*names have been changed to protect people’s identities

Me: What can we do? I am stumped as to how to help my Syrian brothers and sisters to end the bloodshed without choosing the complicated route of imperial intervention.

Jalal H. (JH): And what’s been happening is not imperial intervention- One has to see how those terrorists ambushed officers, mutilated their bodies and dumped them in the river-

Me: Explain what you mean JH. I’m not sure I understand.

JH: What is happening is sad and heartbreaking- Israel and the West wanted another Libya in Syria- Those who follow and read wikileaks will understand… They financed, with the help of Saudi and Qatar, Israel and the West the most radical elements in the Syrian society, the salafi/wahabi sect, even according to Israeli Military analyst’s those groups are well armed and financed terrorizing the country… In Egypt today the Emergency Law still stands and the military junta is using it, in Syria you have a president who passed laws to make major reform, but that’s not enough for the agenda of those interfering- What’s the alternative you think? Civil War? Another Libya? That’s what will really happen!

Me: REFORM!?!?! Are you joking-and you even said “major reform”! I need you to supply some evidence of the claims you make lest you sound like a conspiracy theorist or connected to the Assad regime.

Ahmad B. (AB): Wow. People like JH here are amazing… There is a massacre going on in a country everyday- with innocent people dying for asking for nothing more than regime change… And it’s not enough to open some people’s eyes. I don’t even have anything good to say. What’s going on is heartbreaking

JH: ‎@AB- This isn’t personal- All you have to do is deny that the US hasn’t been trying to overthrow the Syrian Regime with all means necessary, even if it meant a civil war and bloodshed that is much worse than now… Can you tell me that there aren’t armed people killing and terrorizing? I never cared for the Syrian Regime but I don’t want to see a civil war. All they have to do is come to the negotiating table, and when they don’t get their rights, and then I will be the first to protest- what is happening is ugly, sad and unfortunate but what is planned after, is much uglier, and the Syrian people and their welfare are nowhere in the equation!!!

AB: No… This is personal. I’m from Syria- people are personally dying over there. And no, the US hasn’t been trying to overthrow the regime- in fact Obama hasn’t called for the resignation of Assad till this day. The Assad regime always kept stability with Israel. And yes the future of Syria post Assad is uncertain. But we do know one thing for certain- it may not get better- but it can’t get any worse. The only thing worse than all the silence on this issue is people who try to justify Assad’s actions as legitimate or reformable. Reform goes out the window when you use tanks against civilians.

Hani K. (HK): ‎@JH You’re too late. Syria is already in a state of civil war and the regime has only itself to blame for it. Pinning the uprising in Hama on Salafists and Wahabis is a trope that has been employed by every single Arab dictatorship out there and it has shown itself each and every time to be patently false; it was a lie when told in Egypt, it was a lie when told in Bahrain, and it is still a lie when told in Syria. To parrot the lies of the regime is to essentially carry water for them, and, therefore, be complicit in outright evil.

JH: When all Arab countries, Saudi, Qatar and the West helped Israel slaughter the civilians in Lebanon, it was Syria that helped. Syria isn’t going to open war at it’s borders, that would be dumb and suicidal especially when the entire world helps and supports Israel. How about what happened in Bahrain? What do you call that? All of this is a blatant lie and I understand it’s an emotional issue for you, but for me, Syrians are my people and I never wish any harm for them, but when it comes to this element of Bandar bin Sultan/ Saad Hariri who all of the sudden care about Syria when his militia was killing poor Syrian workers only two years ago…

HK: I would urge you then to get over the political atmospherics of the crisis in Syria and focus on what’s actually happening there. I’m nearly positive that most of the people who have laid their lives on the line to be free of the Assad regime could really give on whit about Saad Haririi, the House of Saud, Israel, or Obama or anything else outside the purview of their own survival. To post-modernize moral crises to death is to ensure that they run in perpetuity.

JH: Very logical and rational analogy HK- I have witnessed the ugliness of the Syrian oppression as a kid in Lebanon. The sad issue is you are dealing with a culture of abuse. Let’s say Assad goes down, do you think the replacement would be any different? Change will not come over night. You have a chance to make a real change through negotiation, why not does that and avoid the blood bath?

HK: Because the regime has chosen blood.

