March 15 2011-December 8 2024, almost 14 years of the Syrian revolution, yet after years of massive setbacks, of hundreds of thousands killed by barrel bombs, cluster bombs, napalm, chemical weapons, ballistic missiles, bunker busters, and in the world's largest torture gulag, every city bombed into a moonscape by the regime, the Syrian people completely swept the regime away into history in 10 days. Barely a shot needed to be fired, because no-one - no-one - was willing to fight to keep the genocidal hereditary monarchy in power, not even in areas widely considered its base. Even those most dedicated to keeping the regime in power, Russia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iraq - all did pretty much nothing despite their declarations of support. As the Iranians put it as they withdrew we can't fight for the regime if it won't fight itself. Sure, Russia bombed plenty of hospitals, refugee camps, churches, markets etc in Idlib the last few days, but this was just murderous revenge, given how little it did on the frontlines. All over Syria, statues of the tyrant and his father are being toppled, prisons are being opened and people who have been inside literally for decades are being released, 13 million Syrians, including 6.7 million in exile and 3.6 million displaced just in the northwest corner of Syria from where this offensive was launched, can begin one of history's greatest marches of return. Let the rest of the region's useless and bloody dictators tremble on their thrones. Should we trust HTS, the core group of the insurgency that liberated Aleppo on November 27? Certainly not, the people should trust no-one except themselves, many Syrians, including many who are ecstatic about the fall of Assad, have good reason to be cautious about HTS [indeed some rightly pointing to the experience of the Iranian revolution], though so far they have acted nothing like predicted, on the contrary their outreach to Christians, Druze, Shia, Alawites and Kurds has been crucial to the sweeping success of the revolution and the neutralization of the dictatorship. But it is the very depth of popular participation in the revolution - and it is a revolution, one of the deepest and widest and clean swiping I've seen in my lifetime - that is the best guarantee to diluting authoritarian tendencies among whoever emerges on top and keeping the goals of the revolution upfront; but any non-Syrians using gross and ignorant Islamophobic discourse to shit on the extraordinary jubilation being felt by millions of Syrians right now, all I can suggest is, do some reading and learn something, talk to some Syrians, take a chill pill and go to bed. Let Syrian freedom open the road to Palestinian freedom, difficult as that is in the midst of Israel's war of extermination - only the overthrow of all the region's tyrants gives the Palestinians a chance. To all my Syrian friends I've known over the last 13 years, the hugest heartfelt congratulations!!!!
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