i know absolute fuck all about him, is he cringe or based
He's a ba'athist, not a socialist, and inherited his position of power.
The revolution was about the government taking political prisoners, and mismanagement of water rights.
The revolution formed Soviets and was honestly pretty based, but then the CIA, ISIS, Russia, etc. got involved and escalated it into a civil war with so much violence social change was near impossible.
In this context, keeping Assad in power is the best case scenario for the country because the alternatives are rule by IS or rule by a US proxy. It's also the best bet for socialism because the Assad government tolerates the autonomy of the Kurds (and their socialist project) in a way that neither ISIS nor NATO do.
So, he's not good, but he needs to stay in power for the time being.
The revolution formed Soviets and was honestly pretty based, but then the CIA, ISIS, Russia, etc. got involved
Two amendments to this - the revolution had admirable/democratic groups taking part in it, but 1) the US/Turkey/Gulf countries were involved from before it began - there're leaked cables discussing dividing Syria along religious lines to topple the government years before the Arab Spring and the arms the rebels fought with were supplied by US+allies; and 2) the majority of the people who actually revolted were conservative Islamist Sunnis who targeted religious minorities from the start. Immediately after it became clear the US wouldn't intervene directly 90% of the "Free Syrian Army" dropped the pretense and left for the Islamic Front and other jihadist groups. The liberal/democratic minority in the revolution had zero chances of coming out on top once any fighting started - they served as supporting forces for jihadists so the US could ship them arms without looking bad.
Otherwise you're spot on.
As an Arab although not syrian, he sucks ass but most people dont want syria turned into Libya so very very critical support eh
"the least worst option" is how you can describe most current "leftist" leaders right now :(
hellworld
christ please god do not be running around telling people assad is a leftist leader
It’s the same reason why we support Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, and Belarus
Critical support for Turkey against..
Checks notes...
The existence of Kurds
It's besides the point. It amazing to me that even after witnessing all the horror perpetrated by the US military in the name of "fighting dictators", or "human rights" or "protecting women".. the left still wants to litigate the elected officials of other countries.
He's probably about as corrupt as western leaders, maybe a bit worse. Doesn't mean we should invade or do anything but minding our own fucking problems first.
Also please stop characterising geopolitical issues as a fight between good or bad. (Saudi Arabia is our friend it doesn't get much more evil than that)
Good or bad is merely a tool the imperialist use to get you to rationalise their latest exploitative adventure (in this case oil and gas pipelines).
never said we should invade them lol, just wanted to know if assad is an actually good socialist or not
he's not a socialist at all. Whatever ba'athism was pre-saddam or hafez al-assad is irrelevant as it turned into a non-marxist "socialism" based on arab nationalism and nothing any modern marxist would recognize as socialist.
Saddam didnt believe in class conflict for fuck sakes lmfao like seriously.
The assads are a run of the mil dictator family with no discernible socialist qualities whatsoever.
He's both! On one hand he's a protestor-torturing dictator, but on the other he constantly farts in the face of the CIA and that's funny.
He sucks big time, but because the US fucked up the entire region so badly, he's better than any of the US-backed alternatives.
Is there an example where US intervention in a country didn’t fuck it up?
baathists are essentially anti-imperialist socdems
i will always say that socialists in the middle east should inherently be for pan-arabism not only for historical reasons but also for anti-imperialism reasons. the minority ethnicities of each region should get their own autonomous zones which is why im a bit sour with assad.
