Comment:

 

Parts of this were repeated in The Guardian. Here is what I posted:

 

And Assad will be so remembered.

 

This man, so often portrayed in our heavily biased press as a monster, is in fact a quite thoughtful and intelligent leader.

 

Not a lot of people seem to know it but he is a medical specialist, making him far better educated than a David Cameron, and he has always shown toleration for the many religious groups in Syria. The religious minorities understand that, notably Syria's Christians, and in return support him.

 

He is hated by America and Israel entirely because he is independent-minded. What an appalling indictment of those two countries. They support thoroughgoing monsters like King Salman of Saudi Arabia or President Erdogan of Turkey - both genuine war criminals - and just endlessly call Assad names and threaten him.

 

Because the American-Israeli attitude is dominant in our press, we virtually never hear directly from leaders like Assad, and that fact alone should tell you something. In contrast, try to find a major Western newspaper without regular pictures or flattering stories about Netanyahu or Obama. It really cannot be done.

 

The tale of Syria's recent years is simply one of the most disgraceful we've seen. A beautiful, peaceful land has suffered immense destruction, death, and injury, and sent millions of refugees fleeing abroad in the worst humanitarian crisis of modern times.

 

All of that horror is directly attributable to the covert acts of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and America. It is the fault of no one else, although we have leaders like Cameron and Hollande, who toy, much like a cat toying with a living but wounded mouse, with becoming full members of the filthy game.

 

Just look at what America did to Iraq. It really is not even a single country anymore, some of the world’s most precious archeological treasures destroyed or looted, and the blood of a million stains America's hands.

 

Just look at Libya. No matter what you thought of its late leader, Muammar Gaddafi, its people were educated, received health care, were fed, and generally thrived in a nation at peace. Now, it is a wasteland, scarred by bombs and left with warring gangs.

 

Today the press is silent for the most part as Saudi Arabia - under American auspices always in this region of the world - uses horrors like cluster bombs and bunker busters and kills thousands of women and children.

 

The people of Gaza stand in their own filth, not even allowed the supplies of cement to rebuild sanitation and homes, while our press and governments say nothing. The Israeli government freely sprays large swaths of their land with herbicides, and we all know the ghastly legacy of America's Agent Orange in Vietnam.

 

Egypt, after decades of a brutal dictator who was strongly supported by America, finally enjoyed a brief breath of democracy before again suffering repression under a new American-supported dictator. And why was that? Because Israel had been seriously unhappy with a decent new elected President who now rots in Egyptian prison.

 

We live in a world of the most remarkable senseless brutality and dishonesty from so-called Western, democratic countries, most notably from the United States in its self-assumed mission to re-make great parts of the world, no matter how much misery is generated.

 

And we say nothing.