The Awaited Report is finally out. I shall not attempt to analyze or dissect it. Many, with much larger analytical skills and expertise than me, will be doing that on their blogs and in their articles. Suffice it to say, however, that all the necessary ingredients for a UNSC Resolution against Syria are there. It remains to be seen, however, whether the US and France have managed to gather enough support in the Council to pass such a resolution. Will China and Russia cooperate? Or will they push to give their not-so-precious lion-cub another chance at trying to make things right? Continue reading “Hope & Folly!”
Tag: Transition
The Enigma of Damascus
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.”
Clueless in Damascus!
Catherine has a point. The Syrian opposition and dissident movements do not know how to organize. This has been their problem all along. They often fail to invite enough members of the press to their improvised sit-ins, and they have shown clearly that they have no stomach for clashes with security officers.
The Sorely Lacking Messiah Touch!
As I returned from Doha, my immediate expectations were limited to things such as having to deal with a new travel ban or go through a new round of interrogations. But, it seems that our intricately disassociated-from-reality security apparatuses have finally found a more pressing issue to fret about than the writings and activities of this hapless marginalized liberal creature.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 