Should my ego be gratified when analysts of the caliber of Volker Perthes seem to have reached the same conclusions?
Well, all I can say is that things have never been squarely and solely about my ego. Nor should I be expected to be gald with the potential mayhem that we seem poised to face soon. Continue reading “End of the End!”
By JAMES BENNET – New York Times
Ammar Abdulhamid, 39, runs the Tharwa Project, which tracks treatment of minorities in the region. He had a fellowship at the Brookings Institution in Washington last fall, and he has decorated his Damascus office with photographs from his walk to work along Connecticut Avenue. One shows the American flag through the bare limbs of trees. When I stopped by, he called the regime ”defunct” and the Baathists ”idiots” and ”morons” while we were still settling into our seats. He saw no alternative in civil society either. ”They all want a leader or a messiah,” he said. He did not advocate ”bloody revolution,” he said. But he also said that the civil strife accompanying regime change in Iraq might be the only way forward in the region. ”Stagnation is killing our souls and our minds,” he said. ”Hopefully, this baptism by blood and mayhem will teach us to cherish the liberties.”
By Stephen Glain, July 2005.
Two months after the publication of this feature, my family and I were forced into exile with my family. The article itself was not the problem, at issue were the activities and statements to which the article referred. The entire article can be read at this link. These are the paragraphs that related to me: Continue reading “Smithsonian Magazine: Syria at a Crossroads”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 