The king is dead — or, rather, he’s somewhere in Moscow enjoying exile with his family.
Syria, dominated by Bashar Assad and his family for more than half a century, is now in the early stages of a new beginning after rebels triumphantly rode into Damascus after a 10-day, cross-country offensive. The Syrian army, whose troops were underpaid, demoralized and forcibly recruited, chose to strip off their uniforms instead of putting up a fight. A victorious Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former leader of the al-Qaida branch in Syria, stepped into the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus like the conquering hero. Thousands of Syrians displaced by the nearly 14-year civil war are traveling back to their country, some having been exiled from their own land for more than a decade.
There is a collective sense of relief in these early days that the tyrant and his labyrinth system of underground dungeons are now things of the past. Yet there is also a sense of confusion and concern, particularly among the country’s minority communities, about how Syria will now be governed. Nobody is crying over the demise of Assad’s mafia state — even Iran, one of Assad’s primary backers, was increasingly irritated at his intransigence. But the fact that the strongest anti-Assad faction is a former Al-Qaida affiliate headed by a man who still has a $10 million FBI bounty on his head doesn’t escape anybody’s notice.
For many, it’s a time to celebrate. Eventually, however, hard reality will rear its ugly head. Internally, cobbling together a united, effective post-Assad government is the goal. But having a goal and executing it are entirely different things. While the Assad regime is now on the ash heap of history, Syria is still very much a state in turmoil, tugged in different directions by competing foreign powers that have every intention of keeping their influence.
Author
Events on Syria
