Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (R) shakes hands with a military personnel during his visit to a military site at Darya area, on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of army day, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on August 1, 2013. REUTERS-SANA-Handout via Reuters
Kamal Alam, National Interest: Why Assad's Army Has Not Defected
The Syrian military's resilience should not be dismissed—nor should its support.
Four years ago, Turkey’s then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that within in a few weeks he would be praying in Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, as Assad was about to fall. Similarly, Israel’s most decorated soldier, former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, predicted that Assad and his military would be toppled within weeks. That was at the beginning of 2012, when there were no Iranian soldiers on the ground or Russian planes in the skies.
As another round of Geneva peace talks collapses and the world wonders what’s next for Syria, it is time to begin with the warnings of Henry Kissinger and Zbignew Brzezinski. Kissinger and Brzezinski, the most seasoned and influential U.S. policymakers on the Middle East since World War II, have gone against popular opinion and stated that President Bashar al-Assad has more support than all the opposition groups combined.
It is no secret that the Saudis and Qataris, with full U.S. support, have tried to bribe some of Assad’s innermost circles to defect. The all-important professional military cadre of the Syrian Arab Army, however, has remained thoroughly loyal.
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WNU Editor: This commentary goes against the grain of what is the Western consensus on Syrian President Assad's support base .... i.e. his support is far more deeper than what is being acknowledged. As to what is my take .... he may have a lot of support, but he certainly has a lot of enemies.