JH: HK- I don’t know what soldier is going to stand still getting shot at without shooting back- people are armed. For one moment, those are your brothers and sisters on both sides. All I ask is to reason with one another and not allot the IMPERIAL POWERS that May has suggested to get in between the brethren; it will take the entire region into turmoil… I am watching both sides, and it’s ugly. We have tried civil war in Lebanon; it destroyed our country, destroyed people’s hearts, at the end they all sat on the table to negotiate. Why not sit now, why the bloodshed?

HK: If my brother was the security thug who ripped off Hamza al-Khatibs genetials before killing him, I would disown him. And that is how I imagine a lot of Syrians feel. This is not a regime interested in negotiation or change. Their time has passed.

JH: Maytha- look how peaceful Hama is- Brandnew weapons, something only Sadd Alhariri could supply wouldn’t you agree?

Rasheed A. (RA): I’ll add one thing. If Obama thought calling for Assad to leave would make that more likely to happen, I’m more than sure he would. I can’t believe the fact that he hasn’t is presented as an argument that the US is not involved. Painfully naive.

Two things. If Obama favored democracy in the Middle East he’d start where he has a lot of leverage, for example he’d say the US training of 35,000 Saudi troops and delivery of $60 billion in weapons is contingent on elections. The US could get democracy without one drop of bloodshed, if that’s what it wanted.

Of course democracy in Saudi Arabia would be very bad for Israel, and the US, disappointingly led by Obama, is showing how many Arabs it prioritizes about 5.5 million Israeli Jews over.

I think Syria’s friends are calling for a peaceful resolution and not Iraq 2005 or Libya 2011.

Obama and those aligned with him are not Syria’s friends.

HK: The regime is the leading obstacle to a peaceful resolution, and nobody else.

RA: Well, there are certainly other parties in Syria preventing a peaceful resolution besides Assad. That’s a crazy statement if you’re being serious.

Assad is going to attempt to maintain a monopoly of force. That’s what a state is. That’s what the US does too many times to count.

Beyond that, specifically what should he do that he has not?

He should hold elections because for all we know his is the political faction with the most support. But should he hold these elections during an active armed insurgency?

Maybe he should commit to elections at the same time as Saudi Arabia’s. Then Obama would be able to really advance the democratic cause, and we could watch him refuse for Israel’s sake.

It would be better for the opposition to put down its arms and actually see how many votes it can get after parties are allowed. We and they have no idea if they have 80% support or 12% support of the people of Syria.

Calling for Assad to just abdicate power now is senseless.

AB: Sorry I had to check out of this convo a while- too personal

Me: Awww. I feel you! Precisely why I have also been reluctant to publicly voice my opinion about the regime- bc they will stop at nothing to retaliate by harming our loved ones still trapped under their asphyxiating claws a al the harassment inflicted onto Syrian expat singer Malek Jandali’s family

AB: I hate having to comment on this thread again… but… yes of course the revolution as nothing to do with Obama or the USA… the only reason that was brought up was because of conspiracy theories about the US wanting to overthrow the regime… and saying we dont know how the people of Syria feel about Assad is like saying we dont know how Chicago Bulls fans feel about the Bulls… over 2000 people have lost their lives. why? to see this man step down. When you use violence on your own people… you lose legitimacy… this doesnt require complicated FB discussions or political analysis… it requires a heart… i am dismayed that in these modern times we look at our own theories over human life… calling for Assad to abdicate power isnt senseless… cutting off a 13 year old boys genitals is.

Middlebury Arabic Summer Intensive Student (MASIS): إذا اشارت بوقة النظام السوري إلى اعتقاد “السيد” الرئيس الأسد لل”إصلاح,” فإننا لا ينبغي أن نتفاؤل عن أهدافه:

http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=mAC6rawtyI0

JH: http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=dF0WNWM7g4U&feature=p​layer_embedded#at=141

MASIS: يا سيدي حسين، مش فهمت العلاقة بين هذا الربط ومناقشنا

HK: You must be joking if you think I’m somehow supposed to sympathise with the moral calamity Assad himself has created. I’m no revolutionary, but the tipping point of instability was passed a long time ago and Bashar has no one but himself to thank. I said earlier, the people on the streets in Hama give not a wit about Saad Hariri, the Saudis, Obama, and pomo polemics that serve only to answer questions nobody asked.

