Chapomatic

Across the bay has an interesting critique of a David Ignatius article.

I’ve noted before how people have totally bought into Bashar’s Old Guard myth. It’s total garbage. I don’t know if Ignatius does buy it, but that paragraph comes close.

Reality is the exact opposite. Fact of the matter is that the Old Guard were all sidelined from way back, especially on the Lebanon file. Khaddam was removed, Ghazi Kanaan was called back, and the intelligence services were effectively being run by Bashar’s in-law even before he was officially named as their head.

So when Marwan Hamade was almost blown up to pieces, the first person to fly in to Beirut was Khaddam. Why? To make sure his “clients” knew that he had nothing to do with it! Recently, Hariri’s top aide in an interview in Al-Hayat pointed the finger directly at Bashar (so did Johnny Abdo, who was also close to Hariri), not the Old Guard, and gave reasons as to why. It turns out Hariri’s personal relationship with Bashar was horrible from the start. He relates a very telling story way before the latest stormy meeting with Bashar. He said that Kanaan and other security chiefs were present at the meeting and so was Bashar. The one who was barking and insulting Hariri was Bashar, accusing him of all kinds of “treasonous” activities (the same paranoia led Bashar to believe that Hariri was behind 1559, which led him to liquidate him). After the meeting was over he said that Kanaan and Hariri met together in the former’s house in order to have a “calm conversation.” I also have written here, based on excellent sources in Lebanon that the Hariri hit, just like Hamade’s, goes straight up to Bashar himself, and his crew (Shawkat, his brother, and his cousin).

But beside those views, he actually made a factual error by suggesting that the Old Guard had business interests in keeping Lahoud on. Actually, it was Bashar and his crew (named above) who had interests with Lahoud. It’s the Assad family, period.

The fact is that the errors in Lebanon were made because Bashar removed the Old Guard and didn’t take their advice which was against extending Lahoud’s mandate. Hariri’s top aide claimed in that interview that Ayad Allawi told him that Allawi told Bashar that the extension was suicide. Bashar reportedly told Allawi that “suicide with extension is better than suicide without extension.”

Bashar is running the show with the “New Guard.” The Old Guard myth is made for PR purposes to be spread around, to show that Bashar is this besieged reformer in a hostile milieu. Rubbish.

Hadn’t thought of it quite that way before.