Yesterday I was sitting in a cafe waiting for a group of scholars, reading an Emirates institute book from the shelf that expressed, the culmination of energy interests and defense spending is not enough to account for the reasons why western leadership will not support democracy in the region, and chooses instead to enable extremism.
Yes, western governments have the upper-hand of power in the world, and certainly they have the best of intentions, no matter the policy decision. But they have to pick their battles, and they only know their choices by who walks in their door and educates them on the options.
Lobbying and government relations comes at a price of manpower, prestige, connectivity, and influence. Any individual can make a sizable contribution to their political candidate of choice, shake their hand, but this does not mean that the funds will actually result in any advocacy or remembrance down the line.
Western leaders know the person who walks in their door and has repeated conversations with them regarding insight and direction on next steps. Outside that door, western leaders are limited to being sole observers. It does not matter how many millions of people fill the streets and risk their lives for their preferences, how many hundreds of thousands are tortured and butchered in political prisons, or how many tens of thousands die in brutal massacres. If there is no one in a member of congress' office, if there is no one at the US State Department, if there is no one inside the US Defense Department, day in, day out, engaging in the debate and furthering the platform, no one from America will come to the rescue. What more, it matters even less if these very unsung do not have a plan for unlocking and rearranging the $25 Trillion dollars in the global market which is threatened by warfare, even if the market could ultimately be freed and more lucrative for all in the end.
When a series of groups affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood not only engage in government relations, but also hold seats at affiliate groups like US Institute of Peace, entities like the Syrian National Council maintain the upper-hand of influence, because absolutely no one is in any of those offices as much as MB or SNC is. MB and SNC have plenty of funds for these activities, so why not the Middle East secular democratic and human rights promoting opposition?
Who do you trust? Who do you represent? Who is out there? Who is making a difference? Who are the beneficiaries that would be advocated for in the process of any government relations? How do you know they are legitimate? What is the difference between a secular, a reformist, an extremist, or a terrorist? How do you know these beneficiaries are actually speaking for the people?
What is enough? What does it take to prove how effective the beneficiaries are? What does it take to prove that certain groups are 100% justifiable to be advocated for? How have sponsors been betrayed? How have the people been betrayed? How many people are burnt out? Is this really impossible?
No. WIth the most effective beneficiaries having evidenced track records of activities and positive change on the ground, exhibited positive relations with western leadership, extended affiliation with peer groups both from their own country and other countries, strict denouncing of extremism, and commitments to in as nonviolent transitions as possible, there is absolutely no excuse not to support the Middle East opposition for who they are, who they represent, and what they dedicate their lives to. Whether they are from Iran, Syria, Egypt, or anywhere else in the region, the oppressed women, silenced scholars, tortured human rights lawyers, businessmen who have been shut down and beat up, raped children, defected government officials, defected military, diaspora, and everyone else on the right side of the fence deserves your support. This generation's passion for liberty is an entirely different definition of "Make Love, Not War", because there, the right to Love is the right to hold hands in public, the right to choose your own husband, the right to wear your hair down in public for your husband, the right to divorce a husband who rapes and beats you every night, and the right to bring peace to the world by freeing their own country in the essence of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Einstein combined.
Let there be no more martyrs.
