during the failed withdrawal from Iraq by Obama. This withdrawal was not done in a military strategic way. It was a desire to escape fast from the Iraqi quagmire. This terrible mistake of Obama left Iraq to fall as a prey to Iran as well as ISIS and all types of terrorists. This shameful American failure in facing ISIS in Iraq and Syria is questionable and raises many doubts. The American war planes can easily demolish completely all sites of ISIS and wipe ISIS out from the face of the planet. The USA did not do that. Russia is doing it now. Russia now tried to fill in the blank created by the failed and shameful American withdrawal from Iraq. If Russia succeeds in annihilation of ISIS, Russia will have a will respected by all in drawing the new map of the Middle East, especially the Gulf oil-rich monarchies. The USA withdrew from the Iraqi quagmire after spending trillions of US$. The invasion of Iraq made the USA lose a few thousands of killed soldiers and twice the number of the injured and handicapped persons. After the American withdrawal, Iraq has been left in total ruin, massacres, and civil unrest that have reached Syria now. Terrorist culture has reached a certain level that threatens now the USA and Europe. This terrorist threat, as well as protecting the Russian agent Bashar Al-Assad, has become a justification for the Russian military intervention in Syria. Another reason for that intervention is to turn Syria into a Russian protectorate with Russian military bases over the Mediterranean. Russian ambitions include Russian expansion in Iraq and pose as a threat to the Gulf oil-rich monarchies. The Russian policies in Syria are received warmly with great support by Egypt (President Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi) and Iran. Egypt and Iran are the the two real deep-seated and strong powers in this part of the world. The Gulf oil-rich monarchies are considered to be temporary states – however rich they are now. These Gulf oil-rich monarchies are liable to disappear by the repercussions of the Russian intervention as well as the USA withdrawal.

3- The quick fall of the KSA is prompted by the current king who is now on top of the KSA regime. If the Russian military intervention is to reach Iraq, it will be near the KSA borders. The current KSA king, Salman, is said to be partly unconscious. He represents the generation of the sons of Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, the founder of the KSA. This generation has become senile and can never manage matters in this critical stage. There is a known struggle among the generation of grandsons, directed by the son of Salman himself. This son controls his senile father. This inexperienced son made his owned kingdom, the KSA, wage a war, doomed to be lost, in Yemen, let alone the Saudi interference in Syria and Iraq. The oil in which the KSA take pride is now sold at lower prices. American technology has managed to make use of solar energy and shale oil in the USA. The next American president will continue Obama's policy of withdrawing away from Middle East problems, if this president is to come from the Democratic Party. This will lead to the prompt fall or disappearance of the KSA. If the next American president is to come from the Republican Party, this president will blackmail the KSA royal family in this critical stage; this will hasten the fall and disappearance of the KSA. This fall of the KSA represents a profit to the USA. The KSA royal family will surely flee to the West and the USA. The Saudi wealth, i.e. the Saudi gold reserves, is deposited in American banks! In general, the West will profit from the fall of the Arab tyrant who smuggled his billions and deposited them in Western and American banks, and within complicated networks, these billions become eventually without an owner. The West would readily invest these billions to the profit of Western countries. It is expected that the Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi will profit from this Saudi distress to get rid of the burden of Saudi folly and its consequences. This has started by the Egyptian support of the Russian intervention. The ice might be thawed in the Egyptian-Iranian relations after decades of mutual disregard – this constitutes a disaster to the KSA. The tragedy of the people killed in the stampede in Mecca during pilgrimage this year has led to people raising the issue - for the first time on the international level – of what we has called for several times before: the liberation of Mecca from the Saudi invasion. Mecca and Yathreb as well as the whole of Hejaz region ought to be supervised by an international body. We have started this call and have propagated it several times before. Worldwide, via the internet, people have begun to raise the issue. Even Iran has begun to issue statements to stop the Saudi control over Hejaz and pilgrimage. We have attacked Wahabism and its 'holy' notions, and this has become a habit via several other websites and some satellite channels. Hence, what we have struggled for, against the KSA and Wahabism, has begun to bear fruit due to local, regional, and international factors. The KSA is no longer a 'holy' monarchy. It has lost its stature and respect worldwide.

