Luc MICHEL for Syria Committees /
with SANA – PCN-SPO – Le Temps – al-Sawra / 2013 08 05 /
http://www.syria-committees.org
https://www.facebook.com/syria.committees
"The revolution of March 8,
– Bashar Al Assad (al-Sawra, 4 July 2013)
The Syrian Arab Army – which celebrates on this 31 July the 68 years of the Syrian armed forces – has been since the Ba'athist Revolution of
AN IDEOLOGICAL ARMY WITH A SOLID POPULAR BASE
These are the values that are at the heart of the national liberation struggle under way in the Syrian Arab Army. As recalled by SANA on this July 31: "The Syrian Arab Army embodied in its current war against terrorism and parties supporting it the principles and values it has adopted since its founding in
In the center of its action, there is the pan-Arab Ba'ath values as SANA recalls: "Since its founding 68 years ago, the Syrian Arab Army, which achieved victory in 1973 on the Zionist army, launched heroic battles, notably in 1948 to defend Palestine and in
Fabrice Balanche, Syria specialist, says that "ideology plays a central role in his strategy (that of Assad). The regime has managed to convince its troops that they are fighting to defend Syria against Islamist terrorism. The proliferation of abuses attributed to the rebels and images showing the fighters with the black flag of Al Qaeda feed his rhetoric. Meanwhile, Bachar el-Assad gives interviews in which he appears as strong as ever, and even talks about his participation in a presidential election in 2014 (…) while securing the areas under his control, with the support of popular militias ".
He mentions there "popular committees," I had the pleasure of meeting in the old city of Damascus in early June. These are the new district militias, popular militias created by Damascus on the model of the "defense committees of the Revolution", the Cuban CDR. Their creation has changed the face of the civil war and led to the city cleaning.
THE CONQUEST OF SOULS AND HEARTS, KEY TO THE PEOPLE WAR
According to a recent survey by the Russian channel RT, "75% of Syrians support Assad's government." Many are now with weapons in hand against violence, bigotry and abuses of the jihadist gangs. "
Assad is trying to achieve the conquest of souls and hearts, in which the French theorists of the "Counterinsurgency" (during the wars of decolonization) saw the key battles. What Balanche confirms "a part of the population fled the territories occupied by the rebels to join those held by the regime because it feels safer there."
It is this cohesiveness and ideological force that did not understand the NATO strategists and the Arab mercenaries of the West who were expecting a "rapid collapse" and the "isolation of the Assad clan."
AS THE BA'ATH PARTY, THE ARMY HAS PURGED ITSELF
Certainly there have been desertions. Few, 200 senior officers – including fifty generals – over 3000. And this self-purge, such as that of the Ba'ath Party (1) was beneficial, purging the bad blood that suffocated the military leadership. These desertions were also motivated by personal ambitions and material desires, those often of corrupt officers. These defections of some leaders of the former political-military leadership gone to the pseudo-FSA or the so-called SNC, are often linked to corruption (which fights the new team).
As revealed by the sad example of the traitor, former General Manaf Tlass, brought out [of Syria] by the French Intelligence services, and who should have been the right man for USA and NATO in Syria after the collapse of Assad (2) . Gone directly to the American or French enemy, the Tlass family fled to Paris, where it has a vast heritage (untouched by Western sanctions). The father companion of Haffez el-Assad, the son Manaf, former friend of Bashar, who became a general and traitor who had become one of the cards of the USA to replace the Syrian president. Sad story which also provided the frame of a geopolitical novel of the SAS series (3) …
Fabrice Balanche, Syria specialist (hostile to Assad) (4), shares my analysis: "There are signs that Assad takes over. His army is loyal and united from the beginning. The defections were primarily the result of conscripts who did not want to fight. Fifty generals left him, but 1200 remained at his side. Moreover, the war has strengthened his clan driving away the parasites who took advantage of the government, leaving only the most loyal "elements.
Old principle already stressed by Stalin in his time, "the party is strengthened by purging" …
The departure of these corrupt people is good for the Syrian Arab Army and the country …
Luc MICHEL
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(1) Read: Luc MICHEL, PARTI BA’ATH : RENOVATION ET NOUVEAU COMITE CENTRAL SOUS
(2) Read: KH and LM, FORMER GENERAL MANAF TLASS : WARNING BETRAYAL!
(3) Read: Luc MICHEL, “NOBODY KNOWS WHO BETRAY WHO “ … THE BOOK “LE CHEMIN DE DAMAS” AND THE BETRAYAL OF FORMER GENERAL MANAF TLASS,
(4) Fabrice Balanche, interview with daily Le Temps, Geneva, June 6, 2013.
Balanche is a lecturer at the University Lyon 2 and director of GEMMO / Group of Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and the Middle East at the Maison de l’Orient. Holder of the agrégation (highest teaching diploma in France) and PhD in Geography, he made his first visit to the Middle East in 1990. Since he lived ten years between Syria and Lebanon, privileged areas of his research in political geography. He published in