Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Fifteen minutes ago:
DAMASCUS, Syria (UPDATE 2) - Thousands of troops backed by armour swept into the flashpoint Syrian town Daraa Monday, killing and injuring an unknown number of people and leaving bodies lying in the streets, activists said.
Other rights activists said there were also security force raids Monday in the towns of Douma and Al-Muadamiyah near Damascus.
It's really worth revisiting that Vogue piece:
The presidential family lives surrounded by neighbors in a modern apartment in Malki. On Friday, the Muslim day of rest, Asma al-Assad opens the door herself in jeans and old suede stiletto boots, hair in a ponytail, the word happiness spelled out across the back of her T-shirt. At the bottom of the stairs stands the off-duty president in jeans—tall, long-necked, blue-eyed. A precise man who takes photographs and talks lovingly about his first computer, he says he was attracted to studying eye surgery “because it’s very precise, it’s almost never an emergency, and there is very little blood.”
And now let's go back to Syria--an eyewitness account from last Saturday:
Suddenly gunfire rained into the crowd. The truck drivers dove for cover. And, for what seemed like an eternity, I sat there in the car, stunned and frozen. People were falling on top of each other, being cut down like weeds in a field by what I think must have been a mix of both small arms fire and machine gun fire. I saw at least two children shot. They fell immediately. People were screaming. Gunfire rattled on.
Two cars tried to gun it under the overpass and continue down the highway, even with the gunfire continuing to cut people up. One of the cars got hit immediately before it passed under the bridge and ended up slamming into the embankment on the right side of the road. Someone fell out of the passenger side and scrambled under the bridge and crawled into a ball ... just hoping for survival, I suppose.
I've been playing it through over and over again in my head for the past 16 hours and I still do not know where the gunfire was coming from. It seemed to be coming from a field that lay off to my right - on the Izraa side of the bridge. I could see some muzzle flashes, but I've never in my life seen people walking, and just shot at indiscriminately.
I could not take my eyes off what was quickly becoming carnage. One of the last things I remember seeing clearly were people lying flat on the road, taking cover behind those who had already been wounded or shot dead ... lying in what must have been pools of blood to avoid a hail of flying hot hell.
And now let's go back to Vogue:
The old al-Assad family apartment was remade into a child-friendly triple-decker playroom loft surrounded by immense windows on three sides. With neither shades nor curtains, it’s a fishbowl. Asma al-Assad likes to say, “You’re safe because you are surrounded by people who will keep you safe.” Neighbors peer in, drop by, visit, comment on the furniture. The president doesn’t mind: “This curiosity is good: They come to see you, they learn more about you. You don’t isolate yourself.”
There’s a decorated Christmas tree. Seven-year-old Zein watches Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland on the president’s iMac; her brother Karim, six, builds a shark out of Legos; and nine-year-old Hafez tries out his new electric violin. All three go to a Montessori school.
Asma al-Assad empties a box of fondue mix into a saucepan for lunch. The household is run on wildly democratic principles. “We all vote on what we want, and where,” she says. The chandelier over the dining table is made of cut-up comic books. “They outvoted us three to two on that.”
A grid is drawn on a blackboard, with ticks for each member of the family. “We were having trouble with politeness, so we made a chart: ticks for when they spoke as they should, and a cross if they didn’t.” There’s a cross next to Asma’s name. “I shouted,” she confesses. “I can’t talk about empowering young people, encouraging them to be creative and take responsibility, if I’m not like that with my own children.”
“The first challenge for us was, Who’s going to define our lives, us or the position?” says the president. “We wanted to live our identity honestly.”
One minute ago:
citizenkayen URGENT: Syrian militia shooting randomly so to pull out the bodies of regime forces in #AlSweedan area in#Daraa #Syria via @daraanow
#Syria The local terror on ground is sanctioned by US/UK officials via fake MassMedia - we call it Information Terror, they're in our lists
Not to worry, Syrians, at least your First Lady is thin. But yes, our mass media is fake.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
“We all vote on what we want, and where.... "
I wonder if the vote were unanimous for the "hail of flying hot hell[?]"
Mar '11
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Ah, domestic bliss! One might want to remind Vogue that Adolf Hitler was also very kind to animals, especially his dogs, threw great dinner parties for his guests in his spectacular mountaintop retreat, and he was also a vegetarian, a non-smoker and drank no alcohol, although, being a gracious host, had beer and wine available for his guests. Oh, and he also had a former photographer's model as girlfriend. What a perfect subject for a Vogue article.
Aug '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Surely what the oppressed people of Syria need right now is a flotilla of peace and human rights activists to sail in to show solidarity, perhaps even to attend at funerals to deter violence against mourners?I believe there might be just such a group planning to be in the neighbourhood shortly. What are the chances I wonder? (Actually, I don't wonder at all- the answer is none).
