All Is Forgiven

"[Rebels who surrender their arms will be given] full amnesty."
"Just to give up your armament, whether you want to join the political process or [are] not interested about the political process."
"This is the only thing that we ask. We don't ask for anything. As I said, we give them full amnesty."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) is pictured answering questions during an interview with German public broadcaster ARD in the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday. He offered 'full amnesty' to Syrian rebels

What a good man, what a sterling character, what a role model for all embattled and empathetic heads of state faced with revolts from disaffected citizens. He has made it clear that 'moderate' rebels who are, he has always asserted, 'terrorists', could expect clemency from him. They would be restored to their former status as Syrian civilians. The most critical aspect, he asserted is that citizens cannot be permitted to have machine-guns and 'hurt people'.

Of course not. This is a man who cares deeply about prevention, about using all means at his disposal not to 'hurt people'. Needlesss to say people have been 'hurt'. Hundreds of thousands, in fact, hurt beyond the capacity to feel any more pain, having been sent to their untimely deaths, by rocket fire, by helicopter gunship fire, by deadly chemical-filled rocketry, by barrel bombs, and by deliberate starvation and privation, trapped by the military and allied Shiite militias along with Hezbollah in their enclaves.

This is the reasonable president of Syria who emulated and then went far beyond what his father ever visited in malevolent atrocities upon his people. Who brooked no dissent, even of the 'moderate' type that began as a popular protest among Sunni Syrians wishing to be granted the same civil privileges as their Shiite counterparts. Mr. Assad's immediate reaction was arrest, torture, death, irrespective of age, adult or child.

In his vehemence against the disloyal citizens of Syria who wished for their human rights to be recognized, he destroyed great swathes of Syria's major cities, towns and villages. But he is a much misunderstood individual, evidently, whose directives and actions have simply been misread, for he is a man of peace, a reasonable person who will sit down at a table with his enemies to bargain for peace, as long as they accept their defeat and the status quo.

Oh yes, and believe that he will be true to his word.

The rebel forces of Syria, however, are a stubborn, grim lot who have previously rejected their president's generous offers. They have sacrificed too much in blood, sweat, tears and foregone lives to simply return to the oppressive lives of subjugation that had been forced upon them by the benevolence of the Alawite leader of Syria who has, after all, Moscow, Tehran and Hezbollah in his corner.