February 9, 2012

What's a dictator's wife supposed to do?

"Why are we shaming her and saying she should do something? There was never any question that she would do anything else."
"Even if, deep down, she was not happy with what's happening, she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"And even if, between four walls, she told him 'I don't approve of this', we wouldn't know about it. Let's be more realistic about this."

43 comments:

LordSomber said...

She should just change the subject and talk about food pyramids or something.

Bob Ellison said...

Another beautiful spouse of a strange and ugly political celebrity! Someone should compile a list, but I've got blogs to read.

traditionalguy said...

In the middle east culture a woman is like good breeding stock. The stock can win trophies for their owner, especially if they animals are blondes.

But even the blue ribbon winners having any influence on male leaders that own them is a joke.

Henry said...

Sometimes you really can't go home again.

@LordSomber -- Zing!

Paul said...

Agree Raines is being kept out unfairly, but it is most certainly because of the drugs. The BBWA is full of petty little martinets, who exercise their power through moralizing induction embargos. Raines will get in when Hal McCoy and Murray Chass decide he's done his penance.

Bob Ellison said...

OK, since the clamor has risen so high, I'll start it off:

Asma al-Assad

Elizabeth Kucinich

Several others

I'm no judge of masculine beauty, but I think the differential between Mary Kaye Huntsman and her husband merits mention here as well.

Tim said...

Hmmm. I'm pretty sure this falls under the rubric of "First world problem."

Steven said...

What do you do if your husband is a murdering tyrant?

Kill him while he sleeps.

ricpic said...

The obscene bitch allows a press release in which "I comfort the victims of the violence."

YoungHegelian said...

Well, her knowledge that if the opposition wins she & her family (including the children) will be murdered may temper her views somewhat.

The time for moral introspection is before one casts one's lot with a murderous regime. Now, the die is cast.

At least, she had a choice. Syria's Alawites are now all marked men, thanks to the Assad regime. They can expect little short of extermination once the regime falls.

Freeman Hunt said...

Something like this came up once a long time ago.

Then Judith, standing by his bed, said in her heart, O Lord God of all power, look at this present upon the works of mine hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem.
5: For now is the time to help thine inheritance, and to execute thine enterprizes to the destruction of the enemies which are risen against us.
6: Then she came to the pillar of the bed, which was at Holofernes' head, and took down his fauchion from thence,
7: And approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day.
8: And she smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him.
9: And tumbled his body down from the bed, and pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and anon after she went forth, and gave Holofernes his head to her maid;
10: And she put it in her bag of meat: so they twain went together according to their custom unto prayer: and when they passed the camp, they compassed the valley, and went up the mountain of Bethulia, and came to the gates thereof.
11: Then said Judith afar off, to the watchmen at the gate, Open, open now the gate: God, even our God, is with us, to shew his power yet in Jerusalem, and his forces against the enemy, as he hath even done this day.
12: Now when the men of her city heard her voice, they made haste to go down to the gate of their city, and they called the elders of the city.
13: And then they ran all together, both small and great, for it was strange unto them that she was come: so they opened the gate, and received them, and made a fire for a light, and stood round about them.
14: Then she said to them with a loud voice, Praise, praise God, praise God, I say, for he hath not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but hath destroyed our enemies by mine hands this night.
15: So she took the head out of the bag, and shewed it, and said unto them, behold the head of Holofernes, the chief captain of the army of Assur, and behold the canopy, wherein he did lie in his drunkenness; and the Lord hath smitten him by the hand of a woman.

bagoh20 said...

I would rather be a poor Appalachian coal miner's wife...even if my coal miner husband was a serial killer.

He would still be a better man than this ophthalmologist.

pm317 said...

Vogue put out a fawning puff piece on Assad and his British-born wife (called her a rose in the desert or some such thing) last year just before things started to go wrong and about the same time Obama was calling Assad a reformer. The ridiculous line I remember from the article was about the big windows in their house and how that lets other look inside and how transparent (and modern) this dictator and his wife were!

