Reform Party of Syria: A Mid Eastern Solidarity Movement

Fire of Liberty

Farid Ghadry, president of the pro-democracy Reform Party of Syria, has a wonderful piece over at National Review Online that points out that even though the risk adverse "realists" and friends of Assad within the State Department and other foreign policy wonks have moved Heaven and Earth to find ways to discredit his democratic movement in Syria. Fortunately, Ghadry understands the game and has gazed his eyes over the history of Lech Walesa and his Solidarity movement in Poland during the Cold War and has discovered that Walesa struggled with the same scrutiny from the West as he does now. I think Ghadry destroyed all of the arguments against his movement with the following paragraphs:

In fact, the situation of the Syrian democratic opposition today parallels in many ways Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement in Poland, as it grew from a nascent labor movement into a nationwide critical mass of anti-Soviet and anti-Communist activism. The Soviet propaganda machine at the time did its best to discredit Walesa personally, painting him as everything from a drug-addicted philandering gangster to a stooge of "foreign agents" (a.k.a. the West); the Soviets also tried to portray Walesa as a prima-donna figure who was living the "high life" while his fellow Polish comrades — thanks, of course, to the Communist system — were living in poverty. In other words, Walesa, according to the Communists, was "out of touch." Sound familiar? It should: The Baath are following to the letter the Soviet manual on how to suppress democratic opposition.

But in the end Walesa and Solidarity succeeded against the odds. Walesa was by no means assured of success when he embarked upon the long, exhausting struggle. At times, it seemed hopeless. He was ridiculed, his family was harassed, his integrity was questioned, and even his patriotism put in doubt. But he persevered. He persevered because he paid no mind to the "realist" analysts in the West who thought it unwise to lend moral and political support to an organization that for all practical purposes was likely to fail in its efforts against the full political and military power of a ruthless government with seemingly endless resources at its disposal.

The Solidarity experience has another important parallel among us. Because Syria is ruled by an objectively foreign regime, it would have been easy for us in the Syrian democratic opposition to use the old tools of ethnic hatred and xenophobia to drum up support against Assad II's system of clannish oligarchy and minority rule. But just as Walesa realized that his struggle was not one of Poles vs. Russians but one of Freedom vs. Tyranny, the Reform Party of Syria has not tried to tap into the dark emotions of a frustrated populace. Walesa saw that Poles and Russians were brothers in arms in their desire for freedom. For our part, we view Sunni, Alawi, Christian, Jew, and Shiite all as brothers in arms in that same struggle. We did not choose our path for its expediency. Our ideology defines our method; and if in the eyes of the learned elites that increases our odds for failure . . . so be it.

I just wish that some folks in the Bush administration would offer its full fledged support for the Reform Party of Syria and other democratic movements throughout the region. If we're going to achieve our goal of draining the swamp in the Middle East then support of people like Ghadry is a must.