Syrian conversations: How little the west knows about Syria

As we tune in to a hypothetical conversation between the average member of the public reading or watching the average western media outlet, and someone who knows the truth about Syria, how many of the readers of this piece will identify with the former and ask why their newspapers have misinformed them all this time?

So, you say you know enough about Syria to form an informed opinion?

Yes, I think I have seen enough on television and read enough in the newspapers. I have seen and read enough to know that Syria is ruled by a bloodthirsty dictator who has used chemical weapons against his own people, who have taken up arms to get rid of him. That's what the entire conflict is about.

So, evidently your newspapers and TV channels have been wasting public funds if that is what they have taught you.

How do you mean?

I mean you could not be more wrong... you are so wrong in fact it is hard to know where to begin. For a start, President al-Assad is a doctor of medicine. Doctors don't go around gassing people. Secondly, you will find that the gassing events were in fact staged by the "opposition" and if you bothered to read the factsheets coming out of Syria you will see there is not a shred of evidence linking the Government to chemical weapons while there is evidence directly linking the "opposition" to incriminate the Government.

The Syrian Government forces have been protecting the Syrian population against a foreign-backed scourge, which is split into dozens of factions, some with links to al-Qaeda, many of them extremist Islamist factions which want to see Syria ruled by Sharia law.

Syria is one of the few countries in the region with a secular constitution. Extremist Islamist movements are not tolerated, al-Qaeda is not tolerated, terrorists are not tolerated. The Alawid orientation which President al-Assad follows is tolerant, women have full rights in Syria, they do not have to use the veil or the burqah, Sharia law is deemed unconstitutional.

Religious tolerance is synonymous with Syrian society, which accepted refugees from Iraq irrespective of religious orientation. Ten per cent of the population is Christian - communities targeted by the "opposition" terrorists, many nuns have been raped and decapitated, or worse. This why the population in general would vote for Bashar al-Assad tomorrow in a free and fair democratic election and this is why those who oppose him are not prepared even for that hypothesis to be on the negotiation table.

And why not? Because the Syrian state has one hundred percent ownership of the country's mineral resources, will not open them up to foreign control, because Syria has reserves of 2.5 billion barrels of oil, because Syria is one of the few countries that does not owe a cent to the International Monetary Fund.

Before Saudi Arabia and Qatar started fighting the proxy war of the FUKUS Axis (France-UK-US) by arming and training groups of criminals, rapists, torturers, arsonists, murderers, looters, thieves, cutthroats, child molesters and cannibals, Syria was a peaceful country without any internal problems.

Why have you suddenly gone quiet?

 Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru