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Assad the Exception?

Reader comment on item: 50 Years of Syrian Misery

Submitted by Chad (United States), Mar 10, 2013 at 18:10

An American friend of mine who takes a keen interest in Syria told me that the Israeli military and security elite is currently split on the desirability of removing Assad. One faction views the alternative to Assad as worse; the other does not.

While the case can be made (and was done victoriously by Daniel Pipes in a recent televised debate) that the secular dictators of the Arab world are preferable to elected Islamists, is that really the case in Syria? The Assad regime was a Soviet client during the Cold War, and hence an enemy of the West in every sense.

With a disproportionally large Soviet (then Russian) equipped military, it almost resembles North Korea - with a hereditary dictatorship to boot - and is thus a post-Cold War "mutant" state where the head of state has a godlike quality in society that exceeds even Qaddafi's in Libya in the sense that it doesn't even have a cartoonish aspect.

Given the 30% of the country that is non-Sunni Muslim (and therefore non-Muslim Brotherhood), would Syria not be the exception to the rule that Mubarak, Ben Ali, Saleh and even Qaddafi were preferable to the one-party Islamism that succeeded them? Could the outside world not contain and weaken Syrian militant Islamism to the extent that the threat a post-Assad regime posed to Israel or other neighbors would effectively be defanged?

Any comments would be welcome.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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Reader comments (17) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1Assad the Exception? [235 words]ChadMar 10, 2013 18:10204182
2You raise an interesting point [334 words]saraMar 10, 2013 18:41204182
1Syrian people, other people [58 words]SJoshMar 10, 2013 03:04204173
1Follow the money [33 words]EthanPMar 10, 2013 20:07204173
1Anti-western dictatorships rival democracies as the most stable form of government [349 words]stuffagainMar 9, 2013 22:26204168
2The Muslim/Arab world does not know how to live in peace. [135 words]batya daganMar 9, 2013 21:56204167
1Islamic Ethics Are A Failed Paradigm [90 words]DaveMar 9, 2013 21:40204166
1some good in the Bathist regime? [16 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Barbara HoshikoMar 9, 2013 16:40204158
1Saddam & Assad friendly toward Christians [115 words]EliyahuMar 10, 2013 16:00204158
50 Years of Syrian Mysery [171 words]JudithMar 9, 2013 13:21204153
What's the meaning of the Palestininan/ Hijaz flag inside the number 8? [25 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
PezDispenserMar 9, 2013 02:23204141
1"Horror and Barbarity" [134 words]sdjamesMar 9, 2013 01:33204140
1Colonial Boundries [104 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
EthanPMar 8, 2013 16:54204130
1Assyria [20 words]JenkaMar 9, 2013 10:36204130
4language lost [203 words]mythMar 9, 2013 17:18204130
2No Simple Answers. [157 words]EthanPMar 9, 2013 21:04204130
1"Surely we have been here before .?" [74 words]UgriMar 11, 2013 01:28204130

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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