Monday, June 4, 2012

City on the Edge of Darkness

Damascus Sweats Fear from Every Pore

by PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"Damascus feels like a city expecting the worst to happen and seeing no way to avoid it. War is spreading across the country and is unlikely to spare the capital. Rebels speak of stepping up attacks in the city and could easily do so in the next few weeks.

I spent the last week in Damascus and the atmosphere reminds me of Beirut in 1975 at the start of the 15-year civil war. Again and again in conversations, people realistically laid out for me the nasty things that are all too likely to happen, but few were able to produce plausible ideas on how disaster might be averted.....

If the Western powers are not going to go to war in Syria, and can’t get the Turks to do their dirty work for them, then they should push for reform and power-sharing that leaves a modified version of the Assad regime in place. This would be difficult for the Russians to oppose and would relieve the fears of Iran. The alternative may be a long war that will tear Syria apart."

1 comment:

Zarathustra said...

PC continuos to show he is ignorant about Syria and the Syrian revolution. The People want to topple the regime and ALL ITS SYMBOLS , the people will NEVER accept reform or power sharing. For him to keep playing that card "in order to save Syria from the unknown" is retarded. We know what Assad has done over the last 15 months , how does he in good faith even contemplates "reform or power sharing" I am repulsed by those assholes on the left who continue to give Assad the benefit of the doubt.