Bashar Al-Assad has been president of Syria since 2000 when he succeeded his father, Hafiz Al-Assad, who had ruled that country with an iron fist for more than a quarter of a century. While the current first lady of Syria was once being interviewed by Vogue magazine columnist, Joan Juliet Buck, Bashar Al-Assad happened to pass by. The columnist asked him why he chose to be an eye doctor. He explained: “It is very precise, and there is very little blood and the cases involved are not treated as an emergency". Can we consider his statement regarding “very little blood" to still be valid after he has become the cause of the letting of so much of the blood of the Syrian people, including that of those in the medical profession. Al-Assad, a medical doctor who specialized in ophthalmology, has also been deliberately targeting medical services. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an independent non-governmental organization, has received reports of “violations of medical neutrality in Syria" and has called on Al-Assad's government to discontinue its operation of “targeting medical facilities, health workers and their patients". So much for the profession he chose where there is “very little blood!" The limited hospital access and diminishing blood supplies have been compounded by the dwindling numbers of physicians. According to Syrian physicians, it has also been revealed that hundreds of doctors have either been detained or have simply disappeared. PHR has made public the deplorable report of a 43-year-old Syrian physician who died after being tortured by the Syrian police. Some time ago, if one had asked some Syrians their thoughts on Al-Assad, they might have quickly said: “We love him" and perhaps, naively, it seemed genuine. The reality was that Syrians were afraid to speak their mind because of the secret police. There have been mysterious disappearances of people who spoke the truth. Sadly Bashar and his father could not realize the difference between “love" and “fear". The doctor turned dictator, who chose a profession with “little blood" is now going for “big blood" from his own people regardless of the holy month of Ramadan! S. H. Moulana, Riyadh