JH: هذا يبرهن مدى الشرخ بين المجتمع الواحد ومدى التدخل الأجنبي في سورية

JH: Clearly we’re not on the same page- Please don’t call it a peaceful revolution, I see thugs and killers roaming the streets with new foreign weapons, swords and machetes… These people and their ideologies are no human beings. My hat goes to the Egyptian and Tunisia people who took to the street in total peace, and Mubarak’s and Ali’s regimes are one of the most brutal and oppressive in the world… these people lost their legitimacy and no government would ever accept such a thing to happen…

MASIS: ‎”التنخل الأجنبي؟” فعلا، يمكنك أن توضح هذا الموقف؟

HK: And Assad clearly gleaned his own less from watching Mubarak and Benali fall: to kill more people and sooner.

MASIS: هل تلمّح أن شرعية موقف عن هذا الموضوع تعتمد على جنسية المعلق؟

RA: ‎1) The people on the streets of Hama aren’t necessarily a majority of the country and don’t necessarily have a legitimate mandate to replace the government.

2) From very early on arms were used against the state – long before peaceful means had demonstrated that Assad had more opposition than support – which in fact, has not been demonstrated yet. But that can still be demonstrated by holding elections where other parties are free to run.

3) The anti-Assad forces do seem to have access to foreign resources, including arms. Because of that, it matters what the source of the resources is and the agenda they are being provided under. The foreign resources available to the anti-Assad forces are coming from enemies, not friends of Syria.

MASIS: يبدو أن المتظاهرين ليسوا مسلحين من البداية. وكما أعلننا جوشوا لاندس:

http://www.joshualandis.co​m/blog/?p=11125

قارنْ تقديم غزو حماة في الجزيرة من ناحية، وفي الأخبار السوري الرسمي من ناحية أخرى. هل رأيت الفرق بينها؟

HK: The Assad regime’s mandate being what exactly? That they’ll kill you?

JH: It’s been made quite clear that Qatar and Aljazeera is an Israeli propaganda, legitimized Israel while criticizing it and many fell for its lies. At the same time, the Syrian State media is certainly one of the lousiest known, even when they’re right they don’t know how to deliver the news and look credible, they could use some training… @MASIS, should it matter what my nationality is?
Wednesday at 5:26am · Like

HK: The AJE=Israel line is stupid, absurd, and no different from what every pro-Mubarak troll was telling me back in February.

JH: Absurd when don’t read and act based on emotions and not logic and reason- Did you miss how Syria was falsely framed in the killing of Hariri? Where were you to defend your people then? Did you miss how evidence was planted and false witnesses were fabricated to implicate Syria? How about the leaked cables from the US dept of State?
Your blind hate for the Syrian regime is making you not think straight of the consequences. You don’t care if Syria becomes another Libya, you don’t care if the brothers slaughter each other, destroy your country, and let foreign intervention choose your leader and create some false democracy? My opinion is Syrian regime isn’t going anywhere, the major plots have been foiled, Hariri, Saudi, Aljazeera, Qatar, Turkey, France has been foiled. Your only option is to sit with your people and negotiate, form political parties and if you win the election and become the majority you can then lead…

HK: If nothing ever changes in the Arab world, it will be because of viewpoints like yours.

And I’m not Syrian. I don’t owe the Assads anything, least of all my conscience.

JH: I am not Syrian either- I love Syrians as they’re my people… Any revolution or protest that doesn’t have Palestine in the center, it’s a waste of time- Muslims and Arabs will never experience real dignity as long as you have a cancer called Israel as a neighbor!

HK: Arabs will lose if they put Palestine at the center of everything, simply because it isn’t.

Bilal K (BK): JH, for you to believe that the armed thugs running the streets of Syria are not state-sanctioned is quite naive, i must say. There are numerous eyewitness accounts and countless videos showing armed thugs being protected by uniformed security or army and armed thugs shooting at unarmed protesters, not at security forces. The demonstrators have been peaceful for the most part. There are also numerous videos showing masses upon masses of peaceful marches. The way to do this is not through negotiations, but through peaceful, non-violent demonstrations. So long as the people have more patience than the regime, the people will win without taking up arms.

