Othman Li, Mamdouh Bitar:
Was there a deficiency in the constituent elements of Syria as a state? This is to justify the continued decline of the Syrian state, such as by saying, for example, that this state has been stripped of its natural components, known as Bilad al-Sham. What does being stripped of its natural components mean? How did Bilad al-Sham, or as some believe, the Arab countries, become “natural” while others are not “natural”?
Syria did not fail because it was removed from its “nature,” but rather because of the nature of the Syrians, which had not yet reached the stage of development capable of building a state. The nature of the Syrian people and their tribal, familial, and sectarian culture are incompatible with the ability to build a state. A state requires land, a people, and a social contract, and land is the only thing available to this state, which lacked a people aware of its Syrian identity and a social contract.The area established by Sykes-Picot and recognized along with its borders by the international community was more than sufficient However, some Syrian groups did not recognize those borders and that area and considered Syria “stripped” of its Levantine or Arab nature. Thus, the failure of state-building began. How can one build a state that is not believed in, but rather despised by its inhabitants, who consider it a bastard and the result of a reprehensible conspiracy? Other, more important elements of state-building are the people and the administration, which operates based on a specific political system and a constitution, i.e., a social contract of solidarity and mutual support. In this regard, Syria has “slipped” from the necessary foundations for state-building. The people, for some reason, have not been organized into the state system, which relies on solidarity to achieve the ultimate goal. Solidarity has transformed into the solidarity of groups that do not represent the general public. These groups settled in Syria temporarily, and their sole concern was to reach the final homeland through a variety of delusions, such as the delusion of the Islamic State, which recognizes no borders or specific peoples, but rather a nebulous religious nation. Or the formation of the Arab state, which recognizes no components other than the components of a satisfactory religion and language. Both have become fossils. The closest to reality was Bilad al-Sham, and even that was not capable of becoming a reality. Bilad al-Sham includes Palestine, which has become Israel. Is there any hope of an international resolution that will throw Israel into the sea??? Bastard Syria found no other way to be exposed to attempts that succeeded in consecrating what is called “unnatural,” and the final blow came from the Baath regime. The Baath, which took power and handed it over to the Assad regime, eliminated any possibility of recognizing those who are not Arabs. The Baath here behaved like the Brotherhood, which wants Muslims to be dominant, first-class citizens, and for non-Muslims to be guests living off the bounties of Islam. The Baath turned the army into a Baathist one, jobs into a Baathist one, corruption into a Baathist one, breaching the law into a Baathist one, and Article 8 of the Constitution stipulated all of that. When all of that conflicted with the desires of the majority of the people, the Baath turned them into traitors and began to hunt them down, throw them in prison, and kill them. The more the Baath grew alienated from the people, the more ferocious it became against them, until the Baath, along with the Assad regime, transformed into a form of internal colonialism that is hated, detested, and rejected.
The Arabists and the Brotherhood obstructed the possibility of thinking about a non-Arab-Muhammadan identity for Syria, and were unable to present a civilized project related to democracy, freedoms, human rights, and then progress and advancement of the country. Then they denied the legitimacy of the Syrian entity state, that is, the Syrian state project, because the Syrian state is a bastard and the daughter of the Sykes-Picot whoredom. Several republican dictatorships considered themselves transitional or temporary, and were only a bridge to the unified Arab state or to the state of the Muhammadan nation that transcends national borders, in which “countries” such as Syria, Iraq, Libya, and others must organize. The current Syrian state was not final for the Arab nationalists and for the Muhammadan internationalists, but transitional. All of this led to instability and anxiety regarding the final formula of the state. The transitional entity is not a final state, and the “transitional” formula does not encourage serious work for a “temporary” state such as an Arab or Brotherhood fiery state. The republican dictatorial entities that existed in the state of the formula “Temporary” states awaiting the final formula, such as Syria, Iraq, Libya, and even Egypt failed disastrously, unlike the royal dictatorships, which were originally definitive states, such as Saudi Arabia, which settled down and did not practically think about Arab unity or the transnational Muhammadan nation state, succeeded better than the republican dictatorships, the opposite was expected!!!! These developments had nothing to do with oil, Libya and Iraq were oil republican dictatorships, in general, the policies of the Arabists and the Brotherhood resulted in nothing but disastrous failure!!