Popular Revolution

Facebook: October 9, 2013

Indeed, a popular revolution is supposed to take us to a better place, it just cannot do so in two years, or even two decades. Perhaps in two generations we might find ourselves inching closer to where we want to be. Meanwhile there is still plenty of suffering ahead. That’s the nature of revolutions and historical awakenings: first the worst comes and reigns for a while, and so long as it keeps making us yearn for an imagined better past, whether the one immediately preceding the revolution, or one sunk in the deepest recesses of history, it will stay. But once we begin to truly yearn for a better future based on ideals and dreams that are not so clearly defined, that’s when things begin to get better, and the revolution begins to yield its real fruits. This might sound like idealistic nonsense at this stage, but it also happens to be one of those basic lessons of history when revolutions are concerned, at least, as far as I can tell.

In Syria, the punishment must fit the crime

NOW Lebanon

If the purpose of the looming U.S.-intervention in Syria is to restore America’s credibility, and more specifically President Obama’s, which has suffered measurably on the international scene as a result of his foot-dragging over the last two and a half years, then a limited intervention will prove insufficient and will surely backfire. Continue reading “In Syria, the punishment must fit the crime”

The Creation of An Unbridgeable Divide

openDemocracy | 24 January 2013

Syria’s civil war is now strongly characterised by militias identifying along sectarian lines. The growing divide between Sunnis and Alawites has profound implications for Syria, and the Middle East. Continue reading “The Creation of An Unbridgeable Divide”