Bashar Al-Assad is Right!

Al Rai, Kuwait, May 28

While casting his vote in the Syrian presidential elections, Bashar Al-Assad said that his regime did not pay any attention to the West’s statements about the elections, and then addressed the Westerners directly: “The value of your opinions is zero.” Whatever one thinks about the integrity of these elections, the fact remains that Assad was right: the Western world’s opinion doesn’t matter. The Western world lied time and again. It lied when it said that attacking peaceful marches would be met with a violent reaction against the Assad regime. It lied when it said that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime is a red line that must not be crossed. It lied when it said that the use of heavy artillery against demonstrators would not go by unanswered. It lied when it said that the killer of his own people had no place in the future of Syria and that a political transition of power was necessary. It lied when it said that the Iranian and Russian involvement in Syria was unacceptable. Unfortunately, however, it turned out that none of these things mattered. The tragedy of Syrian men, women and children didn’t really spark the interest of anyone in the Western world. Entire neighborhoods in Syria turned into mountains of rubble, burying innocent civilians beneath them, while the Western world looked the other way. After all these lies, why would Bashar Al-Assad have any reason to pay attention to Western statements? Why would anything Western leaders say carry any credibility or weight? Assad is right in disregarding what Western voices have to say about the elections. Their words stopped mattering a long time ago. – Ali Al-Roz (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)