Syrian Fascism Strikes Again

The Kurds are a homeless people whose plight has never interested the Axis of Evil, linking the Moonbat Left with Islamofascism. The struggle of the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq are somewhat familiar to Westerners. What is less well known is that Syria also has a large Kurdish minority. Strangely, all those people so convinced that creating a 23rd Arab state and granting "national self-determination" to Arabs called by the media "Palestinians" is the only conceivable solution to the Middle East conflict. Yet none of these same people have come out for Kurdish national self-determination!! Why not? Maybe because Kurdish self-determination would not help in destroying Israel?

The Syrian Kurds in particular are harshly repressed by the Ba'athist fascists. This week the body of the head of the Kurdish movement in Syria was recovered after he had been murdered by the regime. The body of Sheik Machouk Alkhaznawi was returned to his family yesterday, three weeks after he went missing. Amnesty International, which no one suspects of being pro-America or pro-Israel, and members of the Kurdish Democratic Party said he was killed by authorities, citing evidence of torture on the body. The Assad junta claimed he had been killed by a mysterious criminal gang. A few days before his disappearance, the Canadian Globe and Mail correspondent Paul Koring interviewed Mr. Alkhaznawi in Damascus, for a story about Syria's newly emboldened political dissidents. "Either the regime will change, or the regime must go," he said in the interview. That sealed his fate.

The 46-year-old Kurdish cleric was a champion of tolerance, respect between Arabs and Kurds, and the compatibility of democracy and Islam, before he disappeared last month. He came from the remote Syrian city of Qameshli, in the heart of what 20 million Kurds call Kurdistan.

The Ba'athists also continue to murder people in Lebanon, despite the "withdrawal" of Syria troops from Lebanon, a withdrawal that left behind a large intelligence infrastructure and Syria-controlled terrorist groups. The NY Sun reports this week, "The Syrian dictatorship is tottering and weak. President Bush has decided that Bashar al-Assad will be gone and that the route to Iran is through Syria." Reuters and the NY Times report that Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir was murdered this week via a car bomb by Syrian operatives for criticizing the Ba'athist regime. He had written: "The Baathist regime in Syria is behaving the same way it behaved in Lebanon, making mistake after mistake." "Bashar al-Assad and Emile Lahoud are behind it," a senior Lebanese opposition leader, Marwan Hamade, told the Christian Science Monitor. "The Syrian regime is responsible from head to toe for this horrific terrorist crime. Lebanon's opposition should promptly close ranks anew to have every Syrian intelligence cell left behind in Lebanon ruthlessly smashed," the general manager of An-Nahar, Gebran Tueini, told reporters at the scene.

Meanwhile, the NY Times reports this week that Syria test-fired three Scud missiles last Friday, including one that broke up over Turkish territory and showered missile parts down onto unsuspecting Turkish farmers. All the missiles were launched from northern Syria, near Minakh, north of Aleppo, Israeli officials said. One was sent about 250 miles to southernmost Syria, near the Jordanian border. The one that broke up was fired southwest toward the Mediterranean, over the Turkish province of Hatay, the ancient Antioch, and shed debris over two villages there. The Israelis said they had film of the launching and breakup. The test was the first time Syria had fired a missile over another country - a member of NATO and possible upcoming member of the EU, no less! - when Damascus could easily have moved its mobile launchers to the center of the country to avoid flight over Turkey altogether.

The Moonbat Left continues its jihad in support of the Syrian regime and against Amrerican "warmongering" against Syrian fascism. We expect Counterpunch soon to launch its "Take a Ba'athist to Lunch" program.

It is time for President Bush to teach the Ba'athists the game of "dominoes!"