Gone Nuts

Beset by internal rebellion and condemnation abroad, Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad has apparently lost his mind.

According to breaking reports from Iranian sources, Assad recently went on a lengthy rant at a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, during which he threatened a massive three-front war against Israel, the U.S., and Europe.

Motivated, apparently, by the fear that NATO will assist the growing Syrian rebel army against his rule, the FARS news agency reports that Assad pledged

If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv.

The dictator went on to say

All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf and the US and European interests will be targeted simultaneously.

These statements illustrate not only Assad's recklessness, but also the extent to which he is losing his grip on reality. The Golan Heights, for example, have been held by Israel since the Six Day War, and there is no way he could place missiles there.

In the same manner, it is highly unlikely that he could convince Hezbollah or their masters in Tehran to join him in attacking a coalition of Europeans and Americans who would likely retaliate with massive force. Syria could not prevail in a conventional war against Israel, let alone against a retaliatory strike by a NATO coalition.

Assad, however, has a long history of bullying and intimidation, usually against weaker opponents. In one famous confrontation in 2003, he told former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, "I will break Lebanon on your head." A short time later, Hariri was dead in a massive car bomb set by Hezbollah, most likely acting on behalf of Syrian intelligence agents.

This time, however, Assad is trying to bully forces much more powerful than he is. The tyrant, it seems, is frightened and growing more and more desperate.

Syria has been in a state of what is more or less civil war for the better part of a year, and Assad's bloody crackdown on his opponents has not quelled resistance to his rule.

In fact, opposition forces have only become stronger and more organized. Recent reports have indicated that dissident army officers are now in the process of forming a full-scale military force to overthrow the Assad dictatorship.

Under such circumstances, the specter of the fall of Libya's Qaddafi regime, equally despised both domestically and internationally, must way heavily on Assad's mind. A mind that, it now appears, is breaking under the strain.

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