The White House has decided that Bashar al-Assad’s time is up, even though he still has some friends in the State Department. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s failure to get Bashar to stop funding terrorism and promoting insurgent warfare against the Coalition forces in Iraq has finally boiled over, embarrassing both her and angering US Pres. George W. Bush and his key advisors.
Now, both the Bush White House and the Saudi leadership have had enough; and the Bush-Sa’ud alliance on this matter is lethal for Bashar. They want Bashar out, and his uncle, Dr. Rifa’at al-Assad, in. For good reason: Rifa’at — a seasoned, reasonable, and highly-intelligent leader and statesman — has always opposed the kind of strategically suicidal policies of Bashar and his Iranian masters, and wants a stable Levant and a prosperous, market-oriented, secure Syria, living in peace with its neighbors as part of the Mediterranean trading community.
Bashar thought he could go on insulting and injuring the US with impunity. Did he think that he could become continually more brazen in his support for insurgency in Iraq and murder in Lebanon, not to mention the once-again open logistical support for HizbAllah in Lebanon? Is he trying to see how much insult Washington would take, by supporting — as he did in mid-Ocxtober 2007 — Turkey’s plans to invade northern Iraq? Did he not think that even Washington, preoccupied with other matters, would not eventually notice the dramatic disconnect between his lies and his actions?
Well, maybe the State Department would take it. Foggy Bottom, the State Department’s area of Washington, DC, has always had a love affair with people who insult the US. But the White House is another matter, and so is the US Congress and the US Defense Department. And so, too, is Saudi Arabia, which has a deep strategic relationship with Washington. And Bashar has finally exhausted the patience of Saudi King ‘Abdallah, who had worked hard — along with strategic advisor Prince Bandar — to find a solution which included Bashar. That’s all ended.
Dr. Rifa’at al-Assad was recently invited to Mecca to meet with King ‘Abdallah and key Saudi leaders, and, by mid-October 2007, the Saudis had made it clear that they wanted Bashar out of power and Rifa’at — who knows all the corridors of power in Damascus — in charge. Gone are Saudi thoughts of trying to force a Sunni leader to the top in Damascus. And now Saudi Arabia has convinced the US White House and Pentagon that Bashar’s removal is the only thing which could stop the Syrian-supported carnage in Iraq and Damascus’ and Tehran’s planned destabilization of the Levant. Moreover, removing the Syrian leg from Iran’s three-legged stool (Iran, Syria, and North Korea) would do more than any other single thing to stop the Iranian strategic juggernaut.
Sure, the Saudis have been angry with Bashar for the Syrian-sponsored smear campaign against the Royal Family, but that, like Bashar’s gratuitous insults of the US, has now gone too far. Bashar promises to help Iran carve up Iraq, and that would seriously threaten stability in the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia’s strategic position.
Bashar is like a man jumping from an aircraft without a parachute. It all seems to be going very well indeed, until that last little dose of reality: hitting the ground.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Bashar Sacrifices Syrian Lives for Tehran
What was Bashar al-Assad thinking when he began accepting strategic missiles — and, by all accounts, nuclear warheads to fit on them — from North Korea, merely as part of an Iranian strategy to save the clerical leaders from overthrow? The Israeli air raid of September 6, 2007, not only killed a significant number of Syrians and North Koreans, it served notice that Bashar was getting ready to participate in a massive war against Israel, a war which will cost many tens of thousands of Syrian lives.
For what?
Bashar has forgotten that he is supposed to be the President of the Syrian People. He thinks now only about protecting his position, and he believes that only by kowtowing to the Iranian clerics can he be saved. And saved from whom? Clearly, the very Syrian People whom he is supposed to be leading.
It is now an open secret that Bashar has committed the Syrian forces to be part of a massive front which will comprise Iran, Syria, North Korea, HizbAllah, HAMAS in Gaza, and forces in Somalia, and elsewhere, and which will rise against Israel and the US at some time in the near future. Again the question: What does this do for Syria and the Syrian People? Why does Syria need to attack its neighbors and the West? What do we gain from this?
Once again, Bashar has bloodied his hands in Lebanon, killing more politicians and innocent Lebanese civilians, merely so he can protect the HizbAllah position there, because Iran has demanded that HizbAllah be protected, and supported, and prepared for the new war against Israel. What seems likely is that the Iranian clerics are prepared to fight to the last Syrian, and even the last Iranian civilian, to protect their grasp on power.
It’s time for the Syrian military to begin saying “no” to Bashar, and to start protecting Syria from the likes of Bashar and his apocalyptic clerical friends. His late father, Hafez, certainly knew the difference between a strategic geopolitical alliance with Iran, and selling his soul to the pseudo-clerics who are now the dictators of Iran. No wonder Bashar does not want to see, or hear of, his uncle, Rifa’at al-Assad, who, from exile, is the voice of reason, saying: no to unnecessary war with Israel or the US; no to the unnecessary occupation of Lebanon; no to the subjugation of the Syrian People and their right to an economic free market.
Watch for it: Bashar is dragging Syria into a new, major war, and at the end of the day the only thing which will emerge unblemished from the carnage will be Bashar himself, untouched in his bunker while Syria burns.
No decent Syrian would deny the duty of sacrifice for the nation and for future generations of Syrians. But what decent Syrian would say that dying to keep Bashar in power — and a servant of Tehran — equates to patriotism?
For what?
Bashar has forgotten that he is supposed to be the President of the Syrian People. He thinks now only about protecting his position, and he believes that only by kowtowing to the Iranian clerics can he be saved. And saved from whom? Clearly, the very Syrian People whom he is supposed to be leading.
It is now an open secret that Bashar has committed the Syrian forces to be part of a massive front which will comprise Iran, Syria, North Korea, HizbAllah, HAMAS in Gaza, and forces in Somalia, and elsewhere, and which will rise against Israel and the US at some time in the near future. Again the question: What does this do for Syria and the Syrian People? Why does Syria need to attack its neighbors and the West? What do we gain from this?
Once again, Bashar has bloodied his hands in Lebanon, killing more politicians and innocent Lebanese civilians, merely so he can protect the HizbAllah position there, because Iran has demanded that HizbAllah be protected, and supported, and prepared for the new war against Israel. What seems likely is that the Iranian clerics are prepared to fight to the last Syrian, and even the last Iranian civilian, to protect their grasp on power.
It’s time for the Syrian military to begin saying “no” to Bashar, and to start protecting Syria from the likes of Bashar and his apocalyptic clerical friends. His late father, Hafez, certainly knew the difference between a strategic geopolitical alliance with Iran, and selling his soul to the pseudo-clerics who are now the dictators of Iran. No wonder Bashar does not want to see, or hear of, his uncle, Rifa’at al-Assad, who, from exile, is the voice of reason, saying: no to unnecessary war with Israel or the US; no to the unnecessary occupation of Lebanon; no to the subjugation of the Syrian People and their right to an economic free market.
Watch for it: Bashar is dragging Syria into a new, major war, and at the end of the day the only thing which will emerge unblemished from the carnage will be Bashar himself, untouched in his bunker while Syria burns.
No decent Syrian would deny the duty of sacrifice for the nation and for future generations of Syrians. But what decent Syrian would say that dying to keep Bashar in power — and a servant of Tehran — equates to patriotism?
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