Delusions of Innocence

This Wednesday Syrian's President Bashar al-Assad's interview with ABC's Barbara Walters aired for the first time, the first foreign interview since the beginning of the uprisings nearly a year ago. Obviously there would be no way he would own up to the brutal treatment of his own people. But it still comes as a shock and an insult when he said that "OK, we don't kill our people, nobody kill. No government in the world kill its people, unless it's led by crazy person" Really Assad? Only crazy people kill their own people? Then what does that make you? Are you sane then? Because a lot of your people have been dying for some reason and it looks to me like it's caused by your bullets. According to Assad during the interview he is not in the position to give the order to kill, for that would be against the will of the people. He says that the people who have been killed have been government supporters and that there is no majority support for the uprising. Its weird to hear him say this and know for a fact that these statements are wrong. You have to wonder whats hes trying to achieve, whether he believes this or not and even if hes insane. ABC's Barbara Walters seems to thing hes just disconnected from everything that's happening.

Bashar al-Assad sits down with ABC's Barbara Walters to explain his side of the story.

However there is always the fact that he could be carefully trying to manipulate the perception of events going on in Syria. By accepting the interview, he could try to sway the public opinion to his side, although I'm not sure if that's even a reasonable thing to do at all. The world has now seen numerous revolutions where the government plays it off and every time the government is just spreading pathetic propaganda. So i don't see how he could think people would accept his version of events, seeing that they have no proof for his version and that international opinion on Middle Eastern dictators is so harsh right now. (I wonder why?) So that leads me to believe that he really is just disconnected from everything going on OR that he feels he has to at least try to deny it, as a last-ditch hope at international appeasement. If this is the case, then it may not be long before he realizes that the world is not listening to his side of the story, and just decide to say screw it, i'll just go all out. But hopefully that will never happen.


Also stated in his interview was that the forces that have been attacking civilians were not his, but the governments. Which is the flimsiest excuse I've heard so far, since with his regime power he basically is the government, whether he likes to admit it or not. And reminiscent of other leaders he also wanted to see proof and view reports made by the UN and other councils over alleged human rights violations. They always want to see the proof, even though it right outside their window. Its like they really expect us to believe that they're that naive. But once again Assad cements this tradition among dictators in the Middle East by saying it is the work of individuals, he has majority support, everyone loves him, blah blah blah. Assad, although seemingly better educated and intelligent, seems to have fallen for the same trap the others have.