Debate, Damascus Style

Syria's governments have been over thrown so often that there is by now a certain ritual for a coup: martial music on Damascus radio, stentorian communiques, tanks rumbling in the streets and the losers either shot or sent into exile. Last week, as rumors of yet an other upheaval continued to pour out of Damascus, the usual signs were ab sent. In fact, the supposed new strong man, Defense Minister Hafiz Assad, even showed up in public with the men he had reportedly overthrown, President Noureddine al Atassi and Baath Party Boss Salah Jadid. What had happened, it seems, was not a coup, but merely a particularly violent debate among Syria's leaders.

The argument had its beginnings in the Six-Day War with Israel, when As sad's best brigades were recalled from the front to protect the government in Damascus. Forced to bear the scorn of fellow Arab officers, Assad also chafed at his inability to get anywhere in his repeated requests for more modern arms. In Syria's feuding with Iraq, moreover, he saw his hopes for a united Arab "eastern command" dashed. Two weeks ago, when Israeli Mirage jets raided Arab commando camps in Syria and, ac cording to Tel Aviv, shot down two ob solescent MIG-17s, Assad suffered fur ther humiliation. Civilian leaders criticized his forces' antiaircraft skills.

Next day, according to the official Baath version of events, his soldiers seized the police headquarters in Damascus, arrested party leaders in out lying towns and replaced them with the Defense Minister's men, and closed down two party newspapers. Assad also reinstated 500 army officers who had been cashiered as suspected opponents of the regime.

Whether from lack of will or lack of support, Assad stopped short of a fullfledged coup. Atassi and Jadid, far from languishing under house arrest, showed up at a funeral for Intelligence Chief Abdel Karim al Jundi, who was reportedly so depressed after one leadership quarrel that he shot himself. The two men also appealed to Cairo and Algiers to send mediators to settle the dispute. They arrived last week and apparently had some effect. Both sides agreed to air their argument in an emergency party congress, which Baathist leaders insisted be held "in an atmosphere of complete freedom"--in other words, with no show of military force.

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