WTH is Going On In Syria? The New Lines Institute’s Hassan Hassan Explains

What the Hell Is Going On

AEI Podcasts

News, History, Government, Politics

4.4 • 633 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In roughly ten days, opposition forces in Syria were able to accomplish more than they did in a decade and topple the tyrannical Assad regime. But as the dust settles, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – the U.S. designated terrorist organization that led the march to Damascus – will have to prove that it has moved on from its anti-Western Jihadist ideology and is committed to rebuilding a Syrian state that meets the needs of its people. Why did Assad’s regime collapse so quickly? And what does the future of Syrian governance look like?

Hassan Hassan is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of New Lines Magazine, an initiative of the New Lines Institute, and the founder of the institute’s Human Security Unit. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (2016, Reagan Arts).

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute.
0:03.0	If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on?
0:01.1	Who in God's name
0:21.7	knows what it's all about.
0:29.4	Hi, I'm Danielle Plutka. And I'm Mark Tiesin. Welcome to our podcast. What the hell is going on? God, what the hell is going on?
0:39.0	Every episode, it's a more and more relevant question. What the hell is going on is the
0:44.2	Assad regime has fallen. And like really fast and suddenly and unexpectedly for many people,
0:50.2	it is a stunning development. The tectonic plates of the world are moving in really amazing ways, just as Donald Trump gets ready to assume the presidency. There's so much to unpack here that I was talking to you offline before we started this. And I was saying this is both a good news and a bad news story. So it is a good news story in the sense that the Assad regime was incredibly
1:11.8	evil, one of the most evil regimes on the face of the earth. But also, it's a good news story
1:17.0	because, you know, this is the collapse of the entire Iranian terror empire taking place.
1:23.8	October 7th has backfired like nothing in the history of the world that has ever had. If you had told Iran before October 7th has backfired like nothing in the history of the world that has ever had.
1:28.9	If you had told Iran before October 7th, within 14 to 16 months, Hamas would be destroyed,
1:36.3	Hezbo's entire leadership would be destroyed, the Assad regime would be gone,
1:40.6	your whole terror network proxy network would be decimated. You will have lost
1:45.7	your entire air defenses, your entire ballistic missile capability, and your nuclear program
1:51.2	teetering on the brink of destruction the next time you make a wrong move. And all you would have
1:55.7	left is the Houthis. I think they would have thought twice about doing it. But at the same time, some really bad dudes are taking power in Syria.
2:05.2	The leader of the new, the de facto leader, Jalani of the new government, is Al-Qaeda.
2:12.8	He is, he is, and we'll get into the.
2:15.4	Yeah, former Al-Qaeda. Yeah, former Al-Qaeda.
2:18.3	Yeah, we'll get into that.
2:20.3	This is a guy, this is a guy who was radicalized by the 9-11 attacks to fight America,
	...

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