After reading Robert Worth's "The Fall of The House of Assad" published on February 6 in The Atlantic, I just have to say, man, what a disgrace.
So many good men died for that piece of shit. He didn't even have the decency to make one final speech and explain to Syrians why he abandoned them in the middle of the night. It was like he was never their leader. He just happened to occupy an office he inherited from his father.
I don't think he ever wanted to be the president of Syria. As I've said in the past, the honourable thing to have done was to commit suicide, not hop on a jet to Moscow as soon as the clock struck midnight.
But Assad was never a fighter. That's clear now. Putin, the Ayatollahs and Hezbollah propped up a mouse. They wasted men and money for a nobody.
And now a sly fox has captured the chickens.
The current Al-Qaeda figurehead in Damascus is illegitimate. He was not popularly elected, and his hold on power is tenuous because he gained the throne largely without a fight. Backdoor dealing and political intrigue elevated him to the president's chair, not military conquest.
Even now, fourteen months after seizing the capital, he still has to rely on Turkey, the United States, Israel, France, England, the EU, and the Arab monarchs to impress his power on Syrians.
And many of them have already defied him, most recently the tribes that left the Kurdish-led administration in the north of the country to join the Damascus government. Apparently they want a cut of the oil money that they grown used to getting for the past decade which they're not receiving presently.
The government of Damascus thinks they're ruling over scared slaves. But things have changed. A decade of war, starvation sanctions, and high inflation has turned Syrians more combative towards the government. Many of them are armed. These are tough people. They aren't willing to acquiesce so cheaply and suffer another dictatorship, even one couched in religious appeal.
The country is still a mess, and it will be for the foreseeable future. An Al-Qaeda inspired regime cannot bring political stability to a country of diverse sects and ethnicities. And I'm guessing that's what Israel is banking on.
Libya still hasn't recovered from the disaster in 2011, and now Gaddafi's second son and successor is dead, so the country's future looks even more bleak.
The problem with Assad, Gaddafi, and ad hoc political dynasties is that they forget about the succession.
Gaddafi should have handed power over to his son many moons ago. Assad should have transferred his dying regime to other, more capable hands since he was never interested in ruling.
These Arab dictators were outwitted by the Jews because of their own frailties and weaknesses. They thought they were lions, but true lions prepare for succession and don't allow their kingdoms to be taken over by hyenas.
