Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ManintheMiddle]

CNN International just completed a major marshmallow interview with Asma Al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria in Damascus. Evidently the interviewing team was so enthralled at gaining an exclusive with this elusive regime that it forgot to pursue the tough questions.

Born and educated in London, this beauty with brains apparently didn't learn much from the British about fair play as this interview revealed.

Now, of course, the Baathists have been in power for nearly 40 years in Syria and Asma is the wife of Bashar, the man whose father, a petty dictator, installed him in power. One of his first moves was to silence the opposition, arresting and imprisoning parliamentarians who were too vocal. This despite his claims to wanting political reform.

Asma claims to be an activist for political reform as well. But in the Arab World that doesn't usually amount to much. The national law was even changed so her husband could become president.

Never mind that Syrian officials were instrumental in the assassination of the Lebanese leader and give safe haven to terrorists. We're supposed to believe that Asma speaks from the heart. The Kurdish minority has been persecuted as well.

And oh did she.

She went on in near flawless British English, poignantly recounting the "atrocities" committed against the Gazans. I ignored her charge that the Israelis were deliberately targeting civilians, which is what an atrocity involves.

Not once did she admit to the suffering of the Israelis even when she talked about the Gazans living in a climate of fear.

She was most critical of the blockade of Gaza by the Israelis, although she made no attempt to reason why it was imposed.

She then declared that Gazans want peace and quoted Lennon: "Give peace a chance."

She insisted that if the blockade were lifted and Israel engaged in serious negotiations with Hamas, this peace would be realized.

No mention of the rockets, the mortars, the suicide bombers, the tunnels, the hatred for Jews spewing from teachers and mullahs and TV programmers.

She wasn't reading from cue cards but she was singing from the same song sheet as her husband.

So herein lies the crux of the problem: many Arab leaders not only want us to believe that Hamas wants peace for its people but that it is Israel and mainly Israel which has obstructed every attempt to achieve it.

Up is down and East is really West, it would seem in the Mad Hatter Middle East.

[Jandar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh4MI_ARfZ4

[ManintheMiddle]

Thanks for the assist, Jandar.

She states that "60 percent of the people in the Middle East are under 25." Doesn't bode well for the future if they fall under the spell of the fanatics. On the other hand, if they are more susceptible to Western ideas, it might prove a blessing in disguise.

[bucheon bum]

so uh, this is news? Syria and Israel are sworn enemies and still technically at war with one another. What do you expect? This is about as news worthy as Kim Jong-Il saying the USA and ROK are the aggressors, and that NK's nukes are for defensive purposes.

[ManintheMiddle]

bum:

What I expected what that she wouldn't try to be so sanctimonious given the track record of her husband, the dictator-in-waiting.

But Arab leaders will say absolutely anything to milk the press for all it's worth.

[dmbfan]