Obama the Fantasist

President Obama said it is a fantasy to have believed that the Syrian rebels could ever have hoped to defeat Assad's army. He's right. There's never been a revolution in history that started with a hope in hell of succeeding. Not one. Have a look in the history books. They all started from an impulse of utter desperation and misery. Revolutions erupt because of a failure in government. When businesses fail they go bankrupt, but when governments fail they are either replaced democratically or, as in the case of despotisms, removed by force. People don't go out and willingly face the weapons of a deranged army because they feel like it. They do it because they are desperate and have nothing left to lose. And when members of the army start to defect and fight against their former commanders and governments, you know that you have the nucleus of a serious rebellion.

Nobody asked for America's permission before they started the protests against Assad. They went out on the streets because it was the right thing to do, and because they rightfully expected that you cannot run a modern country with an educated population like a medieval fiefdom anymore. The only person who didn't realise that is Assad. He thinks he's clever because he's held on to power this long whilst reducing the country to a cinder, he's not. And neither is Obama when he says something as ridiculous as that the Free Syrian rebels never had a chance of succeeding. The real miracle is that they have survived so long in spite of everybody in the world hoping they would just curl up and die quietly. To think the Syrian people are going to do that is the real fantasy.