MASIS: JH, forgive the English (I’m under oath to stick to Arabic), but I simply don’t want anything I say here to be taken out of context. A few points.
First, of course it shouldn’t matter what your nationality is. It seemed, though, based on your comment about ‘foreign intervention,’ that you were accusing non-Syrians of being unqualified to comment on the issue. Suffice it to say, I vehemently disagree with that position.
Second, al-Jazeera as Israeli propaganda? Seriously?!??!! Last time I checked, it was al-Jazeera that broke the story on the Palestine Papers. If the network were in bed with the Israelis, it wouldn’t be all that congruent for it to be exposing Israeli intransigence at such a wide scale, now would it?
Finally, it’s utterly naive and short-sided to insist that any and all protests undertaken by Arabs and Muslims center around Palestine. I love Falastin with all my heart, but Palestine activism has been unsuccessful largely because it has been presented as one of a plethora of competing interest groups, enveloped in the banner of Arab/Muslim identity politics. If it were instead presented as a global movement grounded in social justice, rather than as a “Muslim” cause, it would be much easier to unite disparate allies and demonstrate the congruency between the Palestinian struggle and the struggles of other oppressed groups throughout history. So, while your heart may be in the right place, insisting that any and all political protest undertaken by Arabs and Muslims must have Palestine at its center is ultimately doing a *disservice* to the Palestinians.

HK: Palestine certainly wasn’t at the center of protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Bahrain. Were those all wastes of time?

JH: exactly my point- Emergency law still stands. People are arrested in Egypt by the thousands by the Military council without trials!

HK: So . . . they shouldn’t have bothered?

HK: And . . . if they had made it about Palestine there would be no Emergency Law now?

JH: Mubarak, Ali, Bahrain and others are Zionists puppets appointed, working against the Palestinians, Syrian Govt is the opposite- You keep watching CNN, Fox and Aljazeera and you will continue to on this path- Saudi went in Egypt and Tunisia and bought the military council- The lies propagated that this is some Martin Luther King style protest and the Syrian govt is shooting at unarmed civilians is Ludacris- You may want choose to believe these lies but spare the rest of us and don’t insult our intelligence- These are armed thugs terrorizing the civilians- They are part of a small minority and that is unacceptable!

Me: JH, As you dismiss all these news outlets (and have even failed to engage on-the-ground blogs, video footage, etc), I still don’t understand where you are drawing your information to develop this thesis of yours. Also, the Arab world’s decades upon decades of centralizing the Palestine issue has led us to the maintenance of these bloody regimes.

Me: ergo this entry from over a year ago: New Year, New Take: Forget Palestine, Reform Egypt, and Completely Change the Face of the “Arab World”
New Year, New Take: Forget Palestine, Reform Egypt, and Completely Change the Face of the “Arab Worl
www.kabobfest.com
“The domino effect starts with the largest and one of the most politically corrupt nations in this culturally geographically designated “world.” Much attention in the Arab world and its diaspora has been paid to the cause of Palestinians. Beyond the begging question of how did the Arab world take on …”

HK: JH, with all due respect you have been uttering complete counterfactual nonsense for nearly two days now; I’m not the one who should be sparing anything on this forum. Your argument is not only entirely circular (the Syrian Regime is the enemy of Israel, therefore anybody opposed to the Syrian regime is in bed with Israel) but also completely ridiculous on its face.

JH: I am not sure what else to say when I brought forth all this evidence of foreign intervention in the Syria- The article itself is not accurate, because it was not Hafez Al-Assad who ordered the massacre of Hama 29 years ago, but his brother, Rifaat who is now sitting in Paris preparing his return in case his nephew’s regime falls, lest not forget that Rifaat is the brother in-law of the current Saudi King Abdullah… The comment is sectarian based and those who know the Syrian fabric know that the Syrian regime is secular in nature, heavy handed and I was never fond of it. The only thing I find good is they were able to keep the sectarian strife that invaded Iraq, Lebanon and the rest of the region out of their country, they took on the Palestinian cause fully- This was never about Syrian or the Syrian people, and those nations intervening could care less about the welfare of the Syrian people. This is about wanting Syria to cut its ties with Iran and drop Palestine, if it does, this entire thing would stop and Assad would rule forever all so they safeguard Israel. Hani you don’t need to make this personal and pick on my style of communication and how I am boring you to death and taking in you in circles if I am not agreeing with you… It may be simple for some of you to say let us not centralize the Palestinian Cause, get strong ourselves and then address it, the idea that Arabs centralized it is a farce, and to the contrary they all were allies with Israel against Palestine, as we could see who caged Gaza and didn’t allow food and medicine to reach it’s civilians during the Israeli onslaught? Syria stood tall in requesting a fair and a just solution. I do agree there needs to be reforms, there needs to be different political parties and eventually have a different president, but not through the intervention of foreign nations or by having a civilian sectarian war where no one knows how far it will spread…

