The West must stop its deceptive mantra of regime change in Syria and listen to the people instead

Patrik K. Meyer says the ‘Assad must go’ mantra, and vilification of his allies, is grossly biased and hides geopolitical motives, while ignoring the fact that there is no viable alternative

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Demonstrators in Lyon, France, wave Syrian flags as they protest against the war and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, on December 17. Photo: AP

Published: 3:27pm, 3 Jan 2017Updated: 7:10pm, 3 Jan 2017

From the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Western governments and mainstream news outlets have been waging a deceptive media war to remove the current regime. They say it is illegitimate and ruthless, poses a threat to both Syrians and the region as a whole, and should be replaced by the leaders of the so-called Syrian revolution, who will arguably transform Syria into a country where every voice is heard and every need addressed.

These seemingly meaningful and altruistic intentions are, however, just a cover for Western governments and their allies opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, to hide their less constructive and legitimate aims.

Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin accused of using ‘starvation as weapon of war’ in Aleppo

Even after it became clear that there was no viable alternative to the existing regime, the West escalated its attacks on the Syrian government, and their Russian and Iranian partners. It seems the Western media believes that if they keep repeating long enough that the Syrian regime is the mother of all evils, the statements will become true. Such attacks against the Assad regime are unreasonable, given that pre-2011 Syria could have been considered a moderately prosperous country, with free education and health care, and the Assad government could have been seen as reasonably legitimate.

Visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his key ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrive for a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 20, 2015. Photo: AP

One example of this aggressive, biased and deceitful smear campaign is the statements made by the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, accusing the Syrian regime and its allies of heinous crimes against humanity, and blaming them for all the suffering of the Syrian people. Regrettably, her statements were broadly reproduced unchallenged by news outlets and accepted as fact by the majority of Westerners.

Watch: Samantha Power slams the Syrian regime at the UN

To explore the validity of the West’s “Assad must go” mantra, I recently travelled to Beirut and Damascus to meet both the pro- and anti-Assad camps, and, more importantly, the silent Syrian majority blatantly ignored by Western media and governments. My six years in the Middle East, including six months in the 1980s studying Islam in Damascus, provided me with sufficient context.