This is important: @EHSANI22 recalls that for nearly 6 years before the start of the Syrian crisis, he used @joshua_landis' blog to criticize the performance of the Syrian economy, corruption & host of governance issues. Syria is not just 'good' v 'bad'.
This is what @EHSANI22 wrote on @joshua_landis' Syria Notebook on 10 Feb 2012: " ...[Where has the 'opposition been?] ...We have gone from being in a coma to calling for the downfall of the regime and even the hanging of its leader. This is insanity..." joshualandis.com/blog/syrias-op…
We know from @wikileaks that during those years our 'good' governments were distressed when Syria succeeded in attracting foreign investment and were looking for ways of highlighting people and events that would trigger President Assad into some paranoid over-reaction.
In his thread @EHSANI22 makes the point that many Syrians distrust the future 'democracy' that 'our' so-called rebels would bring. They see no guarantee that their many minorities will be safe in any simplistic majoritarian 'democracy' that the 'armed opposition' might bring.
That is not to say that they do not want democracy, just that it is very hard in any society (including our own) for many different social, political and religious minority traditions to coexist with majorities that may forget or not even know how to do coexistence. (N Ireland?)
We have seen here in the UK the start of a disgusting witch-hunt against academics who have the temerity to challenge 'our narrative'. But what do the academics in our universities who back 'our narrative' and the 'armed opposition' really think would happen if 'their side' wins?
What did those academic backers of the 'armed opposition' here in the UK hope for in 'their Syria', the Syria that would emerge after the uprising against President Assad had won? In the internet's proxy war trenches their style can be very aggressive.
"How future Syria deals with Jeish al-Islam / Ahrar / Zanki /HTS is not too important for them [the Syria analysts of the EU and US]" says @EHSANI22, they don't have 'skin in the game'. But the people of Syria are their own 'skin in the game'.
A little over 6 years after @EHSANI22 begged the Syrian opposition not to take up arms, the Syrian government is beginning to consider the legal aspects of reconstructing a ravaged country. Its plans are attacked by @martinchulov. @EHSANI22 replies:
