Meh

A man of the West?

A review of "A Defence of President Bashar al-Assad of the Syrian Republic" by Richard M Lamb 

This is a very short (just 6 pages) Kindle “book” defending Syrian president Bashar Assad, written by an otherwise unknown author. The article is written in a somewhat stilted style and isn't particularly interesting. Essentially, Richard Lamb says that Assad is our best and last hope for peace and stability in the region, that he is really “a man of the West”, and that his autocratic regime is necessary in the concrete Mideast conditions prevailing today. Lamb admits that Assad has used chemical weapons, and calls on the world community to deprive him of such, but otherwise believes that Assad should be given a carte blanche to defeat the rebels. My main problem with Lamb's article is that this is all it says – this, and various stilted superlatives. There is no real analysis, nothing about the character of the rebels, the foreign policy of the regime, the “Islamic” State, the Kurds... Regardless of whether you like Assad or not, you probably won't like this particular piece of Kindle.