- A fear of “terrorism” is obscuring the threat of fascism in Syria, writes Fahad Nazer
- Once a fascist mindset has been instilled into a support base, peace seldom follows, he says
- If al-Assad’s regime were to regain control of Syria, it might turn on other nations, he says
- The world should remember the devastation wrought by fascist powers in the past, Nazer says
Editor’s note: Fahad Nazer is a terrorism analyst and former political analyst at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his.
(CNN) — Amid the continuing bloodshed and turmoil in Syria, one thing is becoming clear: The Assad regime’s propaganda campaign against the opposition is resonating with some countries in the West and elsewhere.
The regime has consistently characterized its opponents as “terrorists.” And while the once peaceful Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations have long morphed into an armed insurrection that includes a wide array of Islamist groups of varying militancy, some in the international community are allowing their all-consuming fear of “terrorism” prevent them from recognizing an equally dangerous ideology that not long ago engulfed the entire “world” in a war that cost millions of people their lives, and which was responsible for unimaginable atrocities, the full scope of which is still being ascertained today.
Those who have adopted the view that the Assad regime’s continuation in power is a “lesser of two evils” should be under no illusions as to what their preferred option is: Fascism.
If history is any indication, once a fascist “mindset” has been inculcated into the support base of a regime, peace seldom follows.
The quest for vanquishing enemies — both internal and external — never ceases.
The international community’s reluctance to punish Syrian Bashar al-Assad over his obliteration of all norms governing civil wars, should make it consider the strong possibility that it will be compelled to confront him at some point in the near future, when he defies the rules of international relations by launching an unprovoked military attack against a nation on which he blames all Syria’s troubles. The most likely candidate is Saudi Arabia.
While this scenario seems remote for a number of reasons — logistics and the tattered state of the Syrian economy and military being the three most obvious — one should remember that past fascist regimes’ ill-fated military adventures also took others by surprise, as they seemed to defy conventional wisdom on several fronts.
Much like the ideologies that justify terrorism, fascism operates within unique moral parameters and therefore its calculus will always confound those who do not adhere to it. A scholar on terrorism recently put it best when he wrote that “sacred values” produce “devoted actors (as opposed to rational actors), who are willing to resort to extreme violence with little regard to risks and rewards or costs and consequences.” The same is true of the most militant variants of fascism.
People who dismiss such a scenario should listen carefully to al-Assad’s recent verbal assault against what he calls “Wahhabism” and how it should be “eradicated from the root.” Those who doubt that such an attack is within the realm of possibilities should remember another Baathist regime that based its legitimacy on military prowess and delusions of grandeur and that went from one devastating war to another; former Iraq President Saddam Hussein’s. At the time of his war with Iran, many considered him “the lesser of two evils.”
In a fascist state, preserving the nation’s security, stability and unity against the machinations of internal and external enemies is dogma; it is the founding myth of the Syrian regime. The fact that Assad’s forces haveFahad Nazer
(CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the photographs, documents and testimony referenced in the report, and is relying on the conclusions of the team behind it, which includes international criminal prosecutors, a forensic pathologist, an anthropologist and an expert in digital imaging. The Syrian regime denies torturing detainees. The Syrian Ministry of Justice
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