Contrary to Western press reports the "killing machine" regime of Bashar al-Assad enjoys widespread public support in Syria.
The Sunni Islamist "Arab Spring" uprising against Bashar al-Assad is in its 10th month with no end in sight as Syrian support for the rebels is weak. With thousands dead and injured from the revolt and reports of massacres, rapes and torture (largely exaggerated by the Western anti-regime press) Assad's downfall is far from immanent or assured. In a report from Asia Times' Aisling Byrne, without outside Libyia-type military intervention from the US and NATO it's unlikely Syrian rebel forces will prevail and defeat Assad.
Making matters worse, as Byrne reports, the Syrian people largely back Assad and want him to continue in power. "A YouGov poll commissioned by the Qatar Foundation," says Byrne, "showed last week that 55% of Syrians [at odds with the international community] oppose Assad's
resignation; while 68% of Syrians disapprove of the Arab League sanctions imposed on their country." Indeed, most Syrians believe that the uprising is of foreign origin and they back Assad in crushing it. As Byrne points out you'd never know that from listening to the Western press and Al Jezeera which paint most Syrians as supporting the rebels and wanting Assad out. This is anti-regime propaganda. In fact, popular support for the internationally embattled Assad has strengthened since the start of the uprising, rising up from 45% before the revolt to 55% now. That is not good news for anti-Assad forces who, like myself, want regime change-which is necessary for weakening and demoralizing nuclear Iran and setting back its plans for regional hegemony.
Indeed, there is no alternative to US/NATO intervention in assisting the Islamist rebels. If weakening and demoralizing Iran is the outcome then assist them we must even if that means replacing the anti-Western Assad with an anti-Western Sunni government hostile to US regional interests. The violent downfall of Assad would embolden anti-regime forces to rise up in Iran and drive out Ahmadinejad, Khamenei, and the genocidal nuclear-to-be mullahs. The fortunes of the Khamenie regime are inextricably linked to Assad. This is signified and symbolized by the incredible coincidence that on July 17, 2000, the day that Bashir Assad assumed power in Syria replacing his dead dad, Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, celebrated his 61st birthday*. Assad falls Khamenei falls, that is the overarching reason for getting rid of him.
* Ali Khamenei was born July 17, 1939.