Last night, ZeroHedge hosted antiwar.com’s Scott Horton and Pulitzer winner Roy Gutman to debate whether ousting Assad was wise and how to deal with the new regime. Hosted by Viva Frei, the debate got a bit fiery (as is common with Horton) but covered a lot of ground and is worth listening to.
Here are some highlights for those short on time:
Is Syria run by Al Qaeda?
Gutman attempted to downplay Al Qaeda’s role in the Syrian civil war, saying it was “mostly peaceful” protestors and rooted in the Syrian people’s urge to rid themselves of a dictator.
To which Scott replied bluntly: “Who’s in charge of Syria right now, Roy?”
Jolani: Terrorist or Reformed?
Gutman said that the new Syrian regime is a “work in progress” and can possibly be dealt with diplomatically, emphasizing that “[Jolani is] from the middle class in Damascus.”
If that’s the case then why couldn’t we have worked with Assad, Horton asked.
“Oh, [Jolani] was a middle-class guy, huh? Yeah, so was Mohammed Atta… This is the enemy. This is treason.”
Gutman has decades of on-the-ground experience in the Middle East while Horton has an encyclopedic mind and photographic memory. We highly recommend watching to the entire discussion below or listening via Spotify:
