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she embodies the title "First Lady"

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Thank you Fadi, I could not agree more

• Syria First Lady Asma Assad Reception for Top Marks Students and their Families in Damascus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b3aWRihTzs

and if you haven't had the chance, please see and share the rest of my compilation, particularly the Asma segment ...

https://juliusskoolafish.substack.com/p/update-on-syria-a-compilation

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In all honesty, this comes off as very bad optics for Bashar and Asma. The BBC/al Jazeera knock on her was that she was Syria's version of Marie Antoinette: rich, westernized and out of touch w/ the common people who were suffering under her husband's tyrannical rule. This self-described investment banker w/ a posh accent and little black dress addresses a crowd of her swanky peers that they should pitch in w/ donations for some progressive feminist advancement of her people. In retrospect, we can say that idealistic appeal didn't bear fruit as the liberal West colluded w/ the Zionists and Islamists to overthrow her husband's regime.

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I suppose if you look through the right lens you can see whatever optics thar satisfy your confirmation bias. She could hardly change her body habitus or manner of speaking (she also speaks fluent Arabic) just for that particular occasion. Please do check out the small selection of other videos featuring Asma (I shared a link for Fadi earlier).

I particularly liked this one

• Syria First Lady Asma Assad Reception for Top Marks Students and their Families in Damascus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b3aWRihTzs

And of course, you would be aware that the diamond necklace was manufactured to frame Marie Antionette.

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That's better because she's speaking Arabic and talking to her own people. But her image still seems elitist and detached to me. Why did his army give up w/o a fight? Didn't they connect w/ their govt? Apparently not.

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And yes, there are some deeply nagging unanswered questions. Do you happen to read Rurik Skywalker? "Surely not!!??" (that's me thinking) Surely Eva K Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley would have picked up on anything disingenuous. Syria is now worse than a failed state - it is a killing field with Israel's (which also means the US and Turkey) proxies running rampant.

I am going to post a Mention of Thomas Goodrich's "Summer, 1945" - we are now witnessing "Winter, 2024"

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Rolo is Mr Black Pill, but I follow him because he knows more than I ever will about the Slavlands. The Axis of Resistance turned into the Axis of Impotence. How much has Russia lost w/ this debacle? Access to the Mediterranean for one. It's really a black pill to swallow. Putin has become the new Trump.

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“Why did his army give up w/o a fight? Didn't they connect w/ their govt? Apparently not.”

I posit that enough of them, especially in senior positions were eventually worn down by propaganda, threats and/or promises.

We saw the same thing in 1917 when Nicholas II succumbed to a circle of “betrayal, cowardice and deceit”.

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I can't help but contrast Syria w/ Iraq and Saddam and Libya w/ Qaddafi. Those armies fought. The Muslims are nothing if not fighters. Now Egypt didn't fight, but they had a color revolution. Syria didn't even have that. The Tsar surrendered, not sure his army did. In any case they soon regrouped under their generals. Assad and Asma snuck out the back door like puppet dictators. (Not that I wouldn't have done the same.)

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I am taking a massive Black Pill at the moment I don’t believe Bashar and Asma al-Assad were anything but decent people devoted to the service of the Syrian people. The Black Pill I am talking about refers to my Russophilic support of Putin et al. What are you going to do when you know you have the same fate as the entire last Romanov family, Milosevich, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi? I would take any escape route for the sake of one’s children and hope others will be okay when all is otherwise lost (they are not okay).

As much as I ’enjoyed’ Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson – I appreciated the history lesson but squirmed at his references to ‘denazification’. I didn’t (couldn’t) watch the recent interview of Lavrov with Carlson because I thought WTF!!?? – has he not seen Carlson’s performance at the RNC, or his close affiliation with Ben Shapiro, Laura Ingraham et al on the 1776 Project?. You have to write Carlson off, so why would Putin and Lavrov ‘demean’ themselves and give him joint air time (? – rhetorical)

Here is Vanessa Beeley, also swallowing a massive Black Pill

• Syria podcast - leaving Syria and the terrorist coup on behalf of Israel, Turkey, Qatar and NATO member states - vanessa beeley

• Mike Robinson of UK Column speaks to Vanessa Beeley

https://beeley.substack.com/p/syria-podcast-leaving-syria-and-the

Vanessa questions Russia’s (Lavrov’s) betrayal/ backflips on HTS – now flying the HTS terrorist flag over embassy

At around 40:00+ Mike asks if BRICS could unravel – quite possibly. You just don’t play this kind of chess in front of your friends.

Who blinked first - the Russians or the Syrians ???

See also

• Syria’s Post-mortem: Terror, Occupation, and Palestine - by worldpeacewithjustice – Uprooted Palestinians

https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2024/12/13/syrias-post-mortem-terror-occupation-and-palestine/#comment-66529

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Thanks for these links. I'm not doubting the Assad's good intentions. But like the Tsar's, they were not enough.

Just read Iran's statement. Hezbollah and the Houthis aren't done yet.

https://www.ancreport.com/92944-2/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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