Jackson, it’s time to stop trolling.
If you want to root for a Syria in which the axis can continue its operations and resist western imperialism, that’s understandable.
But if you want to deny the crimes Bashar, his father, and the regime committed against their own people in order to maintain their grip on power, then you dishonor yourself.
There isn’t a ruler on earth, even those who are actually decent, who can claim to have “done nothing wrong.”
It’s an absurd statement.
Syria is a cluster fuck and Bashar shares responsibility.
Yes, the West took advantage of the Arab Spring to carry out their not so secret objective of reshaping the Middle East but it’s time to stop pretending that Bashar was an honorable, well liked president and that the revolution was nothing more than a Pentagon concoction.
If it surprises you why people would revolt against Bashar, or any other ruler in the region for that matter, then you really don’t know what life was like.
For those of us living in the west, we know our parents left because of how terrible these rulers were.
There was simply no respect for the opinions, lives and property of the citizenry, especially if they were sympathetic to political opposition.
Yes, these dictators held elections but their opponents were always straw-men, mere Mannequins on a stage to appear legitimate.
But in reality, they were like Jake Paul boxing matches. No one really took the opponent seriously and we all knew who was going to win.
Because if the opponent actually posed a threat, they’d be in jail.
Or worse.
This is why Saddam Hussein would win his elections with 99.6% of the vote, a laughably absurd figure that is impossible without corruption and repression.
Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, Bashar, they were no different.
In 2021, Bashar won with 95% of the vote.
Are we really supposed to believe that after a decade of civil war only 5% of the people thought that maybe there should be an alternative option in office ?
And when he first came to power in 2000, Bashar supposedly won with 94% of the vote.
There is no such consensus in a truly open democratic system because of the natural differences in political preference and perspective.
But the people know:
If you don’t vote for the dictator, you draw unwanted attention on you and your family by the secret police thugs who have free rein to beat you, jail you, or straight up murder you.
The reality is that Bashar, Saddam, and all other dictators were drunk with a power that could only be matched by their paranoia because they knew they had not come to power through legitimate means.
They stole power, by force, so they were always terrified that someone would one day steal it from them.
They saw threats in every shadow. They were terrified so they unleashed that terror onto their people.
A completely innocent family member of mine was jailed and then executed merely because he was suspected of nefarious activity (he was 100% innocent).
So many people in the Middle East can relate to this experience, especially in Syria.
The Assad family is responsible for some of the worst massacres.
Our rulers were thugs and brutes and they most certainly did something wrong.
I say this as someone who supports the resistance and the defeat of Zionism,
If you want to root for a ‘geopolitical outcome’ in the region, go ahead.
But spare us the nonsensical praise of a nepo baby turned dictator who tore his nation to pieces just to rule over the ashes.