The Syria they didn’t tell us about
December 21, 2024
This is the testimony of a Syrian who fought for his country and his people and who now suffers the most terrible defeat in life.
This article stems from a conversation I had with an old friend who was a commander of the Syrian Armed Forces, whose courage was appreciated and recognised throughout the Middle East. A true socialist from another era, who was never afraid to speak his mind and who, despite contradictions and different political views, never betrayed his country and support for his government.
As he has no pleasure in revealing his name, as he is still engaged in institutional activities abroad, we will call him by his fictional name Ram. Whether one agrees with his words or not, this is the testimony of a Syrian who fought for his country and his people and who now suffers the most terrible defeat in life.
The reunion with Ram
In Ram’s private study there is an air of life lived to the full. Hanging on the walls are various paintings of Syrian landscapes, along with some Koranic invocations and terracottas commemorating the battles he took part in. A few old books in Arabic can be glimpsed on the bookshelf, along with many posters of documents in various languages. Here and there are now faded photographs of men in camouflage uniforms in the desert. Looking towards the entrance, a Syrian flag with Bashar al-Assad’s face still full of dust, dirt and a few rips, as if it had been taken from the battlefield and immediately put on the flagpole. In the centre, a photo of his father, a wise and good-looking Arab man, with a black mourning keffiyeh on top.
We had known each other for years: I was a kid who read the classics of geopolitics and looked at the world with the desire to understand it, he was a fighter who had lived through incredible situations and retired to private life, continuing to work for his country in other ways, out of the spotlight. I loved listening to the anecdotes he would pull out of his memory each time, it was like plunging into a different world, almost improbable for how ‘other’ it was from the West. Above all, a world in which the war, the struggle for freedom and a different political situation were not something decades away, but fresh events whose scars were still open and bleeding.
He has always had great respect for me and my support for the Syrian cause, which is why he allowed me to meet him. He welcomes me with the warmth, respect and depth that belongs to the Syrian people, famous for thousands of years for their ability to welcome and integrate. He offers me a long coffee and we start talking.
‘Ram, what do you think?’ I ask him.
The happiness of our meeting suddenly disappears. His face becomes serious and his head tilts forward as if in deep thought. After a few seconds, he looks up: ‘I have never told anyone. Perhaps the time has come to tell what I knew, what I saw’.
What follows is her testimony, delivered to me with great emotion and palpable pain from the first to the last word.
We already knew everything
‘What happened was not expected by anyone, except those who, like me, had already glimpsed the plot of events as far back as 2011 and perhaps had had anticipations from trusted contacts. We already knew everything. We knew that Bashar al-Assad was preparing something with the rulers of other countries, arranging his good exit the moment support in the Middle East collapsed or things went bad’. The seriousness of the conversation does not admit of irony or sarcasm. Ram is serious and tries to make me understand the gravity of his words, trusting in my professionalism and the trust that binds us.
The thesis he supports and which he explains to me in many details, some of which I cannot report due to the delicacy of the information cited, is that Bashar al-Assad was too friendly with Westerners: his banker wife, the dinners in the United Kingdom, the smell of Freemasonry, a certain passivity in the face of the corruption of politicians and the high ranks of the armed forces. Too many elements that many Syrians did not like and that already in 2000, when he came to power, had aroused suspicion and disappointment among those who, like Ram, had risked their lives for the revolution.
The events of 2011-2013, the internal uprising, the jihadist terrorism, had all been consequences of previous mistakes. Assad had winked too much at the West…but also at the East. To Russia, for example. ‘I confess I had believed it, I had hoped for it. Putin could really make a difference. I never trusted any other ruler, but I did, because he had really provided essential help in defeating terrorism and had guaranteed Syria at least a minimum of international security,’ he tells me, exploring his many memories. ‘But it didn’t help, because Russia was also involved in the agreement. We have been betrayed twice: as a country, by Russia who let the enemy assault us; as Syrian people, by our president who sold out all of us to save his own skin’. There is anger in Ram’s eyes. A solemn anger that admits of no lies.
‘And I will tell you more: for me, the agreement was signed in concert with Israel and the US. American Jews are interested in the Middle East to realize the Greater Israel project and the construction of the Third Temple, Russian Jews are interested in Ukraine, the old Khazaria. They win either way. Israel won even before sending troops to invade’. Strong and precise words, as befits a commander who has been at war for real.
He then explained to me that information had already been circulating for a couple of months about Assad’s escape and the handover of Syria without effort, but these were not rumors that were given much credence and the versions of events were sometimes contradictory and inaccurate. But it was clear that something was moving.
He tells me some anecdotes of when he was fighting, of the cities he defended and when he also took part in conflicts in other countries: ‘I have seen in my life the enemy arrive in Beirut, in Damascus, in Aleppo, in Hama, in Homs. I have seen the enemy succeed in making us believe they have won, but then be swept away by the courage of our men. There were times when I thought it was the end, that we were losing the war, but then something happened that gave new impetus to the Resistance. This time – the first time in my whole life – I saw defeat’.
This is the most painful point. ‘We did not lose, we were defeated. This is much worse. ‘Woe to the vanquished!’ said the Latins.’ Defeat is the most terrible thing for a long-standing commander. The Syrian people have always shown heroic resistance, but something went wrong somewhere.
‘Do you know what I saw over there the last time I went? Poverty, hunger. There is no electricity, no water, no food supplies, not even fuel. The army is left to fend for itself in absolutely precarious conditions’. He tells me that some 700,000,000 young Syrians have given their lives to fight against the enemy.
