Some good news at last, it seems.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/08/world/syria-war-damascus
Assad flees Syria
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
by 42 Comments
Some good news at last, it seems.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/08/world/syria-war-damascus
You must be logged in to post a comment.
With Russia and Iran… otherwise engaged, pehaps this will tip the balance in the middle slightly towards more peace in the region? Experience might suggest not, but one can but hope.
“in the middle” should have been Edithed out, soz.
‘With Russia and Iran otherwise engaged’ doubtless presented the rebels with an opportunity to grab. Can’t help but wonder that Vlad won’t let go casually of this longstanding influence in Middle Eastern affairs.
Certainly appears to be good news. But I wonder how the new regime will govern?
Perhaps they’ll call in Elon Musk.
The “day after” never seems to be discussed in the news, does it? See also Palestine.
With tacit support of the rebel forces from Turkey, things don’t look good for the Kurds.
Given that HTS have links/historic ties to Al Qaeda and ISIS plus a dodgy record on human rights abuses, things may not look that much better for the poor Syrians either.
Any bets on where Assad will end up? Almost certainly won’t be at the end of the hangman’s rope he deserves for all the misery he’s inflicted on his people
Moscow it would seem. It’s quite the place for brutal dictators.
Saudi Arabia used to be another bolthole.
When I lived in Jeddah in the early 80s, Idi Amin had fled Kampala, been granted asylum by the Saudis and lived in a suite at the Sands Hotel. A guy
I knew there was a dentist and he claimed that he was once ordered to fix Amin’s teeth
This is a conflict where I don’t think there are any good outcomes for the people of Syria.
HTS now say they are no longer the extremists of yesteryear. As did the Taliban before they took over Afghanistan, claiming the extremism of their first period of rule was a thing of the past. In one perverse respect they were truthful insofar as the extremism of the past was comparatively liberal compared to the repression they impose today.
The history of what happens when secular dictators ( Libya, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan) are deposed doesn’t fill me with much optimism.
It just can’t be worse than Assad. Can it?
Given what happened in (and to) previous “Our Guy in the Middle East”-led countries (think Saddam in Iraq and the Shah in Iran before him), the portents do not look good for Syria.
Aside from the Saudis, whose blood-soaked seat at the top table will always be there while the Al Saud autocracy remains in power, it’s hard to work out who OGItME is right now
Why does it have to be “our guy”?
Because it’s always a guy in the Middle East
Yes. Why ours?
Note the inverted commas
Note the “our” part of my question.
E2A I see your response below.
Took your querying of “ours” in your second and now third question as meaning you were less than enthused by the west’s reliance on OGitMEs.
My pointing out my use of quotation marks around the term was to make it clear that I’m less than enthused by such realpoliking myself.
I’m sure everyone is. Reason I repeated it was I thought you were dodging the question of why the UK needs to be involved in any way. My own stupidity at work. Glad we agree 👍
Pretty obviously, OGs in the ME are still currently Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Saud dynasty still seem pretty unshakeable. Wouldn’t want to bet the farm on Israel just now. They are close to overreaching, militarily, and could well face a major defeat before long.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Syria may surprise the doomsayers and turn into the proper democracy the region needs. If the Islamists and the Kurds decide there’s been enough bloodshed and mayhem and if the USA, China, Russia, Iran, Saudi, Israel, Turkey etc. just f***ing LEAVE IT ALONE.
Fingers crossed.
The a swe to that might turn put to depend on which group you belong to. Most of the Christians have, as in the countries previously mentioned, already left, so hopefully they won’t bear the brunt. The Kurds might not be so fortunate, Turkey and others apparently not being so keen on two state solutions in that context.
I thought this is a good informed analysis.
https://www.thefp.com/p/simon-sebag-montefiore-after-assad-syria-putin-trump?r=7c5g6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Thanks Twang that was a good read.
It was not long ago I celebrated , with most, the fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. His replacement , Emmerson Mnangagwa has been just as bad.
It’s good, thanks. The second paragraph on the family genealogy is incoherent, but otherwise the article and the links are informative.
Yes, it does make sense but the number of commas makes it an awkward read.
OK, a re-read and I get it.
“Hafez’s grandfather was a powerful character known as Sulayman al-Wahhish—the al-Wahhish meaning the wild beast—for his strength; one of his sons was Ali, another formidable figure, a farmer and leader known for his toughness, he had eleven children; Hafez was his ninth son”.
I would have made the second semi colon into a dash. Otherwise there are three main parts to the sentence and “Hafez’s grandfather was a powerful character… Hafez was his ninth son” was the easy slip I made.
Small quibble in an otherwise worthy article.
I agree, it’s clumsy. The semi colon is a beauty though. The dashes are acting as parentheses so a third one might add confusion as well as clarify. I’m sure SSM wanted it like that, I don’t this it’s a mistake.
On reflection, maybe a comma instead of that last semi colon, recognizing how the dashes are used, as you say.
(Muphry’s Law always applies when critiquing spelling and grammar, of course).
I think a full stop instead of the semi colon would make it clearer too. I can see why he did it – equally, why many papers’ style guides ban them!
I have to declare a professional interest – part of my job involves checking often complex multi line paragraphs – often single sentences with multiple clauses, clauses drafted by those for whom English is not their first language.
I frequent ask (plead) for sentences to be broken up, just to avoid ambiguity of meaning. So I completely concur with your idea of the full stop. Brevity is the soul of wit, and all that.
Me too. KISS.
One thought per sentence is generally a good rule of thumb
That’s true, but the hands I get dealt usually have at least 5 digits of information per sentence. Break them up into single thoughts, and the texts would become massousive…
Indeed. That’s why I insist on a full stop at the end of each bullet point. Or even at the end of each contribution to an Afterword thread
Nice one. I particularly enjoyed this rant:
“It is worth recalling that during his reign, Hafez al-Assad was lauded by Western admirers, particularly British and American “Arab experts,” as the wise “Sphinx of Damascus,” as was his son Bashar after him. They were praised by an ignoble array of illiberal progressives, ignorant journalists, anti-Western academics, pro-Soviet and then Putinist “tankies,” Foreign Office and State Department apologists, fake “human rights activists,” overstuffed and underinformed BBC panjandrums, and footling fashionistas.”
As good a definition of “Our guy(s) in the Middle East” as you are ever likely to find
My point, clearly not well made, was why do we feel we need one, today, post-colonial, post everything else that’s happened since the, say, 90’s.
We’re not yet post-colonial. But the colonisation is economic, these days.
All that money that swishes around the world’s major stockmarkets needs to go somewhere.
Post-Imperial, post-industrial Britain still has one of the world’s major stock markets. It’s about all we have left to differentiate us from, say, Belgium.
Magnificent isn’t it!
Assad’s cousin offers it up.