Opportunistic Criticism of Assad: The Case of the Golan Front

Following the fall of Assad’s regime, one will be hard pressed to find many public fans and defenders of the former Syrian president’s legacy. For the most part, the criticisms of Assad and his record are entirely justified. Some criticism, however, reflects opportunism on the part of some Western fans of the ‘resistance axis’, whose effective position prior to the regime’s fall was that whatever reservations one might have had about the dictatorship, police state and human rights’ abuses, one needed to stand by the regime as a pillar for the ‘resistance’ in the face of the greater evil of ‘imperialism’ and the ‘dirty war’ being waged on Syria by the United States (‘US empire’) and its allies. I am aware of course that they will now deny that this was their position, but I cannot see how any one who listened to or read their output would not have drawn the conclusion I have just outlined. At best, the problems of Assad’s regime as a dictatorship and other shortcomings would only be mentioned in a cursory way, all very much secondary to the greater evil of the United States and the ‘sectarian jihadists’ of al-Qa‘ida and Islamic State it was supposedly backing.

Following Assad’s fall, these same ‘resistance’ fans are effectively jumping on the bandwagon and complaining that among his other flaws, Assad was just not committed enough to the axis and war with Israel! In particular, they are holding it against Assad that he apparently rejected requests to open a war front on the Golan against Israel.