OL' BASHAR'S BASHING his citizens, who are fed up with some 40 years of single-party (the Ba'ath party) corruption and police state. According to The Guardian's Katherine Marsh, in Damascus, they're killing people. That's Bashar, below. He's used to causing pain.
Last night there were reports that at least 23 people had been killed, some of them in Damascus, hitherto unaffected; the reports could not be independently verified. Amnesty International put the death toll around Deraa in the past week at 55 at least.
This may not cool down. There's an interesting Syrian site, ALL4SYRIA. Whoever runs it has a number of articles worthy of your attention. One, "Syria’s coming revolution?" makes the observation that
By taking to the streets, even in fairly small numbers, Syrians have crossed a ‘red line’ with their regime.
The revolution that was sparked in Tunisia has given birth to a new pan Arab-movement, a “neo-Arabism”, which privileges freedom and democratic participation of the people over ideology, sectarianism and the interest of dictators.
As we witness a rebirth of a revolutionary neo-Arabism that has infected millions from Morocco to Bahrain, we cannot ignore the birth-place of the original pan Arab movement of the past century – Syria.
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A forty year old red line has been crossed and there is no turning back.
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