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Homeland’s Protectors Kill Their Own

Dima Wannous writes about the protectors of the homeland.
Homeland’s Protectors Kill Their Own

 

The official story of the Syrian regime says the civilians trapped in the old neighborhoods of Homs have come out safely within a truce between the Syrian Arab Army and the armed groups.

 

As the Minister of Social Affairs, Kinda al-Shammat said, "if the Syrian Arab army wanted to end the military operations in all areas, it could do it easily, but the presence of civilians in any area hampers a lot of these operations."

 

The Syrian Arab Army is described by Shammat as "the army of the brave". It is heroic, brave, corageous, it is the "protector of homeland" and "the fence of the nation".

 

The soldiers of this army worked for the past thirty years cleaning and cooking in the service of senior officers and their families.

 

The "protectors of homeland" spent six months in training for newcomers. After completion, they are deployed to different units according to their relations with powerful figures in the government. Some of them master wiping the floors, some master ironing, cooking, or polishing the marble floors. But the one who knows all these things, becomes the pet of the officer's wife. He will help in cleaning, dishwashing, shopping and entertaining the children and grandchildren.

 

The military barracks might be the ideal place to insult the Syrians who lived under decades of humiliation. There, the Syrian citizen becomes an obedient servant for a group of families. The concept of the greater homeland is summarized in a family that includes an officer, his wife, his children, his cars, his clothes, his house, his house curtains, his pots and pans, spoons and saucers.

 

"The protectors of homeland" leave their families and homes to live in the building entrance in a small room that contains a metal bed, a table perhaps and a phone. Their lives become programmed to the phone ringing, calling them to do a task. They enter the spacious houses only to clean them. They drive luxury cars they do not own. In the middle of the night, they go to an elegant restaurant, because one of the family members of the officer wants a certain meal. Most of them do not even have the luxury to even dream of a decentliving because their difficult situations have led them to these jobs. If they were from wealthy families or close to powerful people, they could have avoided the recruitment process to the army and the service of officers. Their poor families live in villages and cities in modest houses. They live hoping for a short "vacation" that they receive as a reward for their obedience and proficiency in household duties. They visit their families, eat their mothers' cooking, and get a dose of tenderness before returning to the entrances of the buildings, where it is cold in winter and hot in summer. These are "the protectors of homeland".

 

Just a few days ago, images of members of the "bold army" spread on social networking sites showing them stealing gas cylinders from the destroyed Homs houses after the evacuation of civilians and militants. Previously, they were seen carrying washing machines and what appeared to be heavy boxes. Members of the army were seen carrying these items on their shoulders, decorated with the stars and eagles.

 

The first thing that comes to mind when seeing these images is what goes on in the mind of that soldier. The houses of Homs belong to those who inhabited them for many years and were forced to leave. If we assume that the conspiracy theory is right and "armed terrorist gangs" prompted the soldier to fight in Homs or other Syrian cities, then what motivates him to steal from the Syrian people if he was the protector and defender of their existence? Those houses he steals from do not belong to the armed gangs, of course. Unless if that soldier was trained to sort the people of Homs in the category of enemies. And thus, stealing them becomes legitimate, even a national duty that he should be rewarded for.

 

Other leaked images show members of the army torturing Syrians. Yes, they are Syrians. We heard their voices and words coming from their lips. They speak a Syrian dialect. No matter how dangerous the charges against them were, in the end, they are Syrians just like those who exercised the most heinous types of torture and barbarism over them.

 

Syrians kill Syrians and rob them. These are "the protectors of homeland",  thieves and murderers along with cooks and cleaners.

 

Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer

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