Rejoice, dear reader. For despite the misery of life, the stench of civil wars, and the disintegration of states into warring islands and regions, waiting for the opportune moment to pounce, and despite the flourishing trade of corpse-making and the fear from -or for- the spring, rejoice! It is enough that you are not part of the monitoring team of the Arab League in Syria, not only because the sights there could have harmed your health and balance, but also because working amid heavy fog is exhausting, and is not conducive to discerning the killers from the victims. A mission like this is sure to embarrass you in front of the wife, kids and neighbors. Rejoice, because the Arab League did not dispatch you in a strange, odd, mysterious and vague mission. It was doomed to fail anyway, before reports were drafted and submitted, with the corpses, to the office of the nation's burden bearer Mr. Nabil al-Arabi. The Secretary-General is supposed to be aware of the gravity of the task, that it is akin to playing with bombs, and that one mistake can blow away a couple of fingers. Al-Arabi knows for sure that ambiguities have gone hand in hand with the idea of deploying Arab monitors in Syria, from the first moment of its inception. The countries that have suspended Syria's participation in the League's institutions knew that the conditions for internationalization were not yet ripe. They also knew that Vladimir Putin, who is facing elections after which he shall return to the Kremlin, is in need for a dose of defiance. Indeed, in the Libyan adventure, Russia came out empty-handed. Also, the collapse of the Syrian regime would deny its fleet its safe haven in Tartous, and threatens its presence on the frontline with Israel and its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In addition, Russia has its share of problems with its own Islamists. The Russian-Chinese stance is an obstacle to internationalization or at least, it pushes it into long and arduous negotiations. Meanwhile, NATO is not prepared to act on its own for many reasons. For one thing, Syria, with its position and composition, is not Libya, and going to a new costly war that may include Iran and Lebanon is not an acceptable option for leaders in election years. The League thus was compelled to do something. Having monitors dispatched to its territories was not good news for Syria. Monitors are usually sent to troubled countries. However, Damascus used its skill in negotiations and managed to neutralize in advance the monitors' mission. At the same time, it abided by a Russian advice to accept the League's proposal to prevent an Arab consensus against Syria from forming, one that would otherwise embarrass Moscow and Beijing. The countries that have a strict stance in rejecting the Syrian crackdown against the protest movement consider the monitors a step that may justify internationalization later, as a result of the report's contents or because of accusations against Syria of having derailed the mission. This is while countries sympathetic to the Syrian regime took it as an opportunity to fend off internationalization, and prove that both sides of the conflict there are using violence. The Syrian opposition, on the other hand, accepted the observers' mission grudgingly. At the same time, the opposition wagered that an end to the killings will, should it indeed come to pass, prompt protesters to flock in droves to the public squares. But the authorities became aware of this dream of the opposition. They acted, since day one, as if the presence of the monitors does not entail at all a ceasefire. Indeed, since the onset of the protests, the government took a firm decision to prevent the opposition from finding their own Tahrir Square, a permanent place for protests or a rebel region like Benghazi that can be used to facilitate a Turkish and international role to overthrow the regime. A ceasefire would thus have paved the way for massive demonstrations, which would have meant that a transitional period has begun. Hence, coexistence between killing and observer visits was arranged, especially in those cities that are witnessing the early signs of civil war. Nabil al-Arab was caught in the crossfire. The confessions of the dissident observer embarrassed him. The latter complained of strict oversight over the work of the monitors, and he spoke of atrocities. But the head of the mission General Ahmed al-Dabi suggested that it works as accurately as Swiss watches. However, al-Arabi's appointment of Dabi was not prudent to begin with. He did not have to hire a general who graduated from the Darfur school for human rights. If the reports are to convey the horrors of what is going on, al-Arabi will then find himself playing with bombs. When the night descends on the Arab League building, he will have no choice but to remember the adage that he who observes other people will die of worry. In fact, this is taken from a verse of poetry that says, “He who observes other people will die of worry, but to the nonchalant goes all the pleasures”. Rejoice, dear reader. You have neither observed nor written. Hatred is spreading in the region and its troubles states, and the worst is yet to come.
