Posted by Bill Ryan
(here)
Some history, although most readers will already know this. Bashar el-Assad never wanted to be a politician. He was a medical doctor, an ophthalmologist trained in London.
His father, Hafez al-Assad, the former President of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, really was a 'strong man', formerly in the military and a career politician. The plan was always for Hafaz's elder son Bassel to inherit the presidency, but he died in a car accident in 1994. So Bashar tumbled into the role.
Recently, all reports from everywhere suggest that Bashar had internally pretty much given up the fight for Syria. He appeared (maybe understandably) to be most concerned about his wife's battle with cancer. By all accounts he is truly devoted to her, and her condition was becoming increasingly serious.
He was invited to (and was expected to attend) the recent BRICS meeting in Kazan, but never went — which surprised and disappointed everyone. It's widely suggested that the reason he never went was that he just didn't want to engage with Turkey's Erdogan, with whom he had political issues going back years and whom he disliked intensely.
If he
had attended, a meeting with Erdogan might have been difficult, but they would have been surrounded by highly able diplomats (including giants such as Lavrov) and despite Assad's reluctance and personal discomfort, it's entirely likely that the current events (precipitated by Erdogan himself, but with the backchannel involvement, support and encouragement of the US and Israel) would not have happened.
There are also reports, which may well be credible, that Assad had sent his family to Russia
before the Jihadi insurrection began on 27 November. He may well have known that all this would surely and unavoidably happen.
He'd appeared fatalistic about Syria's fate for several months prior, and both Iran and Russia have stated on record that for quite a period before all this they were continually supplying Assad with intelligence, and offering military support in a whole bunch of ways — but that
Assad had refused all assistance. There was really nothing further that Iran or Russia could do.
Whether Assad's many recent mistakes were gross errors of judgement, or whether he was just kind of committing a slow-motion 'suicide' (
as if he were clinically depressed, which seems very possible but which I'm not aware anyone has suggested), is unknown. Now he's in Russia with his family, it has to be possible that some kind of high-level formal interview will take place, but maybe not for a month or two, or longer.
My guess is that if he were ever in a position sometime to tell the whole personal truth on record, he might reveal that he never wanted to be president, he had never really been interested in politics, he held it all together as long as he could as a matter of family honor, but that in the end it was all too much and he ceased being able to cope.
Alexander Mercouris, himself a Greek and classically trained, has pointed out that in the true Ancient Greek tradition Assad is a tragic hero that all the great Greek philosophers (and maybe also Shakespeare) would have completely understood.
All he had ever really wanted was to be a good eye doctor, and to live a peaceful and happy life with his beautiful wife.
Complete list of all of Bashar al Assad's crimes
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) where people are tortured and held for decades without allowing them to communicate to the outside world.
) except the Sunnis are so busy killing the Shia and vice versa. I am pretty sure that as things regroup in Syria, the country which has Shia, Sunni, Christians, and Alawites will peacefully come together with one unifying agenda: anti-Zionism.
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