A bit on my time with the Syrians

It seem the Syrians are making a lot of headlines lately:

US Demands Syrian quit Lebanon

PM "ironically" calls Syrians Peacekeepers

It looks like the Syrians may be moving up the U.S "hit list". I spent some time in that area a few years ago during the Iraq war and have some observations about the Syrians I would like to share.

The Syrian people, like many of the Arabs in the region, are very friendly and open with visitors. They are more than happy to talk to you or try to sell you something. I found this of great contrast to the Israelis, who tend to be more like rude New Yorkers. I think this is more due to the situation they find themselves, that of a people surrounded by enemies. Most Israelis were very friendly, once you broke through the initial barriers.

Syria is a fairly typical quasi-Stalinist Arab country. There were a few protest against the Iraq war, but these were with the permission of the government and were very small. We thought they were an attempt by the government to keep the feelings of dislike towards the Americans in check by giving them an outlet.

I say Syrian is a quasi-Stalinist state, because it is clear it is in a transition. The President, Bashar Assad, (called Boy Assad in some circles) was second in line for the throne. His father, Hafez al-Assad, had planed on his oldest son taking over. Fortunately for the Syrians, the older brother was killed in a car accident a few years before the death of the father.

And I do say fortunately. The older brother was a piece of work. Driving around west of Damascus, you still see many picture of all three, the most prominent being of the father and then the oldest son. In every picture he is wearing a camouflage army jacket big mirrored sunglasses. He is the epitome of a third world dictator.

So we have Bashar Assad, training to be an optomologist in England, suddenly thrust into the position his older brother had been groomed for. Bashar was pretty westernized, having spent some time in Europe. Since taking over he has taken some small efforts to better the lives of the people, such as increasing wages.

Overall, Syria is full of contradictions. You will see woman in all manner of dress, from completely covered to something a modern businesswoman would wear in any big western city. One military officer I spoke to told me about how his parents arranged his marriage, while another scoffed and told me how he played the field. He apparently had no trouble finding women to casually date.

Ask me about the plastic bag farms and the overpass to nowhere.

While I was over there, Syria had some sort of national elections. Half the seats were reserved for the ruling party, the rest up for grabs. Not true democracy, but a small step towards it.

My own opinion is that Assad is trying to straddle the line between giving more freedom to his people, while trying to prevent a coup by his father's old guard.

An invasion of Syria is not required. Assad just needs to be encouraged and helped to bring people where he wants to go.

This is only one opinion. There are some who say Assad is really controlled by the generals. There certainly seems to be no less support for terrorists against Israel and jihadist moving into Iraq.

It will be interesting to see how the US deals with Syria and what the intelligence services know that is not in the public domain.