Assad: Most Persistent dictator of the 21st Century? (from draft archives)
{A drafts from a year ago- still relevant 4/3/14} Hate to play devil’s advocate but Assad’s persistence is almost admirable; but I should quickly add that, the resulting effect of him clinging to power at the the expense of Syria is not…
- Date
- April 3, 2014
- Collection
- Journal
- Reading time
- 3 min read
- Type
- Essay
- Archive status
- Written by Fiifi
From the archive: Originally shared on 2014-04-03 through mrfiifiappiah. Language, links, and opinions reflect their original context.
{A drafts from a year ago- still relevant 4/3/14}
Hate to play devil’s advocate but Assad’s persistence is almost admirable; but I should quickly add that, the resulting effect of him clinging to power at the the expense of Syria is not (Am sure Kim Jong Un world will disagree), a moderate like Assad should know better.
When the Arab spring begun almost three years ago, citizens of countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and LIbya were courageously overthrowing despots like Mubarak and Ghadhafi.
When the uprising begun in Syria, many (myself included) thought it was only a matter of time, until the Syrian people marching on the streets took over the country and elected a new leader just like the rest- “easy peezy”.
Not so fast. Its been over a year since, and Assad is still the leader of Syria, and posting pictures on Instagram like its no one’s business.
No one anticipated the situation to escalate to political stalemate like this. A political stalemate? Yes, the lack of effectiveness from the Syrian people to initially overthrow Assad as seen in Egypt and Tunisia or come up with a unified opposition and the delay/stand-off/inaction of the international community has morphed the innocent cry for political revolution into something more complex.
I’ll leave detailed explanation of how the situation got to its complex state for political science papers and books to deliberate on. But in a nutshell, the ineffectiveness of Syrian people to come together to overthrow Assad in the first six months resulted in Assad’s slow and building confidence in using military action to subdue the rallies and protest in the street and then rebels. While Assad was slowly testing how far he could get away with what, the rest of the world aka “America and its allies” were 1. In dire financial straits. 2. Thought what most were thinking at the time: this is going to end up just like all the other Arab Springs in a matter of time.
We we’re all* wrong. I recall listening to a pundit early on in the Syria conflict suggesting that if the international community didn’t do anything then, the situation could get much worse. Although he was right at alas, it wouldn’t have made sense for the world with all of its Greek financial problems at hand and amerca strugling with domestic economic and “war insecurities” issues to do anything.
Edit: Notable mentions in all of the Syria crisis is Vladimir Putin. Yes the Russian “demigod” Putin. His deliberate push for talks stalled any military action that was inevitable when Syria crossed the red-line with chemical weapons (*cough-cough USA all talk no show *cough *cough). Assad has a lot to thank Putin for since Putin is still doing a great job distracting the world with Crimea.
The second not so honorable mention is Assad’s wife(Asma al-Assad)- an English born, western educated, intelligent woman, charity chair who you’d think will wilt influence to curtail all of this human right atrocities, but rather chooses to go shopping. The only time you’d want to rely on the female emotional sensibilities to make history, she decides to calm her self with shopping *smh. A little sexist much, but leaving Assad as a sign of defiance is the least she could do.