In shifting Syria conflict, Assad assumes command of forces

Reuters ^ | 10/10/12

[markomalley]

The picture is deceptively normal. Posted on the Facebook page of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, it shows the first lady Asma, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, accompanying her daughter and three sons on their first day back at school.

Two of the boys wear camouflage shorts with khaki t-shirts and caps, in keeping with the spirit of a ruler under siege. Yet when she dropped off Hafez, the eldest, named after his strongman grandfather, only one other child had arrived in class because of rebel attacks in Damascus that morning.

More than 18 months into the battle for Syria, an estimated 30,000 people are dead and the country is disintegrating.

The rebels are outgunned by the government but can still strike at will, and Assad has assumed personal command of his forces, still convinced he can prevail militarily.

(snip)

Recent visitors say the 47-year-old president has taken over day-to-day leadership. They speak of a self-confident, combative president convinced he will ultimately win the conflict through military means.

"He is no longer a president who depends on his team and directs through his aides. This is a fundamental change in Assad's thinking," said a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician with close ties to Assad. "Now he is involved in directing the battle."

[scooby321]

Obama has US soliders on the ground

[jonascord]

Hey! Assuming personal command of the armed forces in Real Time worked for Hitler and LBJ... What could possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong...

[Pollster1]

Hey! Assuming personal command of the armed forces in Real Time worked for Hitler and LBJ... What could possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong...

It didn't work for Corporal Hitler, but it worked very well for General Washington at the Whiskey Rebellion. How it works for Assad (an ophthalmologist with little prior interest in the military) will depend on his personal skill set and the balance between his ego and his appreciation for reality.

[jonascord]

Rumor has it that Washington had squeezed in some actual command experience in combat situations before he became President.

Napoleon warned of a general getting a "vision" of how a battle should proceed. He made a habit of finding opposing generals that did this. Politicals can do this, and still succeed. Supreme War Lords, not so much...