If there is one thing that the Syrian president has so far “succeeded" in achieving in the realm of his confrontation with the wide national opposition, it would be the extension of the confrontation as a result of the regime's failure to comply with his people's demands. This helped in opening the Syrian borders to the flow of weapons coming from different sides and serving several objectives. These weapons were brought by the oppositionists in order to support them in their battle to topple the regime. By merely reading the names and daily military statements of the fighting battalions, organizations, and groups, one can figure out where these organizations will be leading Syria in the event of their victory, and the goals that they want to achieve not only in Syria but perhaps in the region as a whole. If the obvious dismantlement of the (political and military) opposition was not sufficient to feed the hopes of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in overcoming its major national crisis with the people, the western media reports that are regularly coming in are talking about the Al-Qaeda inspired radical Islamic organizations and their part in arming the majority of the opposition operations within Syria. These reports will provide the Syrian regime's media with its needed dose of propaganda against the armed men and their goals, thus allowing the regime to implement the theory it had launched from the beginning of the confrontation: the current war is being fought with the “armed terrorist groups." One can imagine the pleasure of the Syrian president as he read the report carried by the New York Times yesterday, which included details on the cautiousness of President Obama's Administration in regard to the identity of most of the fighters against the regime and what they have in mind for Syria following their victory. The newspaper also quoted an official of the Administration who said that “the opposition groups that are receiving the largest amount of military support are not actually the groups that we want to support." On top of that, there are other reports indicating that General David Petraeus, the Director of the CIA, visited Turkey last month in order to learn about the armament processes of the opposition groups and where the weapons are actually going, and to attempt to form an opposition side that the US can work with and support. It would be an exaggeration to say that the US is cautious concerning most of the Syrian opposition groups only because President Obama is hesitant about implicating his Administration in the Syrian crisis just before the crucial presidential elections, where the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, and Obama are fiercely competing. Indeed, the two men are nearly in full agreement when it comes to their position on opposing the armament of “new Afghans" on the Syrian land. Even though Romney seems more prone to actually take part in toppling Al-Assad, he did announce in his last speech that he will make sure that the groups supported by the US have “goals that match our values." Obviously, the Al-Qaeda supporters do not fit in these groups. The Syrian national opposition must naturally not be relying on the American support. However, the absence of political support for the opposition, and the cautiousness regarding its identity and program are now imposing two equally bad choices on the opposition: either to fail and thus keep Al-Assad in power, or to actually “go back to him;" or leave matters in the hands of the “Syrian Jihad," which is now threatening of turning Syria into a “new Afghanistan" right at the heart of the Arab world. This will most certainly have repercussions on the future of the region and the ideologies of the movements that have so far been able to have reasonably successful and hopeful revolutions. This does not mean that Al-Assad's stay in power is the “best possible" solution for the Syrian situation. The Syrians deserve more than that after all the victims and the destruction that hit their country. Thus, the (political and armed) Syrian national opposition must agree on a unified program. This program must be convincing and it also must force the Arabs and the world to realize that the Syrian oppositionists deserve support because they will not allow their country to become an arena of radicalism and chaos following the fall of Al-Assad.
