Elimination of the six Syrian leaders
Had the news about the assassination of the six Syrian leaders been correct, we would have been right to announce that the regime only had a few days to live and it was on the verge of collapse. However, the magnitude of the news story insinuated that it was nothing more than a lie. Those who had issued their statements on Sunday should have realized that this was a fabricated story meant to undermine the credibility of the Free Syrian Army, the opposition in general and the media supporting it. How can six leaders of the regime be assassinated at the same time?
The six leaders were the deputy army chief of staff, the vice president, minister of interior, minister of defense, chairman of the crisis cell and the head of the National Security Office. Practically, these are among the regime's top 10 leaders. Reaching them all at once is next to impossible, especially in a country that has very high security and military order.
This lie should not have been bought by the Free Syrian Army, which hastened to issue statements claiming responsibility thus misleading a number of media organizations.
The military opposition, which has split from the armed forces and includes elements from the military intelligence, was unable to verify the authenticity of such a massive and crucial operation. Rather, it hastened to release the earth-shaking news without verifying it or ascertaining its truth. This story was in fact a trap set by the regime for the opposition.
We would not, of course, be surprised if we hear tomorrow that the regime assassinated one of its leaders like Asif Shawkat, who was dismissed from his post (deputy chief of army staff), left the country for a while because of differences with his brother in-law (President Assad) and came back shortly before the revolution.
He might be eliminated and his murder attributed to a group of terrorists from Al-Qaeda.
The regime had murdered a number of its top leaders during internal liquidations that followed the taking over of power by President Bashar Assad.
However, the news about the incident, which said a soldier defected from the regular army, went on a shooting spree and killed six leaders of the tyrant regime, seems closer to a myth. I do not remember anything like this before, except the Valkyrie movie film picturing the attempt against the life of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1944 with his top aides that later turned out to be a failed coup d’état attempt.
The news about the assassination of the Syrian leaders, which were being circulated on the Internet, were nothing more than wishful thinking and false hopes in a country whose reality is too bitter to be left for imagination. We should, therefore, not have any illusions that the regime could not be toppled easily or that it would be crushed by pressing a button, giving it a dose of poison or killing its leaders during a meeting.
Syria is not a James Bond movie. Eliminating a police state is like engraving in a rock. It entails confronting it in villages, towns and cities in a war that might prolong for years. This war will not end all of a sudden by a morning statement that declares the death of the regime.
The downfall of the Syrian regime will come only after it has been exhausted and besieged and after the entire world has realized that its downfall was imminent. This will come after a lot of pains and bloodshed.
