Syria: As the bombs fall, the people of Damascus rally round Bashar al-Assad

It was a simple three-hour trip from Beirut to Damascus. The border crossing caused no problems, and thereafter the journey was interrupted by only a handful of checkpoints. My first impression of the Syrian capital, too, was that it is surprisingly safe. I saw no armed men on the streets during the journey to my hotel, and in the city centre life appeared to be continuing as normal. Residents even claimed that President Assad often drives himself to his office from the relatively modest flat where he lives, and can sometimes be seen stuck in the rush-hour traffic. When I had lunch at a restaurant with a government minister, there was no visible security at all.
But after only a few hours in this city, it becomes clear that Damascus is not normal in the slightest. Several of its suburbs are held by rebel fighters, who pound government-held areas with mortars. These do not have the range to reach the city centre, but most people live under the shadow of constant attack. It is as if the residents of Clapham had conceived a desire to annihilate Wimbledon and Brixton, and Islington had declared war on Camden Town.
As with the Blitz, these attacks appear completely random. Many of the shells land harmlessly, or do not explode. Others cause mayhem. On Tuesday, one struck a school in Bab Touma (St Thomas’s Gate), killing one child and wounding roughly 40. And over the past few days the volume of the bombardment has escalated sharply. An accountant who lives in the affluent suburb of Jaramana told me that his area had been hit almost 15 times before breakfast that morning.
On Palm Sunday, I went to the Old City and walked up Straight Street, following the route taken by St Paul after he had been blinded (Kokab, the scene of his Damascene conversion, is now in rebel hands). At the Greek Catholic church, I watched ceremonies of breathtaking beauty – in precincts that had been struck twice in the past week, though happily causing no injuries. On the way back, I passed a man looking dazed next to his ruined car. A mortar had struck it just a few minutes earlier. When I picked up the shell casing, it was still warm.
Over the past few days, I have talked to shopkeepers, students, soldiers, doctors, a dentist, MPs and government ministers (including the minister for tourism, who must have the most thankless job in the world). On the basis of these conversations, I would judge not just that support for the regime is holding up, but that President Assad could very well win a popular election, even if carried out on a free and fair basis. Such elections are in fact due: the president must hold a poll before July 17 if he is not to exceed his constitutional term of office. An announcement is expected soon.

Discussing this vote, I found – to my surprise – that even people outside the governing Ba’ath party, including some of Assad’s political opponents, said they would support him. Maria Saadah, an independent MP for Damascus, told me that her career as an architect had suffered because she did not belong to the Ba’ath, and that she had entered politics at the beginning of the crisis because she wanted to reform the system. But she added that the middle of a war against what she described as foreign-backed insurgents – which is how the regime ceaselessly depicts its opponents – was not the time for that. Syrian sovereignty, she said, had to come first.
This argument is very common. People here see their country as being threatened by foreign powers (above all Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all backed by the West) who are sponsoring the jihadist groups that make up the opposition. I was struck by the fact that this argument is not made only by the Alawite coterie around the president. I also heard it from Sunni Muslims, Christians and members of the various other cultural and religious groups that abound in Syria.
How can this square with the Western narrative that President Assad’s government, with the aid of a handful of tribal followers, is hell-bent on the destruction of the rest of the country? Consider the facts. Only a handful of members of Assad’s 30-strong cabinet (I was told two) are Alawite. The prime minister is Sunni, as are the interior minister, the justice minister, the foreign minister, even the defence minister. The delegation that travelled to Geneva for the failed peace talks several months ago was also almost entirely composed of Sunni Muslims (though they would probably reject sectarian terms, and prefer to think of themselves just as Syrians).
Nor is it merely the political class that thinks in this way. Last night I had dinner with a young doctor. He showed me a Facebook exchange that he had recently had with a former friend from medical school, who has joined the extremist opposition group al-Nusra. The doctor had put out a public status aimed at all jihadists asking them: “Please stop shooting at us with your mortars.” He was astonished to receive a reply from his friend: “I will put a bullet in your heads.” My doctor friend messaged him back: “I am not afraid of you.” This was followed by a horrifying response. “We love death, we drink blood. Our president is dead bodies. Wait for our exploding cars to kill you.”
There the matter rests for the time being. When I asked whether the doctor was afraid, he shrugged his shoulders and told me: “Of course he can come and kill me any time, just by putting a package in front of my door, or asking someone to come and shoot me.”
When I was in Bab Touma, I was approached by a shopkeeper, who insisted on taking me to his antiques shop. There, he served me tea and told me without rancour that no customers came to visit any more, and there were no jobs.
He walked me along an alleyway to his home and pointed to a destroyed balcony where his mother had liked to sit. Two months ago, she had been resting there as usual when she was killed by a direct hit from a mortar. “Your government,” he told me, “is the worst ever; they want Syria to be a democracy and ally themselves with Saudi Arabia, which has nothing to do with democracy.”
I have only been in Damascus a few days and have been out of the city just once, on a government-sponsored trip to the ancient Christian village of Maaloula, claimed back this week from rebel forces. I have not spoken to the opposition (travel in rebel-held areas is impossibly hazardous: many journalists have been kidnapped). I have been accompanied for much of the time by a government minder. I am well aware that the government has committed dreadful atrocities, though I suspect that some of the accounts have been exaggerated.
Nevertheless, I do think the words of my shopkeeper friend are worth pondering. If the insurgents who killed his mother win the war, there will be no Christian churches in Syria any more (just as there aren’t in Saudi Arabia at the moment). Life will be similarly terrible for many of the ordinary Muslims who make up the great majority of the population.
There are no “good guys” in Syria’s civil war. But we should not be blind to the fact that there is a project out there to destroy its rich, pluralist and unbelievably intricate culture and replace it with a monochrome version of Wahhabi Islam, of the kind favoured by Saudi mullahs. And for reasons that history may come to judge very severely, Britain, the United States, and the West have been aiding and abetting this project.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-of-Damascus-rally-round-Bashar-al-Assad.html

