2 June 2011

Another Syria is Possible?

The regime’s base continues to crumble. We hear about more and more Alawis even sidling away from the regime; Party members too (“BINOs” anyone?) are less and less enthusiastic about the regime. We always knew that; support for Assad was always a mile wide and an inch deep. We mouthed the words but we didn’t mean them deeply; we looked at Bashar as the worst option save for all the others.

And we hoped and wished and fervently prayed that our gambles were right. Whatever else one said about him, he was better than his poppa, better than his uncle, better than his brothers, better than Saddam … right? Maybe next year, we’d have some serious reforms, maybe next year things would be better. He did keep us from being Iraq: Part II; the economy did improve, he was nowhere near as embarrassing as the rest of the league (King Playstation? The Laughing Cow? The King of Africa? The Twink Lover of the Pirate Coast? The Cuckoo’s Egg? Any prince of the Saudis? In that League, the Lion’s Cub was really the father of Ali!)

But … no longer … we stopped believing in what seems already a long time ago. I can even recall the moment: the afternoon of March 30, 2011.

Our protests began in January but they were small and nothing more but the protests of a handful of us, over-educated, idealistic ‘elitists’ if you will … and then they got larger in mid March and became national. The government overreacted. We had martyrs for our cause; they had blood on their hands. It was a national crisis. And they began talking about reform. Assad was to address the parliament and the nation, we were told; and all of us, whether we were with the regime or against thought ‘now is the hour when the Lion’s Cub shows that he deserves his job’. We talked of what he might offer, what path ahead and of reform …

And then he spoke … and as he spoke the whole nation sorrowed. There’d be no real reform, at best window dressing … and even that would e unlikely …

And the protest movement changed that afternoon; from then on, it was clear. We had no choice but to push ahead, no choice but to call for a revolution, no choice but freedom.

And the regime … pushed back and stuttered and floundered and killed. Everyday brought names of new martyrs and towns that were almost forgotten even here suddenly were spoken of around the world: Dera’a and Banyas and Tel Khalikh and Douma and Maarat and now Rastan … Rastan home of the world’s oldest working dam, Rastan by the Orontes, Rastan where secrets best unspoken might be found, Rastan is shelled now and joins the list of hero cities and towns that now stretch from the Tigris to the Sea …

The regime acts now almost as though it wants to lose. They are now going after sheikhs and qadis, the leaders of the religion, here, and making sure no Sunni does not want them gone, not one day but today. Farouk and Najah hang on but how long before they leave their offices? That “business class’ of Sunnis sides with the state no longer.

In Turkey, the opposition in exile gathered this week (the real opposition, one should note; the fake factions that exist only to line pockets or pump up egos denounced it); no unity statements full of surging pronouncements were made to sway the busloads of protesters the regime had had shipped in … but the shape of things to come emerges.

The New Syria will be a better place for Kurds. It will be a better place for Muslims. It will even be a better place for Communists. And one thing is becoming clear; we’re done with dictators and rule by strong men. No more generals, no more dictators, no more fake royal clans. We’ve learned to respect one another even when we disagree. Kurds and Arabs, Communists and Islamists working side by side … and Syrian Salafis? They are as likely to take power here as they are to do so in Tennessee …
The only thing keeping us from freedom is fear; not ours, we are not afraid, but the pathetic fears that impel the soldiers in Maher’s brigades, the fears that we will come for them in vengeance. And they act only as though they dream of that day and want us to. If they stand down, we will ALL be free.

Another Syria is possible and we can see it from here.

9 comments:

greenalien said...

"Better place for communists" - that doesn't sound particularly encouraging. Now, granted, they do belong to an ideological movement that's completely obsolete, but did you really learn nothing in history classes? Or are those millions of dead people across the world just a fluke? I can see what you're trying to say: "The new Syria will be a freer place for everyone," but bringing communists, of all the people, into that statement? Come on.

Philip said...

Communists, like all people, deserve to be able to voice their opinions without risk of being arrested, even if those opinions are daft or dangerous. It's the principal of the thing, like not censoring offensive comments on this blog. Unhypocritical moral principals are one of the things that make us better than the authoritarians.

Alien, if you meet someone who supports communist ideals, you should repeat what you just said to them. Perhaps you'll both learn a thing or too.

