The Truth of Assad’s Lie

Note: Parts of this post contain graphic descriptions of physical abuse.

Since March 2011, when protesters took to the streets of Syria demanding reform, demanding freedom from the tyrannical reign of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world has watched a nation slide into the throes of a civil war where an ideological kaleidoscope of oppositional factions battle a regime desperate to cling to its illegitimate power, willing to use any form of  tyranny and disinformation to do so.

Add to this the fact that the regime has encouraged the birth and growth of radical jihadist groups that are ostensibly focused on the regime’s demise, but that are in actuality serving the regime’s interests by confusing the battlefield and paralyzing already war-timid western nations who might otherwise support Syrian reform, add these together and one is left with what appears to be a Middle East morass that has a thousand paths in and no clear path out.

This of course serves the interests of President Assad very well as is evidenced by his ability for the past three years to kill over 250,000 civilians (15,000 of which are children under 15 years of age), displace over 10 million and leave much of the country in rubble and still remain in power facing only the occasional rhetorical western threats or non-credible “red line” ultimatums.



Assad remains in power because of his masterful ability to pollute the ideological and geopolitical landscape while also fighting his opposition with such horrific tactics that the reality of his war seems a twisted macabre fiction that causes the worlds eyes to look away.

The strategy of is success can be summarized by the words of two men who could in many ways be considered Assad’s metaphorical mentors.

The first is Joseph Gobbles, the infamous Nazi propagandist who once said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Many know this famous quote, but what he said subsequently is also of great relevance to today’s Syria. He went on to explain that the lie must be maintained by the state at all costs because it is, “…vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

The truth of Assad’s actions is certainly his greatest enemy.

The second quote is from another Joseph, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin is credited with having said, “A single death is a tragedy while a million deaths, a statistic.”

These two phrases define Assad’s strategy to remain in power. He first established his “big lie” which is that all who oppose his government are terrorists no different from the radical jihadists groups of ISIS and al Qaeda. He has continually followed Gobbles admonition by repeating this again and again always framing himself as an ally of the west in its fight against extremism and terrorism.

Secondly, he has followed the logic of Stalin by killing with such indiscriminate and barbaric fervor that the death tolls and number of displaced people reach beyond our ability to individualize, to personalize and thereby to identify with on the most basic human to human level. By the scale violence poured out on his own people, Assad has reduced an entire population of victims to stale and static columns of numbers. He has dehumanized his enemy – not to himself only, but also to a watching world.

Western mothers and fathers do not send their sons and daughters into harm’s way for a number, especially a number that may be a terrorist or a radical or a jihadist. The same taxpayers who are already weary of confusing and unpredictable Middle East conflicts push aside arguments of moral imperatives and even arguments of self-interest and eagerly embrace reassuring phrases such as “it’s not our fight.” In many ways, this is understandable. Assad’s strategy has been effective. He has accomplished his mission…

…Or at least he almost accomplished his mission.

A video filmed by Assad forces in October 2012 as a standard procedure of documenting all interrogations lays bare Assad’s big lie and puts a face to his statistics.

This single one minute and forty second video represents the Syrian regime’s greatest enemy – the truth.

The subtitled translation from Arabic to English has been verified as accurate and Syrians familiar with regime interrogation procedures have reviewed the content and confirmed it is in keeping with regime techniques.

The video is of a man maybe in his 30’s who has been arrested for being part of an anti-Assad protest. As the viewer watches, the man who has been stripped almost naked is beaten mercilessly with vicious slaps to the face and whipped with electric cables in the face and body – a body dark with bruises which are clearly marks from previous interrogations. He is forced to the ground, kicked and stomped.

Throughout, he is taunted and questioned by his attackers. Not with questions though one would expect to be asked of a terrorist. No, the man is repeated asked between blows, “You want freedom? You want freedom?” A Strange question to ask terrorist.

He is then asked an even stranger question, “Who is your God? Isn’t Bashar your God? Who is your God?”

This is followed by a return to questions of freedom, “You want freedom? You want to fight us? Who are the protesters? Sunnis?”

The interrogator does not ask for the identities of other “terrorists” No, he asks who the “protesters” are. Clearly, he sees this man, not as a terrorist as Assad claims, but as a Syrian who seeks one thing - freedom.

Following an especially vicious strike to the face, the interrogator goes on to taunt the beaten man by sarcastically yelling, “You want freedom, eh? This is freedom! This is the freedom you want.”

Striking the man’s back with an improvised whip, the interrogator mockingly says, as he pushes the man to the floor, “Right here, this is the freedom you want, you dog.”

The weeping man is then forced to lie on his stomach so multiple men can beat him as he is told over and over, “This is freedom. This is freedom. Take it!”

The video continues to record the abuse until the man is left unconscious.

I describe this not with the intention of simply disturbing or to shocking the reader, but to make plain the all-important fact that regardless of Assad’s repeated claims, his rhetoric is a lie, his regime is a lie. The truth is in his actions and cannot be hidden behind statistics. The truth has a face. The truth is a person, many persons living and dying at his hands.

This truth has been told not only through this video but through over 27,000 validated photos depicting horrific torture and executions. These images were smuggled out of Syria and shown to the world by a man who chose the code name, “Cesar.” If the world chooses to look, the truth is clearly there.

Some will say that this does not change the fact that there are radical jihadist fighting Assad and the United States and other western nations cannot afford to aid groups that may prove to be anti-west later. This is a valid concern – not a paralyzing one, but one that should give pause.

Are there radical jihadists fighting in Syria? Absolutely. Is sorting through the kaleidoscope of ideological motivations simple and without risk? Absolutely not.

This is a reality of a three-year bloody civil war that has widely been left to fester and then metastasize. It is a reality, but the whole reality.

The question that must be asked by all civil societies, starting with the United States, is that if a path is shown that offers hope, that offers hope to those who began their protests in March, 2011 and who struggle for that ultimate prize of freedom at all costs, if such a path exists, are we willing to face the difficult questions and not accept clichés for answers, but rather struggle as we have in the past to walk with those seeking freedom.

If the answer is “yes,” and if our actions reflect our words, there is hope not only for the Syrian people but also for a Middle East ruled by neither the extremist cancer of an ISIS caliphate nor the tyrannical cancer of a dictator such as Assad.

Extremism breads in chaos. Stability is born and flourishes in civil society. The path exists to end both ISIS and Assad’s horror. It begins though by shining truth onto a regime built upon lies and making clear to the world that a million deaths is not a statistic, it is rather a million individual human tragedies.

We know the truth and we know the ultimate question at hand – Are we as a nation, as a collection of free nations, willing to speak truth to the lies that hide genocide and act together to bring hope and freedom to a people who are no less worthy of the pursuit of life and liberty than are we.




For those interested, here is a link to the video. Please note again that it contains graphic and disturbing images.