He would be much more aptly named if this was his actual full name. While Assad is rumoured to have died in a plane crash as I type these words, I recall a story years ago from a friend of mine who worked as a Greek diplomat back then:
Assad is in his first years of his regime which he inherited from his father. As that friend told me his father was planning to leave the leadership to another son of his but accidents led to Bashar becoming the one. While he seemed to be kinda progressive in his very first days he later turned his back to the West and started restricting more and more his people (this was cross checked by other friends of mine who visited Syria). When she arrives in Damascus to start working for the Greek Embassy it doesn't take long for her to realise that she is being tracked by the regime 24/7 and her phone is (surprise surprise) compromised.
One day she agrees with a friend on the phone to do some sightseeing outside the city by car. At some point they are unsure about the route so they stop to check where they are and where they should head to. In a second another car stops beside them with 2 guys. Without any intro they tell them straight up "What you're looking for is straight ahead and then you take the first road on the right". In other words those guys didn't even want to pretend they haven't heard her conversation on the phone about her excursion plans🙂.
The whole thing about her being under surveillance all day and all of the night came up to a point that a friend of hers telling her on the phone someday later "tell the guy who's listening to us now to grab a chair cause I have lots to tell you".
I wish the good news of Assad's fall had arrived some time earlier with the US more present to control the chaos that will follow but unfortunately the "dumbest nation on earth" decided to castrate its own country at such a critical moment. And we definitely don't want a new Assad there now neither a Turkey's expansion. The situation reminds me of a Greek saying "now that sea has turned to yogurt we have lost our spoon". Russia is weaker than ever, we have a brilliant chance to liberate Ukraine and settle things in Syria but... you can't beat people's stupidity as they tend to learn only after a tragedy and it's being a very long time since the last one for the West.
Good luck Syria, good luck Ukraine, good luck World.
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