Now that we are done with commenting on General Mustafa Tlas’ Three Months That Shook Syria, let us examine the account provided by another witness to the events of that period.
Patrick Seale, in turn, dealt with the 1984 events in his book Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East. But the author, out of respect for the reader’s mind, examined the background of the 1984 events that stretch back to several months, thus referring to issues that Tlas did not dare to raise in his book Three Months That Shook Syria. While Tlas replaced wise words with grudges and leveled baseless accusations against Brigadier-General Rifaat Al-Assad, we will see on the other hand how Patrick Seale who wrote from an objective standpoint, intentionally or unintentionally awarded the brigadier-general numerous badges of honor.
In reality, we are not very familiar with Patrick Seale’s works. But once readers read a few pages in any of his books, they will see themselves facing a veteran writer who lacks neither the means nor the determination to reach his objective, revealing the truth, nothing but the truth, even though he might be dealing with political crises relative to one of the most obscure and complex Arab regimes.
While we believe that Patrick Seale’s narrative depends to a large extent on the information he managed to gather from witnesses placed under intelligence surveillance, we respect his determined attempts to uncover the truth. After he conducted many interviews with a number of regime figures in 1984, he preferred to wait another four years before he focused his attention on President Assad and asked him about the true state of affairs.
And despite the professional mistakes made by the author in his book, which we will refer to in our discussion, it should be noted that by not including Brigadier-General Rifaat Al-Assad’s testimony, he made a great professional mistake, especially that Assad occupies a pivotal and dominant role in his narrative.
As we dealt with Tlas’ account of the 1984 events, we will stick to Seale’s narrative without going into irrelevant details.
By way of reminder, we will add the comments made by Syria’s Knights right below the paragraphs that invite such comments. The comments start with the sign (-) and will be put in a green frame.
To learn more about Patrick Seale’s account please follow the link.
Syrian Knight
Patrick Seale, in turn, dealt with the 1984 events in his book Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East. But the author, out of respect for the reader’s mind, examined the background of the 1984 events that stretch back to several months, thus referring to issues that Tlas did not dare to raise in his book Three Months That Shook Syria. While Tlas replaced wise words with grudges and leveled baseless accusations against Brigadier-General Rifaat Al-Assad, we will see on the other hand how Patrick Seale who wrote from an objective standpoint, intentionally or unintentionally awarded the brigadier-general numerous badges of honor.
In reality, we are not very familiar with Patrick Seale’s works. But once readers read a few pages in any of his books, they will see themselves facing a veteran writer who lacks neither the means nor the determination to reach his objective, revealing the truth, nothing but the truth, even though he might be dealing with political crises relative to one of the most obscure and complex Arab regimes.
While we believe that Patrick Seale’s narrative depends to a large extent on the information he managed to gather from witnesses placed under intelligence surveillance, we respect his determined attempts to uncover the truth. After he conducted many interviews with a number of regime figures in 1984, he preferred to wait another four years before he focused his attention on President Assad and asked him about the true state of affairs.
And despite the professional mistakes made by the author in his book, which we will refer to in our discussion, it should be noted that by not including Brigadier-General Rifaat Al-Assad’s testimony, he made a great professional mistake, especially that Assad occupies a pivotal and dominant role in his narrative.
As we dealt with Tlas’ account of the 1984 events, we will stick to Seale’s narrative without going into irrelevant details.
By way of reminder, we will add the comments made by Syria’s Knights right below the paragraphs that invite such comments. The comments start with the sign (-) and will be put in a green frame.
To learn more about Patrick Seale’s account please follow the link.
Syrian Knight