Rumble in Syria

What do you get when you mix 1 part dictatorship and 2 parts brutal family legacy? A syria killer! Get it? Astaghfirallah I can't believe I'm even joking about this. While most of us were celebrating the advent of this year's month of Ramadan, others elsewhere where picking up pieces of their friends and family....literally. An apparent crack down on anti-government protesters in Syria has turned into something so bloody that its no doubt re-opened very very old scars. In an ill-advised attempt to reassert his authority, Bashar Al-Assad sent in state military forces comprising of tanks, snipers, and militiamen on July 31st on the eve of Ramadan into the central syrian city of Hama killing at least 50 people. The ensuing carnage continued unabated all through yesterday raising the death toll to at least 100. Eerily reminiscent of a similar episode in the very same city in 1982 when Bashar's father Hafez al-Assad ordered a similar attack to crush an anti-Ba'ath uprising that left a horrific trail of 10,000 dead victims.

Surely his son wouldn't be so foolish as to follow in his footsteps. Well...surprise surprise...apparently he is. Before the assault on Hama, I had a tremendous amount of respect for Bashar al-Assad, perhaps naively so. Yes he might be a dictator, but at least he was one of the better dictators, paling in comparison to many of the other regimes around Syria. Well mannered, well spoken, well educated and with a professional and humble demeanor to boot.  I admired the fact that he was able to maintain Syria economically without having to cow down and bow his head to the interests of the USA and/or Israel. Syria, home to Damascus, the oldest continually inhabited settlement on earth with its diverse religious identities and long rich history is indeed a marvel to behold. But what does any of that mean when you're killing your own country's civilian population in a desperate attempt to quell potential opposition? These are not the actions of a civilized individual. It seems I was wrong about you Mr. al-Assad. Did you really think that your political tighthold in Syria would last forever? Nothing lasts forever in this world. In the end you really are no different from any of the other despotic egomaniacs running their own little side-shows in the middle east. And it also seems you are no different from your father.

Like father, like son.

The old adage seems most fitting, wouldn't you agree?

Related links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/31/syria-hama-crackdown-tanks-protests?CMP=twt_gu
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/syria-ramadan-brings-arab_n_914867.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-ramadan-massacre/2011/08/01/gIQAZHCKoI_story.html
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/2/as_ramadan_begins_assad_regime_intensifies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROqAcX2BJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMazylnrt0k