[Image Credit: MattysFlicks]

The Syrian regime and the official western backed opposition have been meeting to try and wrestle some peace out of the mess that Syria has become. The talks according to the regime are to save Syria and Syrians lives. Indeed it has even been quoted that the discussion of the slobbering dauphin Mr Assad’s reign hasn’t yet been discussed.

Of course this is coming from a regime which brutally slaughters its citizens and from an investigation headed by Mr Da Silva the man who successfully investigated Charles Taylor’s war crimes has ‘good reason’ to believe that it is engaged on a systematic campaign of torture, mutilation and killings against opponents of the regime based on 11,000 photographs taken. It is with a rather twisted irony that this regime, the one which has been murdering and has even gassed its own citizens is concerned about saving their lives. Indeed the only objective this regime cares about is its own survival and as it has shown it shall stop at no lengths to attain this.

What has not been said of course is that these peace talks are realistically already too late, as whatever the outcome the Syrian people will not be getting what they originally protested for. What started as a pro-democracy movement against the North Korean equivalent of the Middle East with its family monarch has turned into a bitter and dangerous game of power play in the Middle East.

On one side you have Iran who is more than happy to lend their support to Hezbollah who are already a toxic influence in the region, have committed war crimes and are a terrorist organisation. On the other side you have Saudi Arabia and Qatar funding the very worst elements of Islamic fundamentalism which are toxic to the forces of civilization. The Syrian people are now being butchered and beaten by both sides, with the original protest movement being pushed back by groups such as Jahbat Al-Nusra and ISIS which were also a group who were dedicated to sabotaging efforts to try and rebuild Iraq.

The ultimate losers of these talks are the Syrian people who have to bear the fact that an unelected government claiming sovereignty over a nation, who has so rampantly abused their own people, will most likely be in power as they have a distinct military advantage. The supposed victory for the anti- war movement in stopping the West defending democratic rights of ordinary Syrians has turned sour. Non-intervention as a policy has shown itself to be weak and helpful to no-one except the shameless self-promoter George Galloway who defends every tyrannical regime from North Korea to the human toothbrush, Mr Assad. There have been 130,000 combat casualties and at least 2 million displaced civilians in the conflict now, after just three years it almost makes the disaster of Iraq look successful. A genuine democratic movement has been swept aside and now there is a fight between two distinctly nasty groups who align themselves with equally nasty regimes.

The anti -war movement should hang their heads in shame in allowing this conflict to escalate to such a point and allow a man who has used chemical weapons against his own people to stay in power, although it seems as in the case of Iraq the anti-war movement do not care about dictators using chemical weapons. Indeed it seems the anti-war movement do not give a damn about human rights, democracy, legitimacy and anything beyond the antiquated Westphalian notion of sovereignty. Syria should be seen as the non-interventionists Iraq and it should be a warning against not standing up to tyrants, that not doing so causes much more damage than fighting them.

By Sam Mace