(Pssst, Amina: Always I am glad to know you are safe. It's very interesting to hear your opinions on the media and politics, particularly pinkwashing. Ooh, and it's faterstag in Germany, when everyone goes into the forest and drinks heavily with their parents. Feel free to celebrate in your own way.)

yanti said...

Russia never was communist except perhaps in the first few years after the revolution. Nor was the National socialist workers party in Germany in any way 'socialist'

Here is an assesment by the 'Zionist entity' of Assad's survival chances.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-sources-assad-regime-will-eventually-succumb-to-syria-protests-1.365620

and an example of how a free press operates:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/get-rid-of-zionism-1.365648

Patriot USMC said...

There can be no peace in the Middle East until the Arabs learn to love there own children more than they hate Jews and Christians. Until then, there will only be allot more wars and repressions. Their religion is teaching them 5 times a day to pray "itbach al yahud". This is the socalled gaygirl's fellow protesters
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477450,00.html
Can you people honestly claim that you have been to an mosque and haven’t heard the traditionaly prayer:
“We are all Hamas, Jews to the Gas”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLlHPPO25nM skip to 1:05
Here’s a bit of Muslims celebrating the genocide committed by American Muslims on 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrM0dAFsZ8k
This is the mentality of these people not even deserve to be called human, but they are lived like animals.
All the talk of democracy and freedom is lies and only stupid braindead leftist will swallow this lies. Really the only goal for all these barabraians is to make a genocide of Jews and finish what Hitler started, this is the goal of all these groups. Then when Israel is killed they will come for the west. Already they are committing genocides against the former free peoples of Europe, in Serbia, Cyprus, Germany, Belgium, France, Denmark Is it safe for Jew to live in Malmo when these monsters are there?
In England, they are working very hard to whip out the free people and anything of English freedom. Then America. We need stop this madness!

yanti said...

Dear Patriot,

'Their religion is teaching them 5 times a day to pray "itbach al yahud".'

Not very different from 'mavet la'aravim', which 'your people' chant at every opportunity, is it?

yanti said...

Not that I'm condoning either... just pointing out that fools are present everywhere.

Marwan said...

Alien: to paraphrase one of the golden rules of democracy: "I may disagree with communists, Baathis and Moslem Brothers, but I will fight to death for their right to express their views freely in the New Syria".

Patriot: go take your venomous hatred and your KKK hood somewhere else. You do not belong here. And by the way, Arabs can be Moslem, Christian and Jews. So go get some education you ignoramus!

yanti: Trust me, there is no such a thing as a Moslem prayer to "kill the Jews" or anybody else for that matter.

Amina: be safe.

Barricade said...

Patriot.

Your comments here are a disgrace to both Amina's humanity and genuine bravery. Israel is further embracing that backward and anti-democratic concept: a religious state while the youth of the Arab world are out seeking the what modernity should offer: the decency of a democratic state.
Sadly they are up against medieval like leaders and a retrogressive regional status quo which shares Israel's terror of one man one vote. As Ehud Olmert pointed out to Haaretz in 2003, when justifying an Israeli unilateral solution, the real existential threat to the 'jewish state' lay in a Palestinian embrace of a South African/Mandela of a one man one vote campaign.
Patriot - we all are appalled by backward baying mobs - the youth of the Arab world are risking their lives to tackle such insults to modernity. Meanwhile the IDF shoot dead unarmed protesters in the Golan.
Amina is tragically arrested for her noble beliefs while in Jerusalem, a mob of bullies calls for the blood liberals and leftists and the slaughter of those of a different race.http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/another-syria-is-possible.html
And "Patriot" - if you really see the world in such ugly terms - why do you choose to live in it.
Amina I am horrified to hear of your arrest. I pray for your safety and I feel truly ashamed that you may have to read some of the above bile on your return.

God Bless You.

Kevin.

zubier said...

i just want to point out one inconsistency in your article, you say "the new syria would be a better place for communist" but you also say "it would be a place without dictators" how can communist be free to express their ideas of how a society should be when their ideas include having an absolute ruler? if you dont want dictators ruling your country then u also cannot have communists, unless you believe the communists of Syria have such little influence that it would be insignificant, which begs the question what if communists do gain influence in Syria, enough to install said absolute ruler, would u then oppose communism?

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