SAN ANTONIO – Syrian restaurant owner Amin Suliman, who’s lived in the United States for 16 years, anxiously waits to know what will happen in the wake of the American missile barrage in retaliation to the Syrian regime’s latest unleashing of chemical weapons on its own people.
“I’m glad they attacked the military base. I wish they can do all of them,” Suliman said.
The base that was leveled is believed to have been where the deadly chemical attack originated.
Suliman said the American military strike was long overdue, but it will take more than dozens of missiles to stop its tyrannical president, Bashar al-Assad.
“If they want to solve the problem, they have to get rid of him first,” Suliman said.
Suliman said it would take all-out war waged by the United States and its allies. But lawmakers on the both sides of the aisle say any escalation of U.S. involvement in Syria should be up to Congress.
Suliman said family members in Syria must live with uncertainty and fear given Assad’s long record of killing, torturing and jailing those who oppose him.
“The country is like he owns the country,” Suliman said.
He said Syria doesn’t belong to its people; it belongs to Assad’s family.
Suliman said Assad has been influenced by his Marxist beliefs, leading to his strong ties to Soviet President Vladimir Putin.
Suliman said Assad has been in power 16 years after inheriting his brutal regime from another dictator — his father, who controlled Syria for nearly 30 years.
Suliman said this week’s chemical attack wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.
“(Assad) knows the majority of the people don’t want him,” Suliman said.
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