Bashar Assad: Fight against Syria rebels "better," gov't forces "moving forward"

Syrian President Bashar Assad appears in a clip from an interview with private television network Dunya, aired on Aug. 28, 2012. / Dunya/Youtube

Updated 5:07 p.m. ET

BEIRUT (AP) - In a striking admission, President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that his armed forces will need time to defeat the rebels and addressed the string of defections from his authoritarian regime.

The comments amounted to an acknowledgment that even though the opposition lacks the government's tanks and airplanes, their tenacity and tactical creativity - combined with the military's struggle to fight on multiple fronts - have yielded a stalemate that could prolong the civil war with many more dead.

Over the past few months, Syria's military has increasingly been stretched thin fighting on multiple fronts against rebels seeking to oust Assad. His forces have been unable to quell the rebellion as it spread to the capital, Damascus, with significant clashes that began in July and to Syria's largest city, Aleppo, a few weeks later. At the same time, the military is fighting smaller scale battles in a string of other cities and towns around the country.

With neither side making significant advances, the conflict is looking more like a war of attrition that could be very drawn out.

"We are fighting a regional and global war, so time is needed to win it," Assad said in an interview with the pro-regime private TV station Dunya. "We are moving forward. The situation is practically better but it has not been decided yet. That takes time," he told the station, which is majority owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Assad and one of Syria's wealthiest men.

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"If the armed forces wanted to use the entire range of its firepower, it can wipe out many areas. But this will be unacceptable," said Assad.

Assad also appeared to make light of the significant number of defections, some of them senior military and political officials, including the prime minister.

"Defections are a positive process. Generally, it is self-cleansing of the state and the nation," said Assad. "If there is a Syrian citizen who knows of someone who wishes to flee but is hesitant to do so he should encourage him," he said with a smile. "Whoever flees is either weak or bad. A patriotic or a good person does not flee."

Assad claimed there were cases when authorities knew in advance of officials who wanted to flee and allowed them to do so unhindered. But he did not provide any specifics to back up the claim.

Taken together with his comments to a visiting Iranian official over the weekend, Assad shows willingness for an even more prolonged conflict, even with more than 20,000 estimated dead in more than 17 months of fighting.

CBS

His regime, he told the senior Iranian official, would continue the fight against the rebels "whatever the price."

Some analysts saw the interview as a counter-attack by the regime to burnish its image in the face of recent military gains by the rebels.

Analysts and rights activists say the military has been unable to defeat the rebels in large part because of the tactics of its enemy - a rag-tag army of civilians-turned-fighters and defected soldiers without a clear chain of command.

"It is extremely difficult to stop an insurrection that has spread so widely, even with far superior firepower, as demonstrated by the U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Chistopher Chivvis, a senior analyst with the Rand Corporation. "The task becomes even harder when there are neighboring countries that support the insurrection"

The insurgents do not have to hold territory and can take advantage of the fact that the military cannot fight as easily on multiple fronts, said Michael W. Hanna, a Middle East expert who monitors the Syrian conflict for the Century foundation in New York.

Hanna also picked up on Assad's claim that the military is holding back on using its full power.

"If the Syrian military wants to retake territory it can do so but will be forced to use disproportionate force," he said. "Such actions run the perennial risk of alienating civilians and creating new motivations for anti-government actions."

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[MatthewJGFLY]

interesting read..im big on airsoft and have some veteran friends that play http://www.airsplat.com/support-gi-troops.htm and they are sad when they see stories like this.

[Bryan_inLC]

"disproportionate force"? That sorry MF.

Your thru ASSAD. you mass murdering piece of filth.

Why in the hell haven't we already taken action to wipe this piece of trash off. John McCain certainly wouldn't have put up with this. That is President Obama's flaw. He does not accept that we are the beacon of hope and truth in this world. We have held out hope to the worlds population and said we are on your side. We will be there for your struggles. When this is over, and so shall it be with the demise of this regime, there will be many Syrians that will not forgive our complacence. You left wing watered down Americans can put that in your little pipe.and please. choke on it

[Infowars57]

It's sad that America is now on the side of Al-Qaeda. The Patriot Act, the NDAA and TSA down your children's pants because of the threat of Al-Qaeda and now America/NATO are arming them to fight against Assad. A man that had a semi-decent country before we got involved in trying to overthrow him... and all you bleeding hearts are supporting the slaughter of innocent folks in this purely Muslim sectarian war. Alawite vs Sunni. This has nothing to do with "democracy" and if it did Democracy is evil (just as Jefferson advised us).

[athena8]

Barry has completely dismantled a somewhat stable MidEast. The Arab Spring right? Revolution, right? Now Syria is being broken. Well, if Americans should enter into this awful fray yet again, maybe GWB will be proven right when all those WMD's are found within Syrian borders. C'mon,I mean anyone with common sense knows that is where Hussein(Saddam, not Barry) moved them before invasion in 2003. But there'd be nothing but crickets from the hateful Bush and orgasmic Obama media.

[Bryan_inLC]

simply put. your an idiot

[beancube2010]

After all these huge number of innocent casualty, should Syrians allow those war selling rebels and the Assad killing machine regime to stay in power to govern Syria? Most people guess not. Wars and killings are not governing. Real government rises and falls following what the value of the majority of the population. That is equality, peace, democracy and human rights.

[jjoe57]

We're so happy for Assad now that the Syrian war is "better." I'm sure he's sleeping well at nights knowing he has been the cause of the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the utter devastation of that country.

[Infowars57]

Sorry, America via NATO is the cause of this war... Who do you think started Egypt and haven't you seen all the reports of what America (CIA/NATO) have done to slaughter all the Africans in Libya? We have caused this uprising, open your eyes people.

[netjunkie1]

Why hasn't someone started jamming the syrian regime's telecommunications yet?
Why is CBS courting his views?

[cbsnewsYahoo0829_10]

interesting

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
this monster called Bsshar is no longer in position to give an opinion
on anything whatsoever. The best thing he can to do, is to stop the killing, and stop the suffering inflicted by his army of shame on the Syrian people, the most important he must retire while it is still time.
"au revoir"

[pcfpgarty]

As has been in other conflicts , the Cheese stands alone " that Being the U.S. and the West , while Russia and China , our good , most trusted and loyal Allys side with the other. They do have reasons and for them they are good ones. It would do well if our government and those that side with us spent time to study those reasons and made some decisions as to how to lessen the influence of the opposition . It might also do well to consider sanctions of our own not through the U.N. or other , and apply these sanctions against China and Russia. Those two countries are wealthy because of us and Western Europe . We could eat our own corn and watch televisions made here , or could we ?

[quincytodd]

Let's all hope that Bashar al-Assad is right. The sooner this bloody conflict ends, the better! Besides, it would just be great to see Hilary Clinton not get her way for one time in her arrogant demands for a "regime change" somewhere! As it is, it will take the Syrians years to clean up the mess left by the current civil war! It took the Vietnamese decades to do the same!

[netjunkie1]

The sooner Assad leaves the better. I think it would be great for our society as it would be for Syria to see him gone.
The cities Assad has damaged should be rebuilt, but snipers have killed far too many innocent to forget anytime soon. The Army has fired on their own people and cities...Let every city burn if it takes to get this tyrant out of office or better, dead.


No, Vietnam is still a chemical mess.
The US is sending in crews now to clean up the agent orange and other long lasting chemicals.