COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN
Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered as the man
who saved Syria.
And I believe he will be so remembered.
This man, so often portrayed in our heavily biased press as
a monster, is in fact a quite thoughtful and intelligent leader.
Not a lot of people seem to know it but he is a medical
specialist, making him far better educated than a David Cameron, and he has
always shown toleration for the many religious groups in Syria. The religious
minorities understand that, notably Syria's Christians, and in return support
him.
He is hated by America and Israel entirely because he is
independent-minded. What an appalling indictment of those two countries. They support
thoroughgoing monsters like King Salman of Saudi Arabia or President Erdogan of
Turkey - both genuine war criminals - and just endlessly call Assad names and
threaten him.
Because the American-Israeli attitude is dominant in our
press, we virtually never hear directly from leaders like Assad, and that fact
alone should tell you something. In contrast, try to find a major Western newspaper
without regular pictures or flattering stories about Netanyahu or Obama. It
really cannot be done.
The tale of Syria's recent years is simply one of the most
disgraceful we've seen. A beautiful, peaceful land has suffered immense
destruction, death, and injury, and sent millions of refugees fleeing abroad in
the worst humanitarian crisis of modern times.
All of that horror is directly attributable to the covert
acts of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and America. It is the fault of no one
else, although we have leaders like Cameron and Hollande, who toy, much like a
cat toying with a living but wounded mouse, with becoming full members of the filthy
game.
Just look at what America did to Iraq. It really is not even
a single country anymore, some of the world’s most precious archeological treasures
destroyed or looted, and the blood of a million stains America's flag.
Just look at Libya. No matter what you thought of its late
leader, Muammar Gaddafi, its people were educated, received health care, were
fed, and generally thrived in a nation at peace. Now, it is a wasteland,
scarred by bombs and left with warring gangs.
Today the press is silent for the most part as Saudi Arabia
- under American auspices always in this region of the world - uses horrors
like cluster bombs and bunker busters and kills thousands of women and children
in Yemen.
The people of Gaza stand in their own filth, not even
allowed the supplies of cement to rebuild sanitation and homes, while our press
and governments say nothing. The Israeli government freely sprays large swaths
of their land with herbicides, and we all know the ghastly legacy of America's
Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Egypt, after decades of a brutal dictator who was strongly supported
by America, finally enjoyed a brief breath of democracy before again suffering
repression under a new American-supported dictator. And why was that? Because
Israel was seriously unhappy with the views of a newly-elected President, by
all accounts a decent man, who now rots in an Egyptian prison.
We live in a world of the most remarkable senseless brutality
and dishonesty from so-called Western, democratic countries, most notably from
the United States in its self-assumed mission to re-make great parts of the
world, no matter how much misery is generated.
And we say nothing, letting bullies and tyrants have their
way.