Now if you do a search you can't find that original article in Vogue.

Anonymous said...

Does she know how this worked out for Eva Braun and Clara Petacci?

MadisonMan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MadisonMan said...

Now, why did I think of Meade and you and this blog when I read that headline?

(grin)

What would Michelle do?


(try #2 to get rid of a typo)

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

She married a despot.

So much is excused by worship of power.

The character of the Syrian regime was always the same. It's only when it was weakened that the knives came out.

She became the wife of a loser rather than a winner. Nothing else changed.

edutcher said...

They're allowed four. I'm surprised the pencil neck doesn't have a couple warming up in the bullpen.

Which would certainly keep her on the straight and narrow.

Kirk Parker said...

"and she took away his head from him"

Oh, for the days of "literal" translation! Thought it does have a kind of primitive, elemental elegance to it.

Unknown said...

In a few weeks or months, she will be hanging feet first from a lamppost with her throat cut. Inshalla.

Peter said...

Hell must be receiving an order from a dictator, followed by an order cancelling the first order from the dictator's wife.

Alex said...

You conservatives are just jealous because Assad snagged himself a hottie wife. She is so hot my eyeballs burst into flame upon seeing her photo.

Toad Trend said...

And here I expected another fawning piece sympathetic to the denigrator-in-chief's wife.

Sigh.

LordSomber said...

The obscene bitch allows a press release in which "I comfort the victims of the violence."

So it's like good cop/bad cop -- it all evens out.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if she's seen "The Godfather." She and Mrs. Corleone have some things in common.

Anthony said...

One doesn't really expect a dictator's wife to openly oppose her husband's actions, despite the example of Sra. Fujimori, but really, under the circumstances, the best thing Mrs. al-Assad can do is to shut up.

vw: nutboylo. Lots of women have that nut boy love.

Cedarford said...

She is the daughter of a prominent Syrian-Brit cardiologist and mom who trained as a diplomat. Quite bright, grad degree in computer science, was doing mergers for JP Morgan.

The romance between Asma and Bashar had been slowly brewing for over twenty years since they first met as children during her annual holiday. As she recalled: "We have been friends for a very long time. I came to Syria every year since I was born. It is really through family and friends who know each other since childhood." The couple had started seeing each other in London when Bashar was training as an ophthalmologist in 1994. The couple were finally wed in a small low-key civil ceremony in Damascus on New Year’s Day 2001.

The tragedy in this is that Bashar Assad had no interest in politics and wanted and sought his fathers permission to stay out of politics, study medicine and then live and work overseas in America or the UK. The death of the heir designate, the older son, changed Hafez Assad's thinking and Bashar was told it was his family duty to offer himself as a potential successor. By 1999, President Assad had instructed Bashar he would be the successor.

The marriage, already in the works, happened after Hafez's death in 2000. She had no place, in the expectations game, of spurning her fiancee simply because he was told to abandon medicine and serve his country and Alewite tribe.

If Bashar Assad had been in a different family, he'd be a good eye doctor in America or the UK. Asma Assad would be making millions on her own merits at JP Morgan or a similar ME investment firm.

Now, both are in a mess..caught between the West, the Ba'athist Alewite tribe obligations with Army generals, not Bashar Assad calling the shots. With the need to prevent radical Islamist Sunnis from taking over the country.

Don't hope she ends up swinging from a lampost....we are sometimes blinded in America by "Our right to Freedom!!" and neglect that other people have a significant part of their fate resting on duty, obligations to family, to a tribe, a culture. And to duck the duty and obligations makes one dishonorable....

But for a car accident...

Admiral Yamamoto loved the West, and as a young man pleaded with his father to be allowed to follow his Harvard chums into business or diplomacy...and was told his duty was to be a soldier to the Emperor. Karma...

A life as talented, bright people in the West was likely better for both Bashar Assad and his wife Asma...both wanted it..both didn't get past duty and obligation to realize it.

Anonymous said...