HK: I’m not saying that your argument is boring me. I’m saying that it isn’t grounded in reality.

RA: Maytha, what are you saying is the relationship between Arabs centralizing Palestine and maintaining dictatorships?

I see no positive connection at all. But if the Arabs centralized Palestine more, that would push them toward rejecting most of the region’s dictatorships.

Do you think the US, if it could would impose a Mubarak-like dictatorship over Syria, the way a democratic process was exploited to install the Shah?

RA: About violence, it doesn’t seem to me that the opposition to Assad has the amount of popular support it would need to overthrow the government peacefully. The kind of protests that the oppositions in Egypt, Tunisia and also Bahrain, that dwarved any attempts to hold pro-regime protests in the country’s largest cities didn’t happen in Syria.

The Syrian strategy seems to depend on armed escalation then using the regime’s responses to discredit it. It also seems less likely to get regime change than to bloodily dismantle the country.

The Egyptians never ambushed security forces or pushed them out of towns to call those towns ‘liberated’. They had enough support that they didn’t need that.

Syria is much different from Egypt. But why not participate in whatever elections are offered and at least see who has how much support?

To choose armed resistance over that seems very devaluing of human life.

We do agree that some of the opposition in Hama is armed, right? Why?

Omar M. (OM): Bashar “Netanyahu” Assad is a real nostalgic fellow…

AB: Wtf? This is still going??? HK I give you props for having the patience to argue logic with these people. I dunno whose worse JH with his conspiracy theories regarding Israelis controlling my mothers grape leaves or RA who takes false information and tries to make himself sound knowledgable about the Syrian situation- similar to what I do about menstrual cycles

RA: Which particular information is false?

And this question is always funny because most likely if you or anyone answers at all, you will point to things I didn’t write, say I must have meant something else, and that something else is false.

That won’t end up working. To save us all time, if something I wrote is “false information” please copy it directly from one of my statements, put in into quotation marks, and write “the above is false information”.

I can be wrong, and I’ll happily stand corrected. But you sure haven’t shown that anything I’ve written is false.

AB: Actually all your opinion is based in speculation. The Syrians did not choose armed resistance, unless you are talking about the military shooting at the people. Syrian News says there is armed insurgents in the country- if you believe the syrian news we might as well talk about bigfoot.

AB: Secondly you talk about how Egypt had these massive protests which Syria hasnt had? Um considering you get killed in Syria for protesting, I would think that a protest of 600,000 in hama or 500,000 in Deir el Zour is equal to that of any Arab country. You have also had over 20,000 arrests in Syria. Its hard to protest anything when life is on the line. Its easy for you to talk and say they arent protesting large enough though. So good for you…. also you keep talking about having elections… Assad has not shown any intentions of allowing elections that are in anyway fair… like you are talking about solutions that are mythical… why don’t Syrians stop protesting and wait for unicorns? so we can see how they really feel. Im sorry if things seem personal or anything but it seems you are justifying what amounts to a massacre, and I cant just sit around and listen to that.

RA: How big was the largest pro-Mubarak counterprotest? How big was the largest pro-Assad counterprotest?

Does that matter at all to you?

AB: Are you serious? Do you know how a pro-Assad rally works. They come to your workplace and say, the store is closed go join the rally. That is your only option. So yes it does matter to someone with no knowledge of the situation.

