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2005-03-03 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

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Posted by Steve 2005-03-03 8:52:49 AM|| || Front Page|| [8 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Time to assemble a Corps on Iraq's western border is coming near. Damascus is nice in the Spring I hear.

Posted by Shiter Spoluper4654 2005-03-03 9:14:27 AM|| 2005-03-03 9:14:27 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 If Assad is smart - he'll accept asylum while that bargain is still on the table. Otherwise, he will end up like Hussein.

It's hard to say if he will or won't. He didn't get to where he was by that combination of narcissistic insanity that you find in so many dictators like Hitler, Hussein, Noriega, etc. They take it to the end - never doubting that, due to their greatness, they can't pull it off again this time - just like they did the last.

Nor is he an Arafat, GadDafi or even Dotsum - shrewd opportunists with zero convictions - except to catch a ride on the prevailing wave of power - and scoo up the perks that provides.

No, he's an untested little man, dwarfed in his father's shadow and suffering from a bad case of entitlement - unsure if he has what it takes or not and thus potentially very dangerous.

It's clear he won't succeed. The only question is he smart enough to realize it and take the plea bargain of asylum while it's still on the table. Or, will he use this opportunity to lash out and prove what he already knows deep down inside but can't face - that he hasn't got what it takes.

Posted by 2b 2005-03-03 10:03:45 AM|| 2005-03-03 10:03:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 March 3, 2005: Syrian President Bashar Assad is afraid he will end up like Saddam Hussein.

Assad is a little slow in comprehension, but he is getting the picture. France should be nice in the spring for him. There is a ship in the Eastern Med that may give him a lift.

Posted by Al- Aska Paul 2005-03-03 10:34:27 AM|| 2005-03-03 10:34:27 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Baby Assad can go into exile, and actually do some good. He is a trained optometrist (unbelievable), and could do good providing eye care to people who need but can't afford it in some odd 3rd world place.

Posted by BigEd 2005-03-03 11:05:12 AM|| 2005-03-03 11:05:12 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Okay, BabyAss is a D.O. but he still can't see the handwriting on the wall.

Posted by Doc8404 2005-03-03 11:47:36 AM|| 2005-03-03 11:47:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 LOL!

Posted by 2b 2005-03-03 11:48:18 AM|| 2005-03-03 11:48:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Junior should get a productive private sector job - it would do him and the Syrian people good! There's a compassion deficit (his pappy's fault) so doctoring wouldn't be advisable but perhaps he could become an author of novels and children's stories ... or work on a great treatise about the age old law of the sandbox and how it can drag a whole nation down for decades. The consolidated story of one syrian family's greed, violence and incompetence.

Posted by Tkat 2005-03-03 12:13:08 PM|| 2005-03-03 12:13:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 I'll go out on a Anon-cyber-limb....Baby Assad will still be be Prez/Syria a year from now.

Posted by Ebbavith Angereling9743 2005-03-03 12:47:10 PM|| 2005-03-03 12:47:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 He is going to Saudi Arabia is'nt he. He could ask for Asylum while there. That would shake up the area.

Posted by plainslow 2005-03-03 1:16:23 PM|| 2005-03-03 1:16:23 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 The US should cook him diplomatically, perhaps use the military to bluff him, but the last thing we want is more claims of occupation and a further stretching of the military or excuses that might get other Arabs to back Assad.

If Assad falls whomever replaces him will have a tough time keeping a dictatorship after what's been going on in Iraq and Lebanon. History is working for us right now.

Posted by RJ Schwarz 2005-03-03 1:28:59 PM|| [http://politicaljunky.blogspot.com] 2005-03-03 1:28:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 The US should cook him diplomatically, perhaps use the military to bluff him

Have the Marines paint a line along the Iraq/Syria border.

If that doesn't get a rise, add arrows pointing FROM Iraq into Syria.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2005-03-03 1:31:46 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-03-03 1:31:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 The dreaded M.E. stability has been shattered by that dumb cowboy Bush. Now, it's easy to see why the Thugs, Mullahs, KingyThingies, and Dictators have warned against this. It's their quagmire, ramping up.

Switzerland will be getting mighty crowded soon, and speaking Arabic and Farsi, methinks...

Posted by .com 2005-03-03 5:00:46 PM|| 2005-03-03 5:00:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 2b: He didn't get to where he was by that combination of narcissistic insanity that you find in so many dictators like Hitler, Hussein, Noriega, etc. They take it to the end - never doubting that, due to their greatness, they can't pull it off again this time - just like they did the last.

None of these guys were insane. They were strong-willed and ruthless, but not insane. No offense, but this stuff about them being insane is just left-wing psycho-babble. Being an absolute dictator takes specialized skills - a combination of coercion and charm such that one is both feared and respected at the same time by one's subjects. Not everyone has these skills, the transmission of which seem to have deteriorated significantly in modern times - dynasties used to last hundreds of years. In trying to hang on to their seats, Hitler, Hussein and Noriega were no different from any other national leader - what weakling is going to hand over the keys to the kingdom without a fight to the finish? Petain of France surrendered to the Nazis, and his name will live in infamy. Churchill refused a truce with the Nazis and is lionized today - because England won. What if England had lost? Would Churchill have been reviled as a quixotic madman with dreams of faded, ancient glory?

I think there's a scene from Gladiator that describes it best:

QUINTUS: People should know when they're conquered.

MAXIMUS: Would you Quintus? Would I?

Posted by Zhang Fei 2005-03-03 5:55:39 PM|| [http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2005-03-03 5:55:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Historically the succesion problem was solved by deifying the leader and hence his offspring. The Kims are the best modern example, but Turkmenistan and perhaps a couple of the CIS stans are taking the same route. Deification is not an option for Assad. He will be dead by the end of year (unless he takes the retirement option which I wouldn't discount).

Posted by phil_b 2005-03-03 6:07:21 PM|| 2005-03-03 6:07:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 How you can identify The King.

Posted by .com 2005-03-03 6:13:38 PM|| 2005-03-03 6:13:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 It's good to be the King!

Posted by BigEd 2005-03-03 6:45:08 PM|| 2005-03-03 6:45:08 PM|| Front Page Top

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