Dr Faisal Al Qassem
The Syrian Baathist nationalist arrogance has not changed, despite all the defeats and disasters it has encountered since the middle of the last century. There is no place for the word “defeat” in the dictionary of the Syrian regime even if it badly lost the battle. What is important for this regime is survival, regardless of losing three-quarter of its army, destroyed left quarter, ruining three-quarter of the country, and displacing half if not more of the Syrian people. What is important is that the regime is still there without caring about all the ruins.
After losing the Golan Heights in the 1967 war with Israel, a regime figure came out, without a blush, to tell the Syrians: “It is not important that we lost the battle or that Israel occupied our land, what is important is that the regime did not fall. The rest is details.”
Till this moment, this comic mentality does not differentiate between the national Baathist regime, the owner of slogans of “repel” and the “strategic balance.”
There is no doubt that the powers in conflict have the right to practise their media resistance in the face of their opponents, even if they are defeated, since this is part of the psychological tactics at the time of battle. But there are limits to this media strategy. Otherwise it can turn into a farce, as is the case of the Syrian regime and its allies.
If you look at the media “triumphal” discourse of the Syrian regime and all those who support it, you would find in spite of everything that happened which the United Nations described as the worst, it pretends not to care about anything. The regime’s supporters behave like victors.
History has not witnessed a tyrant who publicly boasts with his determination the plight of 15m Syrians, among whom there are refugees and displaced people who have risked their lives in the high seas and oceans while fleeing their country. A ruler with self-esteem would step down if his country’s economy were shaken, let alone if the economy has been destroyed completely as is the case with the Syrian economy.
History has not seen a tyrant who completely overlooks the destruction of dozens of towns and villages en masse, who does not care about a homeland, called “Syria” that became an example of failure thanks to his “wise” administration. You may keep on saying that you are not responsible for the destruction of Syria, as the ones who brought violence to the country are terrorists and gangs.
Even if those groups, arguably, are responsible, it does not exempt you from the responsibility. Why don’t you confess that you failed to protect Syria from these alleged groups? Why did you allow them to displace millions, destroy towns and villages, and eliminate Syria, while you boast with determination and victory?
Is it your right to keep on talking and promoting your steadfastness if those groups, as you claim, devastated the country, displaced its people, and destroyed the economy?
O you who praise Bashar Al Assad’s determination, compare your situation four years ago with what you are now! Was it not better if your commander did not remain in power or step down in the first year? Do you know that the longer Bashar Al Assad stays in power, the more young people would pay the price for his alleged steadfastness? Is this “determination” worth the lives of more than 100,000 Alawites, the sect that Al-Assad belongs to?
You have witnessed death hundreds of times and you still claim to being steadfast. There is no doubt that you are now more or less what the people with incurable diseases wish, dying at once but unable to.
The writer is a columnist and presenter in Al Jazeera TV channel.
