Syrian elite and army continue support for Assad
War in Context
… with attention to the unseen
Professor Landis is about the best analysts in the US. What was missed in the interview was the bias that the US and EU media has on the situation. From the very beginning, they accepted and broadcast outrageous stories from the YouTube rebels. There were the 30,000 Iranian soldiers crushing the demonstrators–how they got there seemed inconsequential. There were thousands of Hezbollah fighters shooting the protestors–though no one asked why Hezbollah would denude its front with Israel with all of its fighters. There were dramatic videos showing clashes that turned out to be taking place in Egypt and not Syria. Most recently, the US and EU press were consumed with the capture and torture of gay Syrian girl. The internet organizers of the rebellion know the importance of controlling the story, and have done an outstanding job in doing so. What can be more attractive to the secular west than youthful techies opposing tyranny? What words have greater emotional significance to Americans/Europeans than “freedom” and “democracy?” What has been mostly overlooked by the US/EU media is that the leaders of this movement failed to produce a statement of their political vision for a new Syria other than Assad’s removal. The “Arab Spring” is not a unified voice on what the disparate groups desire in the wake of the fall of the regime. Should reporters actually do some investigation, they would discover that many of these marchers have an agenda that is not consistent with the image being broadcast. There are those who will seek out revenge–it is sectarian. There are those who do not adhere to religious freedom and protection of minorities. The conservative religious regions have little in common with the secular/technological savvy youth. The urban-rural conflict over economic and political power will survive the fall of the Baathists. Dr Landis is correct in talking about how it will take a major foreign military intervention for this insurrection to succeed. The purveyors of the storyline now is to draw US/EU into the struggle. The death toll will far exceed the numbers we have seen thus far.
Your story about the western media is absurd. I havent seen any reports of 30000 Iranians. I’ve heard people coming out of syria having claimed that they saw iranians. I don’t believe there are iranian or hizbullah fighters in syria. I agree with you that thse are sectarin rumours. I don’t however, agreew ith your ugly slander of the rural protesrtors. It seesm to me that the sectarian is you. So much anti-Sunni, anti-lower class prejudice has been on display from regime-supporters. The pro-regime people really remind me of Zionists – the victims arent really suffering, they’re acting, they deserve to suffer anyway because they’re scum, they hate us because they’re anti-semitic/anti-alawi, look they said allahu akbar, it proves they want to kill us all.
if you think repeating regime slanders against opposition leaders, and portraying irrelevant exiles as ‘leaders of the uprising’ when the uprising is domestic and most people marching have never heard of these people, makes Landis the best analyst in the US I can’t help you.
As for your thing about ‘revenge’. There are certainly people in Syria who want revenge on this regime. That’s not necessarily because they are sectarian. It has more to do with the fact that the regime is torturing children to death and using tanks against residential areas. Obviously. My best friend is an Alawi.nd he’s passionately agaisnt the regime. I suppose he’s sectarian too?