Comment 1: In Syria we’ve been living under a state of emergency since 1963, because the ruling regime said we need to curb civil liberties to protect ourselves against Israel, the U.S. and the ghosts of the Netherworld. So, now we are neither free, nor “secure,” because the regime continues to abuse its powers by robbing the people and killing and jailing its critics, and Israel has over the last few decades occupied Syrian territories, bombed targets inside Syria, and carried out a variety of assassinations and incursions, and no one managed to stop her. End result: we should never believe those who promise security at the expense of liberty, because we will end up losing everything. So might as well, and in the words of Hamlet, “take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them,” because in the absence of liberty, peace and security are meaningless.