By Michael Young
The Daily Star

Story Summary

You can sympathize with Syrians looking longingly at the extended coverage in Western media of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan. When it comes to Syria, no such concern is evident. There is an assumption that saving the Syrian people from their regime only means reinforcing Al-Qaeda.

Recently, a Lebanese friend in Paris told me how he had participated in a roundtable on Syria at which Americans and Europeans were present.

Assad understood that one front in his war had to be fought over Western public opinion.

Once the uprising became militarized, Assad grasped, it would quickly become more radicalized.

Even if the Syrian situation is different, there has been an underlying self-centeredness in Western societies to avoid facing the humanitarian outrage in Syria, and this has led to a hardness when considering the situation. As my friend said to his audience, Al-Qaeda or no Al-Qaeda, suffering is suffering.

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Nov-14/237828-typhoon-assad-and-western-indifference.ashx#ixzz2kt83tiBY
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)