Syrians in the town of Deraa have overthrown a statue of the late dictator Hafez Assad, father of the present dictator Bashar Assad. This heroic feat brings to mind the tremendous moment in Baghdad when the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled. The difference is that American forces brought down Saddam, while the Syrians themselves have smashed this vainglorious statue. Their bravery is immense. This is a moment which Syrians will speak about to their children and grandchildren.
What will happen next? Bashar is in a quandary, and his confusion shows. On the one hand he is promising reform, offering to raise salaries for those already in his pay and releasing political prisoners. Like Qaddafi, he is staging demonstrations in support but these crowds are either Alawis like himself or fodder paid to turn out and shout. And on the other hand, his security forces are shooting in Deraa and apparently other towns too. They are using automatic weapons and snatching protesters. Nobody knows how many have been killed and arrested. Repression is fueling rage.
Around Bashar are his relations and cronies who form the Baath Party, the single party that is the core of this loathsome and murderous regime. It is a certainty that they are prepared to kill as many thousands as required to crush the country. We will be told by Bashar and his mouthpieces that the protestors are “armed gangs,” or vicious Sunni Islamists or Kurdish nationalists, anything except people trampled on for as long as anyone can remember.
The outcome will affect world politics. Bashar’s Syria is a danger to peace, to its neighbors, to the United States, to the Arab future. Our understanding of the world as well as our humanity are being put to the test.
What we need here is a good no-fly zone.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope somebody will show this letter to Assad:
External Link
It might save his life.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSyria has an underground network of the Muslim Brotherhood, controlled from London and Cyprus. As in Egypt and Lybia, all the revolutionary talk about "students wanting democracy" will disappear when they carry out their true intent (Sharia Law). Then all the moderates will fade away into obscurity and The Brotherhood will ascend to the light of popularity, for a little while, like Palestinian Hamas. But a leopard cannot change its spots, and their taste for violence will dominate their mock civility.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo problem - Cameron, Mr Carla Bruni and The Mighty Obama will save the day. I bet the jets are warming up already.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI believe the President has hoped and changed himself into a corner;
he'll either come out of the middle east crisis a complete hypocrite - to his opponents and supporters, or a war criminal to his opponents and supporters.
Check mate, Mr. President.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe demonstrations are even more impressive, as I'm sure they all remember what happened to Hama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama is arming the Arabs to attack Israel, as he banned weapons sales to Israel but has been selling advanced arms to Arabs. The shelling and bombing of Israel at the moment is no coincidence, it is part of the plot to enrage Israel to retaliate against Hamas in Gaza, and all of these new Arab states with new leadership and chaos can unite and turn on Israel in order to forget their own troubles at home.
Obama will stand by and watch Israel burn, as he is initiating the levers every step of the way.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is gonna get ugly. Sunnis outnumber (ruling) Alawites by a wide margin in Syria. And the regime has previously shown a willingness to slaughter thousands if pinched.
On the plus side Vogue has a great write up about Mrs. Son of Blood Thirsty Tyrant.
External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSome group is behind all this. When they get in place, God help us all - especially Israel.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet us recall that the Syrians are the Middle-Eastern champions at killing other Arabs. I refer to the city of Homs , in the early 1980's, I believe, during which Assad Pere killed 20-30,000 Shia Syrians who revolted against the regime.It took only several days to accomplish this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTo Francisco d´Aconia:
You forgot to mention that this Muslim Brotherhood underground network is just a smokescreen for the real network behind it all: the Mossad!
Seriously speaking, I think you are wrong in believing that the Muslim Brotherhoood will be the dominating force.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThanks Mr. Pryce-Jones. Unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets worse...no it will not get better, how can it?...these people hate their own countrymen and their neighbors, and most of all they hate Americans and the West!!!
Despite the fact that he got it backwards, the only "world leader" to say what the Middle East conflict truly is was Putin...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWas it Diane Sawyer who, a few months ago, interviewed Bashar and told the world he was really a very nice guy - just an eye doctor who loved his people? I know it was one of the ancient witches in the MSM.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIran cannot allow Syria to fall into the hands of Sunnis. If that should happen, Lebanon will be cut off, or at least Hezbollah, and Iran's ability to manipulate the situation with Israel will be severely curtailed. They are already reporting Farsi speaking thugs gunning down protestors.
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