JH: Have any of you accessed or cared to investigate what I wrote earlier about facts regarding the mounting Western pressure on Syria? Or you can’t seem to think outside what France 24 and Aljazeera tells you that you’re not willing to consider another theory? Do you not see that this so called revolution in Syria is nothing but a Western plan with a Zionist vision and an Arab blessing? Are you telling me that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain are the beacons of human rights and champions of democracies? What circles and what conspiracy are you talking about when Wikileaks had them and all their devious evil plans exposed, if there was true Justice in this world all of those Western Leaders would be trialed and behind bars? Have you not learned from Iraq? Do you not care about the consequences? Or you’re so blind and so desperate that you can only see Bashar as your only target to eliminate without flinching on what mayhem, bloodshed and destruction this will cause? Is there really a comparison between Bashar and Mubarak and his likes? This is like when Aljazeera aired a story of Kaddafi loyalist shooting their own soldiers in their backs while tied because they refused to fight their own people, only when two weeks later the real footage came out showing a very different story, those so called resistance fighters capturing the soldiers, humiliating them and beating them, executing them and mutilating them while saying Allah Akbar? I could attach many videos here showing the sickness and brutality of these animals so called revolutionaries, Over 600 Syrian officers have been killed in cold blood by those savages, as if those officers are not human beings or Syrians? Syria is the only Arab nation that stood tall against the evil Zionist plan for the region, whether in Iraq, Palestine or Lebanon. Gullible who doesn’t see Israeli how desperate Israel is since its defeat in the summer of 2006 in Lebanon? The sickest part of it all you have convinced yourselves that those who support Bashar are doing so because they’re scared or against their will and you are not willing to recognize that they are the majority of the Syrians?
Syria has given the opposition more than any Arab country known today, they lifted the emergency law and are creating major reforms, why not take advantage of that? Why not try first and see if they’re genuine then if it doesn’t work I will be your first support you… but the US, Israel and their Allies do not want reform or human rights in Syria, because they already have a replacement puppet loyal to Israel like the rest of the Arab leaders that will end any future resistance to the Israeli occupation. Don’t ever think the region will ever see real peace as long as there is no Just and fair solution for the Palestinians, it is the center, and it has been and always will be so long there is no Justice!

RA: But somehow Mubarak never managed to force anywhere near as many people to go to pro-Mubarak rallies as Assad could.

Three questions for Assad opponents that will determine if we live in the same universe:

1) Does Assad have more domestic support than Mubarak did?
2) Have there been armed attacks on Syrian security forces?
3) Are there any armed opposition in Hama who have fired on Syrian security forces?

If you answer no to any of these three questions then I guess you really aren’t able to look at the situation realistically and engaging you is pointless.

HK: How many members of the security force have been killed compared to protestors and civilians. And do you believe that each (or even a majority) of those killed were members of armed militias? Foreign-funded? Saudi tool? Israeli pawns? You extend to the Assad regime a benefit of the doubt that I strain to imagine you would do for most governments on the planet. Why?

RA: Three yes or no questions. If you say no to any of them, we’re done.

If the answers to all of them are yes, then 3) armed opposition to the regime should stop and then 1) Syrians should come up with an objective non-violent way to measure the popular support of competing factions in Syria.

Calling for Assad to relinquish power before armed opposition has stopped and a way to measure the support of the opposition compared to Assad’s support has at least been proposed by the opposition is not only unreasonable, but I can’t see what it could lead to more than the deaths of more Syrians.

The Syrian opposition does not have more guns than Assad. Assad is also not so unpopular, unlike Mubarak, that to attempt to put down armed protests would break the army the way generals in Egypt who were loyal to Mubarak calculated it would there.

No, not every protester is armed but peaceful protests alongside an armed campaign to establish “liberated areas” in Syria that could be used to bring further outside weapons and resources to overthrow the government as in Libya’s Benghazi would not be tolerated by any state, for example not by the United States.

Really the armed opposition has to stop first or Assad will do what any state would do with armed opposition, use its greater amount of arms to put it down violently.

After the violence stops, and it will stop one way or another, how do you propose then to determine what factions, including those that currently support Assad, should determine each’s level of support?

It is better for Syria to skip over the violent opposition part and go straight to the measure popular support part. Assad’s proposal at least looks in that direction. Not only is a position of “Assad must go now” not a look in that direction, I have not seen any proposal from the opposition that looks in that direction.

HK: ‎”Really the armed opposition has to stop first or Assad will do what any state would do with armed opposition, use its greater amount of arms to put it down violently.”

I’ll bear this line of reasoning in mind the next time it’s employed by Netanyahu, Sharon, or really every single Prime Minister ever to govern Israel.

