This is What I Saw in Syria - Ready for some Reality? Or Go Over There Yourself

America - I am seeing a lot of false information going around on Facebook and Social Media. Heads up!

The only people who really know what they are talking about regarding Syria and the Middle East are the few who have actually been there --especially if they have international legal experience.

I am one of those rare people. Have YOU been there? How about listening to someone with actual knowledge instead of someone forwarding misleading photos on Facebook?

 Michael Fjetland at Great Mosque, Damascus, Syria

 Michael at back of a Christian church in Maloula, Syria - this used to be the hidden entrance back when Christians were killed by Romans for their faith. Sound familiar?

 This photo is Maloula, the Christian town just north of Damascus. One of the men was our driver. His car was a small, white Mercedes.

I documented it in a book of my global experiences. I added photos of what it looks like today.  I made the book as cheap as Amazon and Barnes & Noble would allow--its not intended as a money maker but as a reference source for Americans wanting to know what is going on over there and what we can do about it.The final chapter "Agenda for American Greatness" offers SOLUTION to make America No. 1 again - its a free chapter at the website.

Americans need to know exactly what is going on in Syria (not to mention the rest of the world). We have a lot at stake whether we like it or not. Could ISIL/ISIS attack the U.S.? Will this drag us back into a place we don't want to go? Do we have a choice?

ISIS/ISIL has beheaded two American journalists and a British one, along with countless children, women and men in Syria and Iraq. They are even relentlessly killing other Muslims, which violates the Koran (which I am reading to find out more about what's in it.)  ISIS is as intolerant as Hitler. There is no negotiation with their absolute intolerance and their indifference to killing thousands of innocent people.


Until you read and consider what I experienced over there, you might as well ask plumbers to advise about Ebola. They are just guessing. Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest are bullshiting you - none of them have been over there and seen what I have seen. Or done what I have done.

Here is my own example of why experience matters. I have been doing global negotiations for three decades - have practiced law in over 50 countries but I had never been to Norway. So I should already know it, right? Wrong.  I read up on it before a trip and thought I really knew all about Norway it. When I got there in 2011, I realized that I didn't know squat about Norway. A week on the ground and lots of debriefings later, I was an expert. But not before then.


For daily events, I recommend you follow my Global American Values blog. Otherwise, you are listening to amateurs who have no clue. Until you have actually been on the ground in Syria (or any country for that matter) you are CLUELESS.

I was in Syria as an international attorney negotiating a child kidnapping case. Know anyone who would do that?  The child was actually a few miles away in Lebanon. I was in Syria's capitol Damascus, one of the longest continuously inhabited cities on Earth. I document this story and what it looked like in my ebook "Better Times Ahead April Fool"