The Most Tiresome Truths on Syria

By Marc Polymeropoulos

Marc Polymeropoulos served 26 years in the CIA before retiring from the Senior Intelligence Service in June 2019.  His positions included field and headquarters operational assignments covering the Middle East, Europe, Eurasia and CounterTerrorism.  He is the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Intelligence Commendation Medal, and the Intelligence Medal of Merit.

OPINION — It has been several years since I thought deeply about Syria. And that is a shame, given my long time affection for the Syrian people, whom I grew to know and love after several decades working on Near Eastern issues at CIA. Syria came crashing back for me in full force recently after I watched and wept through the stunning and tragic Syrian civil war documentary “For Sama,” which chronicled the heroism of a Syrian journalist and her family in surviving the apocalyptic destruction in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

In my former professional life, an operations officer moved between countries and even regions quite often, and thus I had not followed Syria with any granularity since around 2015, when I served in CIA’s Near East Division. At one time I was considered quite knowledgable on the internal dynamics of Syria, and particularly on the regime itself. In 2006, I wrote an informal assessment on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for President George W. Bush. His PDB briefer responded later that morning telling me that President Bush greatly appreciated my analysis on a particular crisis we were facing, but had significant trouble pronouncing my last name.

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