BEIRUT (AP) — The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government Sunday brought to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto power as his country fragmented amid a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.
Assad’s downfall came as a stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip. Only 34 years old, the Western-educated ophthalmologist was a rather geeky tech-savvy fan of computers with a gentle demeanor.
But when faced with protests against his rule that erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to the brutal tactics of his father in an attempt to crush them. As the uprising hemorrhaged into an outright civil war, he unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia.
International rights groups and prosecutors alleged widespread use of torture and extrajudicial executions in Syria’s government-run detention centers.
The Syrian war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. As the uprising spiraled into a civil war, millions of Syrians fled across the borders into Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon and on to Europe.
Ironically, on Feb. 26, 20[1]1, two days after the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to protesters and just before the wave of Arab Spring protests swept into Syria — in an email released by Wikileaks as part of a cache in 2012 — Assad e-mailed a joke he’d run across mocking the Egyptian leader’s stubborn refusal to step down.
“NEW WORD ADDED TO DICTIONARY: Mubarak (verb): To stick something, or to glue something. … Mubarak (adjective): slow to learn or understand,” it read.
This is going to be a strange little footnote in history.
When the shitposter posts shit for long enough, they become the shitpost.
Glad he’s gone.
I hope whatever follows won’t be worse.
To get rid of a massive cunt you need an even bigger cunt
Good. What a piece of shit he was.
He was, and we can feel good about his leaving for about 5 seconds. The immediate question is who will replace him. The rebels who ousted him have controlled parts of Syria for some time during this long civil conflict, and in those areas they have instituted Islamic law. Women have not had to cover themselves in Syria before. Now they will. We’re probably looking at something very much like what happened to Iran, just with Sunnis instead of Shias.
But he had support from such upstanding groups as Hezbollah, the Iranians, and the Russians!
US backed Sisi in Egypt isnt better. Western backed factions in Libya arent better. Saudi Arabia isnt better, Iran isnt better.
Who outside forces align with for their interests isnt a reflection of whether a leader is a tyrant or not. It is just bullshit peddled to pretend the tyrants supported by “our side” are somehow less tyrannical because they give us cheap ressources and allow their countries to be used as military staging areas.
Down with all the tyrants and power to the people!
And he now being replaced by a group with ties to al Qaida, isis and Saudi Arabia. Of course being assholes themselves. They try really hard rebranding in name, not Ideas. Asad is bad, the people trying to get in power now are not better.
They try really hard rebranding in name, not Ideas. Asad is bad, the people trying to get in power now are not better.
Do you have any specifics on this? Reports, analysis with reference to facts and data. Something along the lines of this article:
How Syria’s ‘Diversity-Friendly’ Jihadists Plan on Building a State
Not saying you are wrong, HTS and the rebels may well fracture. I guess we’ll find out.
First of all a link to a pro-Israël think tank is of no use for any discussion. Think-tanks in general are bad. Wikipedia washington institute
On DuckDuckGo the second link is to the BBC on how the hack are hts and the current situation of you search for it. No think tank slop needed. BBC article
To be honest they only want a “fundamentalist Islamic rule” state. Totally not a problem of course
Conduct a thought experiment and imagine the article wasn’t written by that think tank.
What part of the article is wrong and why? I will note, it doesn’t exactly embrace HTS. Please be specific. Happy to agree it is a bad source if you provide reasoned arguments and alternative data/analysis.
The BBC article doesn’t provide any context beyond the following two sentences:
For some time now, HTS has established its power base in the north-western province of Idlib where it is the de facto local administration, although its efforts towards legitimacy have been tarnished by alleged human rights abuses. … Since breaking with Al Qaeda, its goal has been limited to trying to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Syria rather than a wider caliphate, as IS tried and failed to do.
The BBC article does not discuss public policy in rebel controlled areas or address HTS’s recent statements.
I am not claiming to know the right answer. I don’t speak Arabic, I’ve never been to Syria and my in-person knowledge is largely limited to Syrian friends and acquaintances with whom I’ve lost contact with.
I am genuinely curious about more in-depth information.
I suggest setting this piece aside and researching Idlib, a region in NW Syria where the rebels have had control for years. Whatever PR makeover they’ve attempted, we should be looking g what they’ve actually done with power to date. There’s not a ton of easily found, recognizably-sourced information out there about how a rebel group is governing a contested region. But the word from my family in Syria is that they’ve instituted a Taliban-like atmosphere based on Islam, requiring women to cover and all the rest.
That’s not good. I was hoping they would move towards more open, inclusive governance.
I guess we’ll see how things develop, but this is not good sign.
Today it’s called think tank, yesterday it was propaganda. You don’t read propaganda and think it’s good and fine, do you?
The article claims many things and, being propaganda, doesn’t give any proof. Ah… These events published in social media that everyone seems to know, described in such a fascinating writing style, but somehow are never linked to, embedded, ripped… At the beginning of the article. First two sentences. Bullshit from the start.
Not just a think tank, a think tank that is an unofficial representative of a foreign nation, deceptively sounding like something American.
There is not just one group and they all have their own shtick. I bet the Kurds will want theirs, one group is backed by Turkey, they have their own agenda, then there rate the real islamists… There is 0 chance this just becomes a normal country somehow.
The Washington Institute? Really?
Did you even bother to look up who they are?
Assad should try declaring martial law. That’s a good trick.
Promising to implement tariffs on everyone seems to be a good way to win folks over as well
Or invade a neighbour country.
The rumour is that he tried another good trick: spinning
I guess he’ll have to fall back on his opthalmology career.
Well, he didn’t see that coming so is he any good at it?
He could go the Rand Paul route and make up his own certification board.
Hope those 14 years of boozing it up in Damascus was worth the crater you’re buried in, jackass
Lose a shithead dictator, gain another Islamic theocracy.
Cycle of revolutions…
😓
It’s the same story as with the Arab spring, we all thought it was going to be different. This is just from awful to worse I’m afraid.
People also forget that the French Revolution ended up with Napoleon becoming emperor.
A lot of people want a king to tell them what to do.
Yes. Reality is often a worsening of conditions rather the opposite, this has been the norm.
It’s unfortunate.
On one hand we do have to “applaud” a brutal dictator being deposed, which as an isolated fact is good. On the other hand, what will follow will be much worse, which is bad.
More like from bad-okayish to absolutely terrible.
putin better take some notes…
Sudden loss of country power…check
Run like a mad man…
Hide in a desperate move to stay alive
You choice:
Bunker busting ammo
Heli raid
Simple moldy hole discovered accidentally
Your choice:
Smitherines
Countable pieces
Cheese-like speed holes
Burial at sea
Real hung, but not the good kind
And here’s the perfect clip to celebrate the downfall of that murderous, mum-fearing asshole
Being replaced by murderous Islamist who want Israel to help them out.
Edit: Hi ignorant downvoters. Good job supporting Israel. Do your research next time:
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/12/06/al-qaeda-rebels-syria-israel-usa/
I told you few days ago, we are slowly getting infiltrated by zionists.
They’ve been trying ever since. So far we’ve been holding up and I hope the mods keep having an eye on it. Wouldn’t want this place to become like Reddit.
This are t Zionists. They are ignorant people that keep defending the rebels and saying it’s Israel’s fault.
Assad never seemed like a good guy, but can you imagine what the reality of the situation actually is with every major and some minor powers shit-fucking with the country? You couldn’t have a scorecard long enough to keep track of what’s happened there over the last 50 years.