It is not a question of what she is supposed to do now. It is, rather, a question of who she is. Nothing speaks about your identity more than your choice of marriage partner. She clearly wanted the glory of being married to the ruler, but there is a price for that!

The price, in this case, ought to be summary execution. A bullet to the head for her husband, and one for her too.

She bears responsible for the killing. Not as much as her husband, but still enough that justice demands her life.

DADvocate said...

but anyone who stands by a dishonourable man with the power to make or break a nation fully deserves blame and punishment,...

Yep.

Cedarford said...

ricpic said...
The obscene bitch allows a press release in which "I comfort the victims of the violence."

===============
Do keep in mind that leaders of the people the "obscene bitch's" husband and Armed Forces are in bloody civil war with - are the same radical Sunni villagers that sent Jihadis (Syrian sunnis and all the other nations that had Jihadis show up feted in the same places Assad is shelling) into Iraq to help kill Americans.

It wasn't Syrian Alewites or Shiites coming in or feeding and supporting Jihadis off to kill Americans and Shiite Iraqis - it was the new "victims" certain conservatives hungry for a new war are blubbering over.

Don't be taken in by Bush's imbecilic talking point that Leaders in a civil war are guilty of the worst crime of all..."Killing their own people...vs. the nicer version in Bush's mind of invading armies going into foreign lands to kill those people instead." By the imbecilic Bush logic, Lincoln was a "murdering tyrant" for killing his own people.

Anonymous said...

...for the state- supported terrorism
.... for the people of Hama
.... for the crimes against the people of Lebanon
.... for establishing the jihadi ratline into Iraq

..sow the wind; reap the whirlwind.

Paddy O said...

"What's a dictator's wife to do?"

Fast three days then hold a feast for the King and then another feast? Then ask him to hang all terrible advisors, thus saving the people.

Paddy O said...

"What's a dictator's wife supposed to do?"

Suggest cake?

William said...

It should be noted that as the wife of an eye surgeon, she has forcibly spoken out against glitter bombing. That barbaric practice is almost unknown in Syria.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I remember the Diane Sawyer interview with Assad and how she just cooed when he described when he met his wife in London and his Ipod playlists.

Isn't it cute how liberals fawn over murdering despots?

David said...

Ridiculous.

Whether she can change his mind is not the test of whether she should say or do something. So what if it makes no impact on his actions?

Simply stating the truth has its own value.

It might put her in danger, of course. The Devil does get his due.

Petunia said...

William with the thread-winner!

This lady knew what her husband was when she married him. Bashar didn't have to follow in his father's footsteps in the way he's carried out his "family duty".

bagoh20 said...

Cedarford, are you a sock puppet Obama. You have his adorable penchant for finding a way to attack Bush, conservatives and America on virtually any subject. I'm sure you could find a way to tie all three to the Black Plague without a pause.

BTW, I hope hope you lose your reelection.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The story could simply be that the Dictator's wife loves power and all that entails in that part of the world, just as much as Hillary loved Bill and did what she had to do to keep it.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

She married the Mob. Knowingly.

AlanKH said...

Two doses of reality regarding the fantasies of Asma going "V for Vendetta" on her husband:

1. It would be a suicide mission. If there are men in power who would favor a coup, they would not support one instigated by a woman. Asma would be fed to the wolves (figuratively or literally), and the jockeying for political position woudl begin.

2. There's nothing to guarantee that Assad's replacement wouldn't be any worse. Learn the lesson of Libya: a coup isn't a good idea if you have no freakin' idea what kind of boss the new boss will be.

Gary Rosen said...

No surprise that C-fudd whitewashes this modern-day Eva Braun, just as he whitewashes ass-raping child molesters like Sandusky and Polanski.

Jose_K said...

Abstain from sex?
Castro's misstress , Hayde Saantamaria killed herself.
His first wife divorced him( his nephew is a member of the House)
Kill him ?or aid his killers like Brutus´ mother
Go into exile?Like Soraya