JH: It’s not surprising that logic and reason is totally absent in your argument, it even lacks intellect- You want to compare Assad to Sharon or Israeli officials? Okay so Assad is occupying Syria, and the entire ruling party is foreign thugs who came from a different land, slaughtered its indigenous people, stole their land and build settlements on it?

JH: Maytha- Since I mentioned to you that it wasn’t Hafez Assad who committed the Hama massacre, wouldn’t it be fair to at least do some research and perhaps withdraw this false info and the title of this thread?

HK: Funny that for a thread seeking to shine a light on the atrocities of the Assad regime, you’re now trying to bully the author of it into changing her portrayal of events to conform to yours.

JH: I am such a bully right? I would want Maytha to tell me if I my historical information is incorrect, that’s doing me a favor thank you Please don’t be an instigator Mr. HK…

by Faisal al-Qasim
July 17, 2011

Original Arabic (full text)

Away from political concerns which are kneaded in blood and bullets these days, I’d like to step away, for a little bit, into a sociological and philosophical topic that would relieve you and myself from the heavy political gloom. I have received a witty email asking me to read the following sentences quickly, to prove an interesting theory, and now I pass it onto you and ask you to read them quickly:

A bird in
in hand.
Once in
in a lifetime.
Paris in
in Spring.

You definitely did not notice that the word “in” was written twice in each sentence, right? Do you know what happened? According to your previous experiences, as the theory authors claim, the brain has registered that the word “in” cannot be written twice in a row, which is why your mind was unable to see it. Thus, your mind made you see things based on a previous experience, not as things actually are.[...] In other words, we don’t see the truth except through our personal experiences. And when we disagree with someone on a point, each one of us holds onto their opinion which was formed by our previous knowledge and experiences. That’s why not everything you see is necessarily true, because what you see is what your mind has been programmed to see.[...] Rethink everything you consider to be true. Accept debate, and reconsider the opinions of those who disagree with you. They simply did not have the same past experiences you had in order to allow them to think the way you do. Why don’t you accept the idea that some of what they think might be true? Try to understand others’ perspectives, and don’t hold onto your opinion just because it’s your opinion. Revise your previous programming, and don’t presume that everything you see is true.

And for the idea authors to confirm their theory, which seems very logical, they present the allegory of the elephant and the three blind men, which some of you might have heard of before — Three blind men walked into a room occupied by an elephant, and they were asked to describe what an elephant is. So they began to feel the elephant with their hands, then came out of the room and began to describe what an elephant is. The first one said: an elephant is four pillars on the ground! The second said: an elephant is just like a snake! And the third said: an elephant looks like a broom! And when they saw that they disagreed, they began to argue, and each held onto his opinion. They went on arguing, each accusing the other of being a liar. Surely you realized that the first one had felt the elephant’s legs, the second its trunk, and the third its tail.

In other words, our opinions and experiences are built on what we have previously known. And if we were to imagine a person endowed with a level of intelligence no other person possesses, but was blind, would he be able to know what the color ‘red’ is? Would he be able to understand the difference between ‘red’ and ‘green’? Of course not, because he has never seen colors before. And he who was born deaf, can he tell whether a crow sounds better or worse than a bulbul? Of course no, because he never heard the sound of either bird.

Hence, each one of us is like the three blind men, depending on his or her previous programming and experiences. But have you pondered the experiences of others? Who was wrong? Was any of the blind men in the aforementioned allegory lying? Of course not, right? When we disagree, it does not mean that one of us is wrong. We could all be right, but unable to see what the others see. And their opinions might be correct and beneficial.

In short, I would add to what the authors of that witty idea have said that the mind is controlled by memory and previous experiences, and that our reactions are based on what’s been saved in our minds and memories from experiences and information. A living creature, human or not, cannot act on something outside of its memory. As for the act of thinking, it is the construction of models from former models and information stored in our minds, followed by deconstruction. And it is through the process of construction and deconstruction that we reach, by coincidence, to new models (also known as inventions). And as for the issue of disagreeing with the other, I would add to all what has already been mentioned that when each one of them has their own unique experiences and opinions which are different than mine, and because they are based on experiences different than mine, the final judgment should belong to the collective human experience; the experience of the whole society, or some other collective, and all the wisdom and conclusions that have been produced by that collective.

