Is Syria’s Assad Waking Up?

Forty-two year old son of a dictator, Syria’s President Bashar Assad has so far been one lucky hombre’ since succeeding his father in 2000 – he has done what few thought possible — survive. When his father died the military “encouraged” Syria to change its constitution that required its president to be over age 40 so he could be elected at age 34 which is what occurred. Then surviving was a feat few thought possible for a philandering, playboy British trained eye doctor who most felt was too weak to balance on the knife’s edge between Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey with Iran and the US looking over his shoulder.

After he watched his buddy Saddam Hussein hanged he cuddled up with Iran. Then after both Russia and Argentina rejected his request to buy a nuclear reactor so he partnered with North Korea who built a nuclear reactor to make weapons grade plutonium only to have it pulverized by Israel a few week’s ago. More recently he has teamed up with the terrorist group Hezbullah – with Iranian money and arms — to over throw Lebanon’s pro-US government and increase the threat to Israel.

Bashar’s fate is now entirely in Iran’s hands, and so far Iran is content to protect the Assad as its main empty shell surrogate in the region. Because he and it does Iran’s bidding – for a price.

Bashar is increasingly concerned about Iran’s long-term reliability and abilities especially if international pressure cuts it out of the world banking communiy shutting off its money, and that Syria now knows first hand it is vulnerable to attacks that could behead its regime and destroy its oil export facilities. Israel and Syria are reported to be in secret, back channel negotiations.