This is the trend in the totally subservient US media: when the US gets along with a foreign potentate, the coverage is favorable, and when things turn sour, the coverage turns unfavorable. We have seen this before so it is one of the most predictable patterns. Let me summarize: when the potentate is in the US pocket, he is a "moderate", and when he turns against the US, he becomes another Hitler (or a drug smuggler in the case of Noriega). Mrs. Asad was portrayed as "glamorous" and now there are all those articles about her "lifestyle" and extravagance. But let me ask you this: when was the last time you read anything about any of the multiple wives of Saudi or UAE or Qatari rulers? The wife of the former Emir of Qatar certainly lives a lifestyles that is well beyond the lifestyles of Mrs. Rouhani or Mrs. Asad or even Mrs. Kim Jong-un. Even the opponents of the Syrian regime don't really have stories about an extravagant lifestyle of Asma' Al-Asad. Yet, Mr. MacFarquhar (totally taking a story from silly Syrian exile opposition media) in a front-page article in the Times found a damning evidence: "Mrs. Assad, rail thin, was even photographed recently wearing a trendy fitness band on her wrist...Some observers noted with glee that Mrs. Assad, a former investment banker raised in Britain, sported on her right wrist
a turquoise Jawbone Up, a trendy, roughly $100 gadget to track diet,
sleep and exercise routines. The constant data stream is meant to goad
users to improve their habits." I mean, this is the best you could get about an extravagant lifestyle? A $100 gadget? Are you really serious and your editor could not even see the silliness of this propaganda piece of journalism? And worse, you cited "observers" who "noted" that she was wearing this gadget. Who are those "observers", Mr. MacFarquhar? Do you know who uses this shoddy journalism methods of attributing opinions to "observers"? The Syrian regime's propaganda TV, Ad-Dunia, made a habit of citing unnamed "observers" in stuffing their opinions in their reports. Just like you, Mr. FacFarquhar. When the US news media go nuts about a foreign leader, they just resort to childish and silly name-calling and insults. How silly can this get as this country prepares for war? So we should go to war because Mrs. Asad had a $100 gadget on her wrist? Mr. MacFarquhar: are you trying to say that Mrs. Asad is more extravagant than the queen of Jordan? Or more than any of the multiple wives of the Gulf potentates? Mr. MacFarquhar: the cigars of any of the lousy leaders of the Syrian exile opposition favored by the US and controlled by Saudi Arabia and/or Qatar cost far more than $100. Go report on that.
PS You read this story about $62 million and you think that $100 wrist band is extravagant?
PS You read this story about $62 million and you think that $100 wrist band is extravagant?
