The recent Charlie Rose interview with al-Assad was intriguing, as the Syrian evidently was struggling valiantly with the English language to justify his regime. It was hard to see in him the cold-blooded killer his Western enemies claim him to be; rather, the nervous ophthalmologist who wasn’t initially groomed for military leadership was center stage. It was much easier to come to the conclusion that Washington is piling pressure on him precisely because his is a weak leader than to shiver over any imaginable rampage he might inflict on the region. Even when his moment of bravado came, and Rose offered him the chance to outline the repercussion of an American attack, al-Assad could only talk in vague terms, hinting at the actions of third-parties and complaining that he couldn’t be expect to foretell the future.
With the offer of Syria’s chemical weapons coming under international control now on the table, I expect Washington to ease off for the time being. Concern about chemical weapons was never the real problem, since they have only limited usefulness against modern armies, but it was Washington’s excuse to get formally involved in the Syrian civil war. Moreover, if Syria loses its chemical weapons, America will have weakened one of its enemies merely through saber rattling, and al-Assad’s concession can be spun in the Western media as a confession of wrong-doing on his part.
Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son, has some valuable advice for al-Assad: stay armed, stay alert, and don’t rely on feigned friendliness of foreign diplomacy. In al-Islam’s Russia Today interview, in which he is suitably supportive of buying Russian weapons, he bemoans his former “liberal and tolerant” belief system that made him so gullible. His easy facility with English makes him the worthy basis for a character in a Tom Wolfe novel. If al-Assad could express himself in English as well as al-Islam, he would have had a much better chance of finding greater sympathy in the West.
As it stands, agreeing to get rid of chemical weapons is like agreeing to disrobe in front of an eager aggressor. A new excuse for assault should be coming along soon.
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