When Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, was thrown from power last December and fled to Russia, Europe's elites, and its Washington swamp allies, rejoiced.

Sure, the new guys in charge, an armed rebel group called HTS, had been members of al-Qaida in Iraq. But Assad was the bad guy -- evil, wicked, worst person in the world.

What's more, the rebels had changed. They were now Muslim "moderates" as they told the dancing gullibles at PBS who dutifully took them at their word. Freedom would flow. They would govern as Jeffersonian democrats now. They were woke and "diversity-friendly," too, and no, that's not a sarcastic phrase I made up.

All the favorite things of blue rule were cited. The Guardian suggested that feminism would flourish. Gays would be O.K. Veils would be optional. The ever-diminishing Christian minority, which came to about 2% of the population, from about 20% two decades ago, would be fine.

As a result, European leaders from Germany and France came to court them, and the big EU cash streams flowed, at least $300 million worth. It was as if George Bush was president all over again.

Now the bearded beasts are back to their old form, targeting and slaughtering Christians, Alawites, Druze and Yazidi minorities now, not exactly concerned if anyone knows.

This is what is going on now:

That stands in stark contrast to what the European press was claiming less than three months ago as Euro-leaders got out their checkbooks and the Biden administration dropped the $10 million bounty on one of the terrorist chieftain's heads, letting bygones be bygones, saying that Syria's new despots had "committed to renouncing terrorism," and obviously believing them.

Oh, how the mythology about their changed nature had gushed as the terrorists played these gullibles on the left like a fiddle.

According to The Telegraph:

[HTS chieftain] Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has attempted to improve his reputation in the eyes of the West. In 2021, he gave an interview to PBS, the US state-funded broadcaster, calling the designation of HTS as a terrorist group “unfair” and “political.” He said that under the Salvation Government, the administrative arm of HTS, rule should be Islamic “but not according to the standards of IS or even Saudi Arabia.” In Idlib region, Jolani has allowed women not to wear the veil and smokers to keep up the habit, a looser regime than, for example, the Taliban in Afghanistan.

As his fighters advanced into Aleppo, Jolani put out a series of statements intended to allay fears among the population, segments of which are aligned with the Assad regime. Fighters should not “scare children,” he said, while HTS channels eagerly broadcast clips of Christians in the city going about their business as normal. Afram Ma’lui, the Archbishop of Aleppo, promised that services would be unaffected by the takeover. On Tuesday, with regime forces fully ejected from the city, Jolani put out a second statement declaring “diversity is a strength,” a phrase more redolent of Western HR departments than jihadist warlords.

As for Jolani, he's still talking that line for the gullible Western press, being a man of "values" and all.

The flip side is that those who had been warning about this bunch had been demonized in the press as "Putin puppets."

Example A was now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was raked over the coals during her confirmation hearing for saying that Assad was the only thing standing between the erasure of Christians in the Middle East and their total annihilation by the al-Qaida and ISIS monsters in whatever shape-shifting form they had taken.

According to Fox News:

At Gabbard's Senate confirmation hearing she said "I have no love for Assad or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that our leaders cozy up to Islamist extremists, calling them "rebels", as Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton, "al Qaeda is on our side in Syria." Syria is now controlled by al-Qaeda offshoot HTS, led by an Islamist Jihadist who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who was responsible for the killing of many American soldiers."

Turns out Tulsi was the cool-headed realist and they were the gullible fools living in fantasyland.

Fox News noted that Tulsi was right all along and the elites celebrating the fall of Assad and the ascent of the newly reborn terrorists were the clowns, the same people who think they know better on Ukraine.

This would explain why this story is not getting quite the extended play in the news that the fall of Assad did.

Terrorists are terrorists -- and based on what we saw, they haven't changed their stripes. Now it's the Christians who pay for it, which probably suits these elites fine.

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