 

I've got a lot of time for people like Peter Oborne and Robert Fisk. Great article.

 

I throw my support behind Assad. His government is secular (for the most part) and is better than anything that the Rebels could set up (Syria would probably become another Iran if the rebels got control). That alone is enough for be to be on Assad's side. He also seems to be serious about reform, which adds to my support of him.

 

Give it a rest. The Butcher will never control Syria again. And what silly leftist reporters in West have to say on the matter is inconsequential.

 

Only if you're naive enough to believe his BS.

 

British jihadi cockroach eliminated in Syria

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-27076266

good pest control by Syrian Army

 

Great family he's from! His father said he went for a just cause. Yeah, some just cause, kill all infidels.

 

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If there is a Syria left after what the foreign animals did to it. But that's okay, they'll see what their own countries will become. I give them five years the most and then dust.

 

Yes, the Persians and Russians have indeed destroyed the country. But that's OK; they won't be there forever.

 

If Syrian Army looses, Al Qaeda and Wahhabis will reach Beirut and bring you their values.

This is called "karma"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/karma

 

Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulates President al-Assad on Independence Day

President Bashar al-Assad received Wednesday a cable from Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulating him on the Evacuation (Independence) Day.
President Putin said he is confident that a continued bolstering of traditional friendly relations between Russia and Syria and the constructive bilateral cooperation will help ensure stability and security in the Middle East.
President Putin wished President al-Assad health and success and the Syrian people peace and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr. Wael al-Halqi received a cable from his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, congratulating him on the occasion.
Medvedev said he is sure that a continued consolidating of mutual, multi-faceted ties between Syria and Russia and developing cooperation of mutual benefits in the trade, economic, scientific, artistic and cultural fields serves the interests of the two friendly nations.
Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem, for his part, received a congratulation cable from his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. In his letter, Lavrov expressed confidence that the Syrian people can overcome ordeals, restore security and stability and lay the groundwork of prosperity for all citizens in a strong, democratic and undivided state.
Lavrov said that he highly appreciates close cooperation between Russia and Syria on all regional and international issues, affirming that Russia will continue to fully back the inter-Syrian dialogue and work to prevent external meddling in the affairs of the sovereign Syrian state.
http://syrianfreepress.wordpress.co...lates-president-al-assad-on-independence-day/

 

Even if they do come (which they won't), they will be dealt with. Assad or Al Qaeda, Lebanon will be dealing with terrorism either way. Michel Samaha ring a bell?

