I want to also make a short statement about Hafez Al Assad's recent post about their last hours in Damascus. I am only speaking out because many Syrians have expressed strong emotions to me and as someone who was also stranded in my home, surrounded by terrorists and only able to leave safely thanks to the bravery of my driver who did not turn back when faced with armed gangs at the border - I think I earned the right to speak. My heart was broken because I abandoned my life in Syria but the Assad family, whatever the reason - they were forced or blackmailed - they abandoned an entire country, it's people, their most loyal advisors to an excruciating fate by giving them no warning at all. Leaving them to displacement outside Syria as exiles from their homeland, everything, decades of toil, loyalty, sacrifice destroyed in an instant. Others were not so fortunate, they were killed trying to escape or forced to remain in Syria and face a daily threat of death, torture, rape, kidnapping. I don't think it was a wise move by Hafez to make a statement that literally ignored the hellscape that is Syria since December 9th. Those who suffered so much and were betrayed feel doubly betrayed, ignored and abandoned. The statement opened a wound that had no time to heal, because their trauma has not ever been addressed or relieved in any way. In my humble opinion, the only person who should make a statement is the President to his people who righteously or not, feel he abandoned and betrayed them. Anything less than that is an insult to the suffering of the Syrian people whose only sin was to fight and die for Syria. The Syrian minorities thrown to sectarian wolves who take pleasure in tearing them limb from limb. Where is the remorse, the compassion, the humanity, the courage that the people so desperately need as they navigate the rivers of blood alone? If nothing more profound can be expressed, again whatever the reason, it's better to keep silent and let the people heal and find the strength they need to carry on in a Syria they no longer recognise where fear rules and suffering is endless. People will probably be angry I said this but after posting about dismembered bodies and eyes gouged out of the latest victims of HTS murderous campaigns, my own heart is so heavy and so, human to human, please put the people first. They always deserved that but rarely received it. In the end they take the consequences of the leadership actions. Not addressing the collective agony is cruel.
