Report to NATO: 70% of Syrians support Assad

[Xithras]

19. It's not that they "support Assad", but that they want him to win.

This is nothing new. As the rebellion has become increasingly fundamentalist and some of the goals of the modern insurgency have become more well known, many Syrian's have begun to fear the rebels more than the Assad regime. There have been a number of outside interviews with Assad soldiers over the last year, and most journalists have asked various soldiers why they fight for Assad. Most of the answers are some variety of "I don't like Assad, but the rebels want to make Syria a sharia state", or "I want democracy in Syria, but the rebels don't want democracy any more than Assad does", or the ever popular "I don't fight for Assad, I fight because the rebels want to destroy my country."

In spite of the negative American perception about Syria because of their poor relations with Israel, the reality is that Syria is a relatively affluent, modern, and progressive country by middle eastern standards. While a very small part of the rebellion would like to see Syria become a European-style democracy, most of the rebellion is aiming for something more akin to a Gulf-state style Islamist republic (similar to Yemen or pre-coup Egypt), and a substantial number are aiming for something far darker. The vast majority of Syrian's may not like Assad, but they like the pro-Saudi vision of the rebels even less.