How Assad Keeps The Officers In His Army Loyal

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C) speaks to soldiers (Reuters / Sana Sana) / Reuters

Max Fisher, VOX: "The Assad suburb": How Syria ghettoized the military to keep it loyal

In early 2011, when Syrians rose up in protest and Bashar al-Assad attempted to put them down with murderous force, one of the reasons he failed was that a number of soldiers, disgusted with their orders to fire on civilians, instead joined the uprising themselves. These defected soldiers, along with local volunteers, formed the Free Syrian Army, and Assad's crackdowns became a civil war.

But in many ways, just as important was the thing that didn't happen: Relatively few officers defected. Had more senior or midlevel officers defected to the opposition, and perhaps taken their troops with them, the Assad regime very well might have collapsed in those first few months.

Why didn't Assad's officers defect to the opposition, as had happened in Libya's civil war? One big reason, oft-cited, is sectarianism: Assad, who belongs to a religious minority known as Alawites, cultivated fellow Alawites in senior military positions, believing they would be more loyal. He also encouraged sectarianism and extremism among the predominantly Sunni rebels, scaring Alawites into sticking with the regime.

WNU Editor: Probably the best motivator for Assad's army to stay loyal is when they read reports on what the Islamic State and the rebels are doing to captured prisoners or when they occupy a territory and the "non-believers" are persecuted or murder. The Syrian civil war is a sectarian conflict .... and while keeping the families of his officers sequestered from Syrian society was probably an influence in keeping them loyal, there are other factors in play.