Oct '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
High rise urban sophistication, credentialed credibility, fluent discourse in fashionable philosophy - these are the marks of membership. Of course, we shall posthumously admit the occasional Bolivarian warrior God, so long as he's recalled most famously striking a pose just so. But we needn't ever concern ourselves with plebian plight unless blood seeps through the rug. Until their humiliation finds escape and embarrasses us, they don't truly matter. If they did, we'd surely see them at the right parties my dear.
Aug '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
So, all we have from America in response to Syria are two things.
A stern reprimand and a fawning tongue bath for the reprimanded.
I bet we could hear the tsk tsk sounds coming from the UN Headquarters, but that was probably just some approbation for the defense of Joseph's tomb from the Hasids who go there to kiss it.
I guess when the President is doing a really bad job, most Americans feel stupid or ashamed or both.
Edited on Apr 25, 2011 at 6:02amRe: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Apart from Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria was the worst of the lot. Our "realists" have been sucking up to it for many, many years. Stability is their mantra.
Oct '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
I'm afraid what we've seen from fashionable elites - call them the left or intellectuals or the intelligentsia or what you will - of the sort exemplified by Vogue's pandering profile, is far more offensive than pragmatic realist accomodation. Nancy Pelosi couldn't have supplicated herself more fully, with hair dutifully covered in abject obeisance, as she giddily celebrated her audience in Damascus. And Hillary's incomprehensible declaration that Assad is a reformer speaks to more than a simple willing ignorance of a few unpleasantries in search of stability. These people would rather burnish their internationalist credentials than respect the interests of average Americans.
May '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
I wonder, are the great and near great who publish Vogue even capable of being embarrassed?
"Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a suede stiletto boot stamping on a human face— forever."
That was George Orwell, but it could have just as easily been Anna Wintour.
May '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
But does Assad Wear Khakis? I dunno Claire, you call it mowing down civilians, we call it being a reformer. Semantics, really.
Jun '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Answer: No. Pelosi has no shame. And for Vogue it sells more magazines (the one with the sweet story about the Syrian opthamologist, his cute English wife, and their precious kids).
Apr '11
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Is there a great difference from a "Reformer" who rules his people through power and oppression and a "Transformer" who rules through coercion and bribery.
At least the Syrians know they are not free and are willing to storm a city to fight and perhaps die for change and their own freedom while some here storm a capital building to fight for their God given right to collective bargaining.
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Don't miss the comments on the Vogue piece. Most are disgusted, but a few seem to indicate that Mrs. Assad commanded her maids to logon, then dictated the remarks. Is dictate too strong a word for the wife of reformer? Anyway:
Yeah! Enough of all those Vogue profiles of soccer moms who think they're chic because they have a YSL clutch. Another:
Interesting: S&P recently downgraded Assad from "squeaky" to "merely clean." This has to be a joke:
God forbid her world should be turned upside down. You know, like Mussolini's mistress.
Sep '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Well, I'll give Vogue this:
They are getting many more page views (and probably dead tree sales) with this article than a more realistic treatment would have merited. The only answer would be to complain to Vogue's advertisers.
May '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Funny you should say that: The November 1938 issue of Homes and Gardens Magazine contained a friendly story about Adolf Hitler at home in his Bavarian Berghof.
Nov '10
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
I rather like the irony of this line, "Asma’s husband, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president in 2000, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, with a startling 97 percent of the vote." Do you think someone, somewhere along the editorial chain, was trying to insert a little reality in this piece? Or did everyone really think the guy got 97 percent in a free, Western-style election?
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
Lest anyone be confused, the Homes and Gardens mag that ran a story on Hitler was a British publication. Not our own Better Homes and Gardens.
Apr '11
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
James Lileks:
Interesting: S&P recently downgraded Assad from "squeaky" to "merely clean." This has to be a joke:
God forbid her world should be turned upside down. You know, like Mussolini's mistress. · Apr 25 at 11:48am
James (if I may call you James) your sense of humor is great. I love........ Interesting: S&P recently downgraded Assad from "squeaky" to "merely clean."
Your wit makes me laugh out loud which is a problem when I have my earbuds in listening to you guys on the podcast walking my dog. People seem to be giving me a wide berth lately. I try to explain but they just walk away very fast!
Love it James ....keep it coming!
Apr '11
Re: Vogue: The Husband of Your "Rose in the Desert" is Mowing Down Civilians
What are the chances we could get Rev. Phelps to go over there and protest at their funerals. I'll bet his freedom of speech would take a sudden turn into silence. SD I'd like to say ditto. One reason I love this site, and the podcasts so much. I get a laugh everytime I log on or listen.