Tag: Democratization

Syria Endgame – An Interview on BrianLehrer TV

Interview on BrianLehrer.TV

As 2012 draws to a close, we re-assess the Arab Spring and discuss U.S. intervention in Syria and relations with Iran. Joining us are: Leslie Gelb, former New York Times columnist and assistant secretary of state in the Carter administration, and now, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; Ervand Abrahamian, distinguished professor of Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics at Baruch College; and Syrian human rights activist, Ammar Abdulhamid, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and founder of the Tharwa Foundation.

 

As Romney, Obama debate foreign policy, few see easy answers in Middle East

Quoted in KansasCity.com

The lack of a commitment to military intervention – such as a no-fly zone or airstrikes, but not foreign boots on Syrian soil – is maddening to pro-intervention Syrian opposition figures such as Ammar Abdulhamid, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research center.

While Abdulhamid said the Obama administration’s involvement in the Arab protests was “overall a positive one,” Syria is “a nightmare scenario” that was facilitated by government officials’ “lack of resolve, leadership and vision.” Syria, he and other activists say, could end up as a stain on the administration’s otherwise sensible response to the Arab uprisings.

“If they make it through this coming election, I just hope they have plans to give this tragedy the time and resources it requires to be brought to resolution in a manner commensurate with the aspirations of the pro-democracy activists who started this whole thing and were, in effect, betrayed,” Abdulhamid said.

Syria’s escalating slaughter

By The Washington Post Editorial Board

Last week President Obama did say that his “calculus” about “military engagement” would change if the regime began using or deploying its stocks of chemical weapons. But as the Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid has written, the drawing of that red line may have emboldened the regime to conclude that anything short of using weapons of mass destruction will be tolerated by Washington.

Mr. Abdulhamid wonders “why slaughter would be deemed tolerable if it happened one way and not another.” It’s a good question — and one for which the administration’s morally bankrupt policy has no answer.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Syrian Civil War

Interviewed by Barry Rubin, PJ Media

Ammar Abdulhamid may know more about Syria’s civil war than anyone else in the world. That’s no exaggeration. An pro-democratic oppositionist living abroad, Abdulhamid has functioned on a virtual 24/7 basis as the source of news and analysis about events within Syria, always trying to be honest and accurate in his assessments regardless of his own preferences. Barry Rubin, PJMedia Middle East editor, interviewed Abdulhamid on the latest developments and trends. Continue reading “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Syrian Civil War” →