Oct 24, 2018

BBC Documentary – “A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad”

David Carlson

I rarely watch anything on the BBC now and this first part in a three part character assassination of Bashar Assad is a testament as to why watching anything the BBC produces is as near perverse as some of their DJ’s. “Nick Greene”, the Grun states ” forensic excision of the tumour at the heart of Syria,” is about as sick as gaggle of Bishops at a Jimmy Saville party.

The sickly female voice over 20 years ago would only be found on a childrens program explainingg basics of a subject to ten year olds but now, it seems, is standard fare for adults happy to accept such condescension.

To start with the ommision of how Hafez Assad rescued Syria from American and French colonial interference that by policy was designed to keep Syria a fractured state of warring tribes is as I expected a deafening silence. That he came from a peasant family with nothing to be President that united his nation in a secular peace and a growing prosperity for all is cast as his crime because he stomped on the Mossad/CIA sponsored rebels hiding under the guise of the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed the situation today with the myriad factions we can collectively call ISIS/Al Qaida funded and assisted by Israel, the US and allies is a clear case of history repeating itself.

To hammer home the idea to aunties gullible children that Hafez was some kind of monster, a stitched together film of female soldiers biting the heads off snakes and unrelated footage of males stabbing puppies is presented. This is in fact an old propaganda film put together by Saddam Hussein when he was still dancing to an American flute and given to Donald Rumsfeld when they were still buddies.

The snake biting is authentic and a common theme around the world. Indeed US Secretary of Defence James Mattis in January this year was following in the footsteps of Hafez in congratulating Indonesian soldiers in their snake decapitation and blood drinking abilities.

Next there is a bit about Assads older brother being groomed to take over before he died in a car accident. Not before he is savaged for owning a Porsche and a BMW. It seems to be a respectable heir in waiting one must have an extensive collection of Italian HyperCars.

Bashar is shown by their own script to be an unassuming character of deep humanity who had planned to devote his life to help giving sight to the blind. This is something I would argue he continues to do in his interviews in recent years. Anybody listening to him interviewed, if they can get past his unfortunate discomfort of limelight, can only be struck with his reasonableness, his integrity and his humanity. Yet with strained contrivance and meaningless anecdotes from western stooges he is portrayed as a sinister character full of deceit.

Why? Because he talked and negotiated with western leaders but remained unbending over the defence of his nation, it’s secular inclusive ideals and of Arab people’s in general. But mostly for refusing to be a party to the new crusade of the post 9/11 landscape. Without any evidence he was charged with deporting militant prisoners to fight Americans in Iraq. But worst of all his crimes the despicable, heinous crime of foreseeing that the invasion of Iraq would mean Syria would see an influx of refugees and preparing in advance for that reality by putting the infrastructure in place to take care of them. Yes, the sinister dictator set up refugee camps. Such evil!

Mrs Assad does not escape the assault. Far from it, Asma is portrayed as nothing better than a social climber who connived her way to a wedding ceremony. Despite it being obvious that they are two peas in a pod, as made for each other a couple as you are likely to see, thrust into their position by fate not design. No laudits that they share the same desire to be as close to the ordinary citizens as is possible and portrayed as manipulative because they can drive the streets of Damascus as ordinary citizens without fear and do so on a daily basis.

Watching this should do the exact opposite that was intended. It should demonstrate that this couple are good people in a bad world. That they gave up their own lives and all the wealth and privileges that would have come with capitulation to western hegemony and opted to stand firm in defence of Syrian independence and the secular ideals of respect and harmony the Syrian state embodies.