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Jeremy Poynton's avatar

Have for a long time been saying that what we are seeing around us in many fields is the creation of cults. Climate Change the first, then Brexit, Covid, and now Ukraine.

A word on Assad. My stepdaughter spent six months in Damascus, leaving just after the trouble started. My wife visited a couple of time. Both loved it. My stepdaughter said the felt safer there as a single young woman than she did in much of London, and much more so than Morocco where she felt the evil eye when out on her own.

50 years ago, I spent a couple of months in Morocco, with a friend and his girlfriend. She was able to wear shorts and no hair cover, with no problem whatsoever.

We were sold much spin on Assad. He was popular, and the economy was moving when the West decided Syria was the next to go. They had for the first time a professional middle class, and their GDP growth was better then here. He was starting to deal with what is a constant problem in ME/Third World countries - bureaucratic corruption.

His dad of course was excoriated for the massacre in Homs. Actually, that did us all a huge favour, as he wiped out a large encampment of the Muslim Brotherhood, the fons origo of Islamic terrorism. Similarly, there was NO civil war, rather an uprising by extremists funded by the West and (Sunni) Saudi Arabia. Those all trapped in Idlib after Assad won were all such.

Syria was also the last secular country in the Middle East. Rather than turning on them, realpolitik would suggest that we should have engaged with Assad to support this last bastion, and prompt him into being more moderate.

The notorious gas attacks 1) The only Chlorine in the country has long been in the hands of extremists. 2) The OPCW reports on this have been found to have many falsehoods. At no point has Assad turned on his own. Another reason for his popularity.

So what have we there now? As Daniel notes, a country in a far worse state than it was before Assad fell.

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Sal's avatar

From one pragmatist to another — perfect. Thanks.

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