 

Dealt with by whom? The Lebanese Army cannot even deal with a few hundred Sunni radicals in Tripoli. That whole city is off limits to Lebanese Army or Police.

And I am guessing you forgot a half dozen suicide and car bombs in Beirut in past 6 months. That's just Al Qaeda being nice. Wait till they actually take over and slap a niqab on you.

 

Actually, Tripoli has been pretty quiet since the security plan has been implemented in the city. Interesting how you ignore Assad's goons in Tripoli (as you probably know, Ali Eid and some of his minions have fled), who are also responsible for the past chaos and terrorism in the city.

Yes, Hezbollah should not have entered Syria to help the Butcher stay in power. There is a reason why those attacks occurred in Hezbollah strongholds. Nevertheless, the Lebanese Army has been doing a good job.

 

I had a question I'm sure Mr. Fisk would be absolutely (not) delighted to answer: When he spoke of bombs falling, was he referring to the barrel bombs-dropped by Assad's helicopters-on Friday and Saturday- 11th and 12th of April, 2014, on the populace of Kfar Zeita - a small village in the province of Hama ?? The barrel bombs containing chlorine gas ???

Probably not.

Fisk has an appeal to those whose truth is "political"-rather than factual.

 

That is not why Hezbollah was attacked with bombings inside Lebanon. They would have been attacked regardless, just because the radical Sunni lunatics consider Shias apostates that deserve to die. If Hezbollah did not go to help Syrian Army, then the Sunnis would definitely come after it, as they see it as an extension of Iran.

Lebanese Army is weak and nearly useless. They cannot conduct own operations without Hezbollah. That is why they called Hezbollah for support when they could not even storm the mosque of radical Sunni cleric.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/24/194812/hezbollah-fighters-report-killing.html

Hezbollah had to come in and save 100 Lebanese soldiers from certain death

 

You can ask me about terrorist launching missiles at my neighborhood in Damascus. I know because I live here. 100 rockets and mortars launched by Al Qaeda landed in my area. Dozens dead and hundreds injured. Women and children are most of victims.

Or you think these were compassionate acts by freedom fighters?

 

My deepest apologies, But when did the teacher leave USA and returned to Damascus ??

 

Evidence of this "fact" please. Thanks.

 

More like Libya.. If the terrorists defeat Assad, you will have a Sharia caliphate who will continue their genocide everywhere they hold their control. Iran is a stable country with some semblance of human rights (not in general but compared to what you'd get with the terrorists). If Assad is defeated, you will never get a stable country there. It didn't work for Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Ukraine etc. and it won't work here.

 

Exactly.

 

Such a coincidence that these "Sunni lunatics" appeared after Hezbollah entered Syria to assist the Butcher! I suppose you are one of those fools who believe Al Qaeda attacked America because of McDonalds and pop music.

You must be talking about the Syrian Army, which had to ask a paramilitary group for help to take over some villages.

Shows how much you understand the situation over here. The problem is not of them being capable, but of the political cover that protects the militants. The reason the security plan in Tripoli has been successful is because both sides have removed their political cover. A deal was made. This is why the Butcher's stooge, Ali Eid, is not in the city anymore.

Comprehend?

Your link provided no evidence of this. So far, all there has been is speculation regarding Hezbollah's role in the fighting.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-defense-minister-army-fought-alone-against-assir

Hezbollah did not assist the army in Naher Al-Bared, now did they? Hezbollah aren't assisting the army in Tripoli, are they?

 

They'd rather he stay in power than have the head-chopping and heart-munching maniacs spread their tentacles into Lebanon. That's why Hezzbollah are in Syria.

 

I would think this would be the most appropriate use for the term "butcher".. The guys that slice up unarmed women and children like deli-meat.

 

Right, because the Shabiba and Co. are so much better. Naive Westerners think that because Assad wears a suit and is clean-shaven, he is obviously "civilized."

Do you what happens in Syria's detention centers? What makes Assad's forces, who lay sieges to cities, pound them daily with artillery fire, drop barrel bombs, etc. better than the other side?