In 1919, US President Woodrow Wilson dispatched a fact-finding commission to Syria to inquire on the advisability of imposing a French Mandate in the Middle East and to hear out the worries of the Syrian people. The two-man team, known as the King-Crane Commission, visited major Syrian cities and came up with a report showing that the people of Syria are bound to the USA with “feelings of love and respect.” The French Mandate is unacceptable to them, and if they were to be ruled by a foreign power, then they would prefer the USA to any other. Today, 83-years later, these same Syrians, who once loved America, are being viewed by the American public as terrorists and the honeymoon between the two has long passed. In fact, it has been forgotten by a new generation of Syrians and Americans, who have lived a history of political animosity between Damascus and Washington. Where is the love and respect that Syrians once had for America? The answer is that it is still there, but has been smothered by consecutive US administrations who have done little to advance the political aspirations of Syria. Syrians are not at odds end with the people of America but rather, are hostile to the leaders of the White House in every era that has passed since that of President Franklin Roosevelt, who was respected for helping advance Syrian independence from the Mandate and pressuring France to recognize Syria as a founding member of the United Nations. In 1946, protestors in Damascus burned down the Communist Party office in Damascus and encouraged young Syrians to take part in the rampage by saying: “The Communists must be destroyed because they are enemies of America!” This was all that was needed to electrify the street in Damascus against the USSR. It ignited the angry youth, who were more than ready to strike at those who are “enemies of America!” The case is very different today.
Today, talk prevails in Damascus on the latest slump in Syrian-US relations. Everyone in Syria is debating the Syrian Accountability Act and putting on a brave face in defying America. But at the end of the day, Syrians are worried on how matters will turn out with Washington. If hard-liners in America get there way, many changes will be felt in Syria. Visas, both for study and for work, which are already a dream for many Syrians, will become impossible and the embassy will be reduced to a consulate. Also, economic sanctions will follow and the possibility of US strikes on three Syrian positions; the Palestinian camps in Damascus, the Syrian bases in Lebanon, and the Syrian-Iraqi Pipeline, will increase. In the past, there has been rising tension between Damascus and Washington, exemplified by the 1998 protest marches that erupted over the US strikes on Baghdad. At the time, angry Syrians took to the streets, wrecked the US embassy and burned the American Flag. But, at the apex of the crisis, American citizens living in Syria were still safe—safer maybe than if they were living in Philadelphia or Chicago. Ambassador Christopher Ross was still able to take his afternoon jog through the Rawda neighborhood of Damascus, with one companion who served more so as an assistant than a bodyguard. Unlike the perception in the USA, he was not harassed with masked gunmen or young stalwarts waging jihad.
In general, Syrians received news of the 9-11 attacks with mixed emotions. Almost everyone was initially relieved that the US administration was getting a dose of its own medicine, especially since the atrocities in Palestine had been increasing by the minute. But there was wide-spread sympathy with the innocent people killed on the planes and in the World Trade Center. This was the official reaction of ordinary citizens, politicians, intellectuals, and the Syrian Government, who had suffered from radical Islamic groups that tried to topple the Asad regime in 1982. Damascus and Washington started to share intelligence info on al-Qaeda since some of its members were one-time members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Washington was pleased when Syria provided information on Ma’mun al-Dirkizili, a former member of the Brotherhood who controlled a Hamburg bank account that belonged to a member of Al Qaeda and who had met with one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi. Syria also arrested Mohammad al-Zumr, another Syrian-born Bin Laden loyalist who had helped recruit members for the 9-11 attacks. FBI investigators came to Aleppo and worked on tracking down the route of Mohammad Atta, who is a principal character 9-11 who once lived in Syria. President Asad expressed his support for a campaign against terror and Washington showed its goodwill by allowing Syria to hold a seat on the UN Security Council, despite heavy Israeli lobbying in Washington. Matters began to change when the war in Afghanistan became too bloody and there was no sign of bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice. Then, Ariel Sharon toned up his attacks on the Occupied Territories with the March 2002 siege on Ramallah and the direct war threats to Syria and Lebanon. Bush started to send off messages to Asad, via his Ambassador in Lebanon Vincent Battle, requesting a clampdown on Hizbullah and the Palestinian Resistance based in Damascus. In a televised speech on Middle East policy, he even called on him to chose on whose side Syria was on, “that of the terrorists” or that of America? Living up to the Arab Nationalist line of his father, the late Hafez al-Asad, the young President refused to give in and continued to authorize the smuggling of Hizbullah arms to Palestine via Jordan. He also authorized more Hizbullah attacks on the occupied Shebaa Farms and refused to expel the Palestinian Resistance stationed in Syria.