3- We have said at the beginning of this article that the Russian military intervention was expected within the fixed policy of the struggle between Russia and the USA. The question posed now is the following: Is this fixed policy of the struggle between Russia and the USA sound and wise? Our answer is no; this is because the same mistake is being made in dealing with ISIS, the terrorist MB, the KSA, and all forms of terrorist political Wahabism. This mistake is dealing with terrorist Wahabis in a shallow manner by trying to make alliances with them, making use of them politically, and eventually trying to annihilate them militarily when conflicts occur. The USA has made use of Wahabism in its war against the former USSR in Afghanistan. Accordingly, the USA has helped create a fierce enemy to the USA: Al-Qaeda terrorist group. The KSA royal family itself via its leader Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud made use of Wahabism to establish the third current KSA. From within this Wahabism emerged the fierce enemy of the KSA royal family: the Najd brothers who helped establish the reign of Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud and later on revolted against him. Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud made use of Wahabism in establishing the terrorist MB group in Egypt, and this group has conspired against his regime later on. Late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser made alliance with the terrorist MB group members to support the 1952 coup in Egypt that ended monarchy, and later on the terrorist MB group members turned against him and tried to assassinate him. Late Egyptian President Sadat made alliances with the terrorist MB group members for years, and eventually they assassinated him. The USA and the West in general have opened their doors to Wahabism and its clergy and allowed them to spread their venom into the minds of Arabs who immigrated to the West and the USA. Both Europe and the USA pay the price now for that terrible mistake. Wahabism in all its political manifestations and organization is a form of terrorism that refuse to be used by others: it is like a scorpion stinging all that comes near it even if it comes near it to save it. Facing Wahabism with military endeavors alone is doomed to failure. Military intervention might destroy ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the KSA, but it will avail us nothing in facing the Wahabi thought that claims to be Islam and spread under the guise of Islam in educational institutions, media, and mosques. Moreover, military solutions will stir and incite millions of the so-called ''moderate'' Muslims to rise against those who use the military machine. If the military machine managed to wipe out ISIS, the MB, and all other terrorist groups as well as the KSA, the same military machine will help create more Wahabi organizations that will be more terrorist, savage, and revengeful. Within our global village and the unprecedented progress in mass media, it will be easy for terrorists to infiltrate into the west to recruit the angry and the oppressed to be suicide attackers in order to enjoy houris according to the notions of Wahabism Sunnite creed. Communism has been the field to unite all those who dream of social justice and those who get angry because of the American imperialism. After the fall of the USSR, Wahabism became the field to unite all haters of capitalism even inside Russia. Russia now suffers from the existence of the terrorist thought and its organizations in Chechnya and other areas. There is a thriving Wahabi thought activity within Central Asia countries that were popular centers of Sunnite thought in history. Let us remember that Al-Bokhary and other imams of the so-called hadiths came from such areas. Thriving Wahabism in such regions threatens Russian borders in strategic points. The current Russian military intervention in Syria will make Russia make the same mistake made before by the USSR in Afghanistan and by the USA in Iraq.

  What is the solution? The solution is what we, the Quranists, call for all the time: religious and political reform.

1- We are in dire need for peaceful political reform in the larger Middle East to establish democratic, secular states that respect human rights in which citizens enjoy complete religious freedom, political participation, social justice, legal justice, security, and dignity. Without this solution, tyrannical regimes in the larger Middle East will continue to make use of Wahabism and Shiite creed to enslave nations and individuals and to spread corruption, destruction, and civil war. Later on, this will spread into Europe, the USA, and the West in general.

2- We are in dire need for peaceful political reform in the West. There are so many evil powers in the West in general and in the USA in particular that cooperate with evil powers in the Middle East. These evil powers in the west and the USA are the mafia of oil trade and weapons trade. Due to this mafia, armed struggles spread worldwide and turn into civil wars. Riches and wealth earned through oil turn into weapons whose victims are the poor in the east and the West. There are 85 persons in our planet who own half of the wealth in the world. Due to these 85 persons, billions of individuals worldwide suffer poverty, marginalization, tyranny, and corruption. More than half of the 85 persons we are talking about prefer to deal with corrupt tyrants in the East who live off the blood of their nation.

3- Humanity has reached the apogee of civilization and has known the link between higher values and the continuity of civilization. Wars are the worst type of human tragedies; they destroy all civilizations. Syria is an example to show this now. Western democracies have reached the notion of rejecting wars as a way to deal with other democracies. Yet, these democracies still help inciting wars in Eastern tyrannical regimes to sell weapons and to reach all Arab oil by making use of Salafi/Wahabi backwardness and civilizational regressive tide among the Muhammadans. The dire consequences of wars have begun to be felt in Europe and the USA; we do not mean just the influx of immigrants, but also the spread of terrorism in the West and the security failure when trying to face it. The West has to reform itself first internally by controlling the gods of such gigantic companies in order to spread international peace and save the future of the Western civilization itself. Civilizations can never continue without ethics. Such ethics can never be applied when 85 persons own half the wealth of our planet.

Lastly:

 This is not the problem of the Russian military intervention in Syria, the matter is more complicated and deeper that just that.