Damascus Bombs and Mysteries

By As'ad AbuKhalil
( Al Akhbar)

Let us be clear on what is happening in Syria:

1) We really don’t know what is happening in Syria.

2) There is an unprecedented disinformation campaign going on, and from all sides.

3) When the US refrains from resorting to a military option, it spends millions on psychological warfare. We see evidence of that in Syria.

4) Every week for a year, we are told that the regime is about to fall, and that the US is preparing for the post-Bashar era.

5) The Syrian National Council and Free Syrian Army have lost any little say over their own actions and rhetoric. They are now mere tools for regional and international intelligence services.

6) The secrecy of the Syrian regime will only increase over time.

7) We don’t really know who calls the shots in Syria. The attempt to extrapolate from Hafez’s era to Bashar’s is fallacious.

8) The regime won’t collapse overnight and won’t collapse in one strike.

9) If the regime — as the New York Times and other Western papers maintain daily — has lost all domestic support and that it now relies exclusively on Alawi support, then it won’t be standing.

10) Western media are now mere vehicles of propaganda of Western governments, just as the Syrian regime media are propaganda outlets for the regime.

11) Even if the armed revolt expands and intensifies, and even if Western public and covert support increases, the fight for Syria will drag on and will inevitably spill over to Lebanon.

12) The season of Arab uprisings have entered a different phase — the US has managed to contain their dangerous impact and to restrict the freedom campaign of the Arab people.

13) The season of Arab uprisings has not ended. It will go through different phases.

14) The outcome of the conflict in Syria will be far from respecting the wishes of the Syrian people, just as the GCC-US management of the Yemen crisis preserved an ugly regime.

15) The US-Israel will do their best to keep the Syrian regime intact after toppling Bashar — if they succeed in toppling him that is.

Full article al-akhbar