Renowned “progressive author” Tariq Ali says Assad has to go: I’m depressed – no, I’m outraged By 15 February 2012 — All quotes from, ‘Assad must go to save Syria from intervention, RT 15 February 2012

Today, I see that the well known ‘revolutionary’ Tariq Ali is telling that,

“He [Assad] has to be pushed out,” Tariq Ali insists, for which “the Syrian people are doing their best”.

Given that all reports indicate that the country is seriously divided over the Assad regime, perhaps without foreign interference the Syrian people could decide for themselves without professional revolutionaries doing it for them. Frankly I’m outraged more than depressed by this.

The entire piece is filled with suppositions and wishful thinking about the nature of the ‘uprising’. So for example Ali tells us that.

“He [Ali] believes that once Assad falls, the new government will keep good relations with Iran, because this will be in the interest of the new democratic government.”

What ‘new democratic government’?

In a classic case of backing a self-fulfilling prophecy, Ali says

“If the Assad clan refuses to relinquish their stronghold on the country, sooner or later something disastrous will happen”,  Tariq Ali predicts, threatening a foreign intervention and recalling the inglorious deaths of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi lynched by mobs inspired by the west.”

Sooner or later? So what’s happening now is not a disaster?

“That is the future that stares them in the face, there is no other future,” Tariq Ali said.”

Talk about throwing in the towel. So why don’t we all roll over and play dead before we actually are?

“He expressed hope that all the most influential parties, like Russia, China, Iran and even Hezbollah must realize that it is time for President Assad to go and to do so, no peacekeeping force is needed.”

So Tariq Ali thinks it’s time for Assad to go. Once more the Western ‘left’ reveals its true colours. Who needs enemies with a friend like this?

As with Libya this not about defending Assad’s regime but about Imperial strategy. It’s about getting rid of the last obstacle to NATO’s expansion eastward and crushing resistance in the Arab world. If Tariq Ali can’t see this, then what has he been doing for the last forty years (except that is, making a living out of being a professional lefty)? As ever it’s the Western intelligentsia telling the rest of the world what to do and how to do it. Shame on you Ali.