Assafir’s Dinosaur

The owner of the leftist daily has sunk into new lows in today’s editorial.

In an article entitled “Have mercy on the Army”, which he might as well have entitled “Have mercy on the terrorists”, Talal Salman warns of a snowballing disaster that is about to befall our Army. The reason? But of course, the presumptuous “cheerleading” government which thinks it can win this war “by military means alone”, instead of wising up and forming a national unity government, which would somehow convince the terrorists of handing themselves in.

The veteran journalist not only swallowed Fathi Yakan’s empty statement that the “international Al-quaeda” is now in control of the situation, he also believes that a military victory against the thugs is “impossible”, and to top it all, he’s blaming the Sanioura government for the death of the soldiers.

Mr. Selman is somehow blinded to the fact that it is the Army itself who refuses, rightly, to compromise with the Syrian-armed terrorists. Even if the politicians do decide to retreat and negotiate, the armed forces will rebel, citing the need to hunt down their brothers’ killers. 

Mr. Selman could feel threatened by a potential victory of the army and its re-emergence as a stronger, more confident and unified (gasp! American Armed) body, which would destroy Assafir’s worldview that it’s better to talk with criminals than hand them over to a strong state.