In 1983 and 1984 I worked in Damascus, Syria for 27 weeks.
I interfaced on a daily basis with members of the Syrian military. In all probability at least one member of the team I was with was CIA, although I never knew who.
What I saw was an authoritarian regime under the iron hand of Hafez al Assad, but a society that was generally stable, and a secular state in which multiple religious persuasians co-existed, including Christians, who made up about 13% of the population. I met generals in the Syrian armed forces who were Christian.
One of the groups who were violently repressed by the Assad regime were Islamic fundamentalists. The vast majority of Syrians wanted a secular society, and Islamic fundamentalism was the last thing they wanted to see.
I also came in contact with Russian military advisers, who as a group were surly, intimidating, and intensely disliked by the Syrian people. Many of the Syrians I meet had family in the US ….. an Uncle George in Detroit, as it were, and the Syrian people were remarkably friendly to Americans.
The destabilization of Syria following the ill-advised and illegal invasion of Iraq has been quite disturbing, and to my mind, US involvement in attempted regime change in Syria was short-sighted and ill-advised.
Today in Salon there is a fantastic interview with reporter Sharmine Narwani concerning the secret history of America's defeat in Syria. I urge Kossacks to read this article and understand the peril we helped create:
Having witnessed the Syrian war from start to finish, she now casts it in a usefully broad context. “The Syrian conflict constitutes the main battlefield in a kind of World War III,” she said during our lengthy exchange. “The world wars were, in essence, great-power wars, after which the global order reshuffled a bit and new global institutions were established.” This, in outline, is what Narwani sees out in front of us, now that the Western powers’ latest “regime change” operation has failed.