At this point, Congress began to toy with the idea of the Syrian Accountability Act, which was pushed for by “hawks,” influenced by the Zionist lobby and the anti-Syrian campaign of the Paris-based Lebanese opposition leader Michel Aoun. The threats, which were nothing but words in the past, are starting to materialize into serious action. Richard Armey, a Texas Republican, spoke out saying that, "Syria has a long and odious history of providing aid and comfort to the vilest of terrorist groups." He added that a bill is being drafted that will give the US President more room to "punish Syria if it does not withdraw from Lebanon and does not stop supporting terrorism, developing weapons of mass destruction and violating UN oil sanctions against Iraq." Then, the US Senate passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, prohibiting citizens from states, officially described as sponsors of terrorism, from coming to America for visits, education, or work. The list includes Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, North Korea, and Syria. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice snapped back in an interview with ABC, warning Syria and Lebanon that if "terrorist attacks" do not cease, their "integration into the world economy" and their economic "survival" were at risk. Other measures that have affected Syria directly are Bush's policy of side-stepping Damascus in Middle East diplomacy. In March 2002, Vice-President Dick Cheney came to the region to help solve the Palestinian-Israeli crisis and intentionally declined to visit Syria during his 12-day tour. Syria showed its own share of resentment to Secretary of State Collin Powell, who left Damascus and was not seen off at the airport by Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara. A few weeks later, Bush responded by refusing to meet Shara when the latter arrived in Washington. Another form of pressure on Syria has been applying direct pressure on Lebanon. Bush has began to seriously consider the idea of cutting $35 million in annual aid to Lebanon. If implemented, this would undermine Syria's reputation among the already disgruntled Lebanese who have long complained from being the scapegoats of the Middle East conflict. In effect, they would have to pay the price for Syrian-Hizbullah foreign policy, similar to when Israel air raided Beirut in retaliation to Syrian-instigated missile attacks on Israel in June 1999.
All of the factors above explain why the “love and respect” that Syrians once had for Americans is not-so visible today and is in danger of evaporating. True, the Syrians were sympathetic with the American public after 9-11, but this sympathy is rapidly being transformed into hatred. The war in Afghanistan, the unequivocal backing of Israel, the atrocities in the Occupied Territories, the refusal to label the Jenin bloodbath as a massacre, and the threat of a war on Iraq have all toned up the anti-American sentiment in Damascus. More recently, the US Congress bill, signed by Bush himself, which recognizes Jerusalem as the “eternal” capital of Israel has sent emotions soaring. The law, which was signed on October 1, is being seen by some as the point of no-return between Syrian public opinion and the USA. The people of Syria, who viewed Osama Bin Laden with scrutiny for his brutal attack on innocents, are now being transformed, along with 300 million Arabs, into 300 million Osama Bin Ladens. The US endorsement for Israel and its dictatorship in the world order has killed what is left of the moderates in the Arab World. It has destroyed the admiration that many liberal, educated Arabs have had for America. US decision-makers who are asking, “Why do they hate us?” have apparently not read their history correctly. They do not know that Syrians never hated America until 1948 and if the conflict were miraculously resolved today, then surely, this sentiment will change. It might not be what it was in 1919, but it will change.
Damascus The Washington Report
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