Blood, blood, blood. Is it possible that the Middle East has to be constantly bathed in blood?
Then he explains to me the corruption he has seen, from checkpoints where the military took bribes without checking up on them to high officials bought with the luxury of private cars, villas, Western souvenirs.
‘Once when I was driving out of Damascus towards Homs, I met two very young boys in uniform along the road. They were thin and were smoking. I stopped them and asked them what they were doing there in that condition. They replied that they had no money to go to Homs, to spend the 24 hours of leave they had, nor did they have money to eat. I loaded them into the car with me and we left. During the journey we talked, they told me about the misery they lived in at the base. Their daily ration of food was a tomato and a potato. Once a week they were given a chicken to share among eight people. In my time there was food and the troops had to be well fed to be ready to fight. How can this happen? In the last 13 years, the government has completely destroyed the army: corruption of officers, lack of supplies, disengagement in the fight for the national cause’.
Soleimani, Raisi, Nasrallah. Someone betrayed
‘When General Soleimani – whom I knew as a young soldier – was killed by the American demon in 2020, I immediately sensed that something was starting to go wrong. He was much more than a General, he was a real Man, a leader, a living example. After him, unfortunately, the Resistance did not have another soldier capable in the same way of coordinating thousands of men from different countries, religions and ethnicities. This was an enormous strategic disadvantage’. We briefly reviewed the history of the Axis of Resistance and reasoned together about the geopolitical implications for the entire Middle East.
‘When I heard about Raisi’s death, I didn’t want to believe it. It seemed impossible. From that moment on, everything went downhill. Every day I watched the news with the fear that something even more terrible might happen. And so it was: one after the other, they took out all the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas’. A tragic truth, which I could only confirm.
The speed with which the enemy exterminated the military leaders of the Lebanese resistance one after the other was unbelievable, proving that agencies like the CIA, MI6 and Mossad did a great job. This is an incontrovertible fact. In the space of a few months, the entire political geography of the Middle East underwent a mutation that had not succeeded in years of trying.
‘Who knew the coordinates of Nasrallah’s bunker**?** Maybe three people in the world: Khamenei, Soleimani, Assad. Khamenei rather than betray would be ready to die with rifle in hand. Soleimani has already been taken out. There is only one left…’. At these words I stand open-mouthed: the commander had never spoken ill of his president, although I knew that politically he was not a supporter of him in everything, but had always supported his leader’s battle, for the good of the whole country. Anger, disappointment and pain brought out the truest words. A gamble, but still true.
Because one of the big questions that remain open is ‘who’ revealed Nasrallah’s exact location: an intelligence tracker? A spy? A paid-for piece of information? Or a traitor? The fact is that Nasrallah is no more and this, in Ram’s words, means that Lebanon will be the next to fall and Palestine, consequently, will no longer exist except in the memories of the last Arabs scattered around the world.
‘Syria fell in a matter of days because it had already fallen to the will of its rulers who had sold it out. 70,000 soldiers migrated within hours, taken in taxis (which cost a lot of money), not military vehicles, to the border with Iraq. It was all planned. Not a single bullet was fired in this invasion. This is not the Syrian army I know. This ‘thing’ is a perversion without dignity’.
He points to a photo behind him, I catch a glimpse of a soldier in uniform, one of those postcard photos you send to your parents when you do your military service: ‘Look at that boy there, 22 years old. Slit his throat’. He froze for a few moments, his eyes swollen with tears. It was the son of a close friend of his.
What will happen now?
Ram does not feel like talking about the coming days or weeks or months. Arab and secular Syria no longer exists. The word of the defeated has little value.
‘Something unthinkable is happening these days. There is no information in the media about it because it would be something terribly raw. Imagine 70 years of ethnic, cultural and religious hatred: they are getting even. There is almost fear in uttering these words. I remember that he has a brother in the Islamic clergy and several nieces and nephews, and with some concern I ask him what about them, so he replies: ‘I am trying to get my relatives out of Syria, but since 8 December I cannot even get in touch with them. A tragedy that is the common sentence of too many thousands of people in those lands.
In concluding our conversation, which lasted about an hour, Ram ventures an almost ‘prophetic’ projection: ‘I say it: yesterday Palestine, today Syria. Tomorrow Lebanon for good. Then Yemen. Once Yemen and Lebanon have fallen, Iran will be next. In between there is nothing left, Iraq is a gas pump surrounded by American gunmen, it will fall soon. President Trump is ready to destroy Iran, the intelligence community already knows this. If Khamenei dies, Iran collapses’. A few seconds of silence. Khamenei is the last remaining ‘global’ Islamic authority and the last patron of the Resistance.
‘Then it will be Russia’s turn. Millions of Sunni Islamic immigrants in the odor of extremism are already on the streets of Russian cities. They let in indiscriminately, they will pay the consequences. Then it will be Rome’s turn. Then Beijing’s. I await the day when the ‘long beards’ will come marching into Red Square and St. Peter’s Square. I hope to die before that terrible day’.
Here ends our conversation. A deep silence that lasts a few minutes. We stand up to say goodbye. Sighing, I take my formal leave and look one last time at the relics of the patriotic war Ram fought. I try to ask myself if I too would be ready to give my life as so many heroes and martyrs did who are no longer here today, but whose example will remain forever.
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