John Kerry, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Nancy Pelosi, Sting, Arlen Spector – and many more – all have paid homage to the Assad Crime family (now run by what CFJ used to call “the Chinless Opthamologist”). It seems that the greater the tyrant – the more the left loves them.
by Mona Charen
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a firm statement to the Syrian elite this week, urging them to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. “The longer you support the regime’s campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor,” she advised.
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A mere eleven months ago, when peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Dara and other cities were met with bullets, Secretary Clinton referred to Assad as a “reformer.” She was not alone. Last year, Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle visited Assad and declared him indispensable for a “constructive solution” to the Middle East’s problems. A leading German think tank, which advises the foreign ministry, called Assad a “modernizer.”
Rare is the sceptered thug who does not attract fawning admiration from some in the free and democratic West. Fidel Castro was the darling of the smart set in the 1960s, and Che Guevara, one of his “wet work” assistants, adorns t-shirts worldwide to this day. Sean Penn is a shill for Hugo Chavez, and Robert Scheer had admiring things to say about Kim Il-Sung.
The more repressive and vicious the regime, the more some in the West will strain to find benign intentions in their leaders. One after another of the old Soviet general-secretaries was hailed, when he first ascended the greasy pole of Kremlin politics, as a “moderate.” Yuri Andropov, we were assured, loved American jazz, good Scotch, and “cynical political jokes with an anti-regime cast.” He went out of his way to meet with dissidents, we were advised. Perhaps he was drunk on Chivas Regal when he shot down civilian airliner KAL 007.
Similarly, when Syrian dictator Hafez Al-Assad (the butcher of Hama) died and was replaced by his son Bashar, the New York Times offered a highly sympathetic portrait of the “shy, young doctor.” The Times noted that expectations of the younger Assad were high, because, in the words of a member of the Syrian parliament, “he’s young and open and wants to give more liberty and democracy.”
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None of that prevented Hollywood’s glamour couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, from visiting with the Assads to discuss their “refugee work.” Just-released photos captured rock star and “human rights” campaigner Sting and his wife enjoying a good laugh with the Assads in 2008. Vogue magazine, apparently immune to shame, ran a fawning profile of the dictator’s wife, “a rose in the desert.” “Asma al-Assad,” Vogue told its readers, “is glamorous, young, and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.” Along with fetching views of Asma, Vogue featured shots of Bashar playing on the floor with his children.
When images of bleeding and dead children — shot by Assad’s troops — began to cascade out of Syria, Vogue quietly removed the piece from its website.
Then-speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Assad in 2007 (against the wishes of the Bush administration) and came away satisfied with his cooperation. “We were very pleased with the assurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process.” In this, she was echoing a sentiment often expressed by former secretary of state James A. Baker, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, who argued that the key to peace in the Middle East was to “flip Syria.”
But no visitor was more enthusiastic about Bashar Assad than President Obama’s informal envoy, Senator John Kerry, who made six visits to Damascus between 2009 and 2011. In 2010, he said “Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region.” Even after the tanks rolled into cities and began blasting away civilian demonstrators, Kerry stuck to his self-delusion: “My judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it. . . . ”
The “shy doctor” became a cold killer. Those who, without a particle of evidence, persuaded themselves that he was ever anything else, were useful idiots.
Read the rest – Assad’s Useful Idiots
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Mona Charen
That Hillary Clinton has been an apalling Secretary of State and I am not sure that she would have been nothing more then marginally better then Obama.
@ Speranza:
Same with McCain. He openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood. I think we have an institutional problem with Islam. Its the Arab lobby.
@ Rodan:
McCain would’ve destroyed the Republican Party while Obama is destroying America.
@ Speranza:
Yea but would’ve Bill been marginally better than Mooch?
@ Speranza:
McCain always had a soft spot for Da muz
Rodan wrote:
I think that the best part of McCain was left behind in North Vietnam.
waldensianspirit wrote:
Bill would do more damage. Itwould have been a co-presidency.
No more Rockefeller’s, Clinton’s, Kennedy’s, and Bush’s!
As an aside what the hell does either clinton know about honor? They have none and would not know it if it swam up and bit them in the tuchas.
If hillary was not a fellow traveller, then Obama would not have put her in as Sec of State. She does exactly what he wants. She supported the Muslim Brotherhood’s overthrow of Egypt, she supported the anti-Israel policies and sctions and she is in his pocket for everything else. Bill was for Bill and used the liberals as a way to get what he wanted without any accountability. As long as he pushed their agenda, they let him rape and philander.
father_of_10 wrote:
She is a woman addicted to power.
citizen_q wrote:
Syrians have no honor.
Question is: are there any good guys in Syria? Is any part of the opposition to the Assad regime committed to a secular, representative democracy, or are they dominated by the muslim brotherhood?
Speranza wrote:
Natch, they are muslims. I am losing track just of the names of islamically sanctioned techniques of lying, taqiyaa, kitman, tawryia, toqucoc(spelling?).
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
A goodly contingent of the “Rebels” (as was the case in Libya, I might add) are “former” members of al Qaeda in Iraq. So there are no “good guys” in Syria.
citizen_q wrote:
Except “honor killings” of their daughters.
citizen_q wrote:
As in, “sorry if I tawryia when I ram it into you, infidel.”
The problem is the MSFM will NOT say any of this. Notice how Vogue took down their little article on the family and how western and wonderful they are. and most people have an attention span of 30 seconds or less so no one will remember this. More people will care about how Kobe got hurt on the court and if he will play next game. Can’t have them pay attention to things that really matter.
@ MikeA:
The same is true of what is going on in the primaries. We political junkies are hanging on every word and every turn of the road, but I doubt that most Americans could even tell you who all four of the remaining Republican candidates are. People won’t start paying attention until September. In some ways that is good. Maybe we can put something of this nasty campaign behind us and work together to defeat Obama, but it will be hard. And I am not forgetting people like Glen Beck and Ann Coulter who took off their masks and showed us what they really think of the Republican base this year.
Vogue also said that mooshell is a fashion icon with well toned arms.
@ Buffalobob:
That’s why they call her “Moose”…
In headlines -- Monkees singer Davy Jones dies of a heart attack aged 66.
Speranza wrote:
Geraldo Rivera plans to open Davey Jones’ locker live on-camera in 5…4…3…
Buffalobob wrote:
Be nice to see an armwrestling faceoff between Michelle Obama and Ann Coulter.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Just as long as there’s no jello wresteling involved…
[shudder]
@ buzzsawmonkey:
He’ll have to play “Liar’s dice”.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
My money is on Moooch.
@ Speranza:
That’s too bad, I liked the Monkees when I was a kid.
citizen_q wrote:
So did I.
Only two of the Monkees could sing.
Mike Nesmith’s mom invented “Liquid White Out”.
@ Speranza:
Close. It was actually Liquid Paper™, which I jokingly called Liquid Ape.