Thursday, May 19, 2011

The old bear of the Assad regime is falling



Syria's people no longer fear the state violence machine. The only legitimacy they will accept now is from the ballot box

Ali al-Hajj
(Ali al-Hajj is a blogger based in Syria writing under a pen name.)
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011

"These days wherever you go on the streets of old Damascus you can hear whispers anticipating the fall of the Assad regime. No one knows how. No one asks how....

Syria's people face that most violent and bloodthirsty of Middle Eastern regimes, yet take to the streets every Friday with bare hands and chests, affording tanks and snipers a simple chance to shoot to kill. The people defy all the complex and carefully organised regulations put in place by the Assad regime to prevent demonstrators from reaching squares, and to forestall the emergence of an equivalent to Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The Syrian people think the time for change has come, and they cannot go back. They do not fear the state violence machine. They will not accept reforms promised by a regime in broad daylight, then disregarded come nightfall. All credibility and legitimacy has been lost.....

[A Good Comment, Until You Read This Last Sentence:]
...but also Israel, which no longer trusts a regime that subjects its people to all forms of violence and lawlessness.[WTF??]"