Notes: Faisal al-Qasim (a Syrian national with a Ph.D in English literature from the University of Hull, UK), is the host of al-Jazeera’s The Opposite Direction (الاتجاه المعاكس), a weekly debate show.

Back to Part 2/4

Why Nationalism Must Triumph

Of course, the current despotic regimes in Souria and elsewhere in the Arab World do not represent nationalist aspirations (no matter how hard the opponents of nationalism argue otherwise), but in fact represent the United States Empire. They are the US-installed/maintained vanguards on territories that Corporate America had bought a long time ago, since the first corporate flags/logos had been erected. And in the name of globalization, the United States Empire had advanced its “national” borders, invading Sourian (and other) minds with its media, and bodies with its products.

The results? Today Sourian schools boast of their “American” curricula and test preparation courses (TOEFL, SAT, AP, ACT, GRE, etc.), and the most successful and progressive students, the cream of the Sourian crop, speak English better than they do Arabic (this is not an exaggeration). Arabic music can no longer successfully sell without an American-style video-clip. Fast-food style restaurants are consistently gaining larger market shares. In the meanwhile, anything local or traditional is seen as lower status, whether it’s clothes, music, food, folk tales, poetry, books, or world view.

The elderly are framed as the generation of stupidity and backwardness (caricatures, flash videos, and soap operas reinforcing the image). Christian churches are run by westerners, distributing Arabic copies of the Bible that have been translated from English and French, and Islam has been certified and steered away from what matters. Like certified Christianity in the US, the concerns of Islam (after certification) have been downgraded to anything that does not affect the welfare of American corporations: talk about gays, abortion, immorality, prophet tales, prayer and worship rituals; but don’t talk about the ills of cigarettes, fast-food, lack of government funding in education and health care, predatory lending from interest-based and Islamic banks and credit card companies, government agreements with NGOs and businesses to gut the economy, corruption, the end of subsidies on basic food and produce, the destruction of social programs, and the exponential increase in the inequality gap. Such topics are not discussed at local mosques, because imams are delivered and handed their sermons from the ministry of religious endowments.

The only way to stop this American political and economic onslaught in the name of globalization and internationalism, is to do what all successful nations have done. South Korea, Norway, Japan, Germany, China, and even tiny states like Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, have resorted to what’s known as protectionist economic policy (the same policy the United States itself used in its early years to combat British hegemony in the 18th and 19th centuries).

Protectionist Policy in a Nutshell

Take South Korea for example, a country that was even poorer in the 1960s than North Korea today is, decided to close its borders and tax foreign final goods up to 1000%! The government then put most of its resources in funding the research and development of, and building the plants for, high-tech industries (the famous giants we all know today: Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, Kia, and LG). While Koreans back then still preferred to buy the more advanced Japanese products, the government tax on imports made it financially ridiculous to purchase anything foreign, when a Korean product could be purchased at one tenth of the foreign products’ prices. As Koreans spent more on local production, the Korean industry grew, and so did the economy. Jobs were created in overwhelming numbers, and today South Korea is easily one of the top ten economies in the world, enjoying one of the highest standards of living. (Currently the S. Korean economy suffers due to unfair FTA ramifications).

But even economists agree that South Korea could not have pulled it off without certain social and political ingredients. In addition to high rates of literacy, the Korean people had to pull themselves together and act as a united people for the sake of the common good. With 20% Christian, 25% Buddhist, and 55% atheist, the Koreans could not have done this without a uniting ideology that was big enough to unite all Koreans, yet small enough to separate Korea from, let’s say, Japanese and Chinese hegemony. That perfect recipe was independent Korean nationalism. And it worked!

Korean Minister of Unification

Moreover, one of the unintended consequences of strengthening nationalist aspirations in both parts of the Korean peninsula has been their relentless desire to reunite. Even after 60 years of partition, today over 90% of South Koreans, and over 97% of North Koreans (statistics continue to show), still demand the reunification of the Korean nation-state, in the same way that East and West Germany did. The international community (i.e. United States Empire) continues to be the only real obstacle to any form of reunification.

What Nationalism is Not

Korea was chosen as an example of a successful nationalist project because it reveals many myths about nationalism. There is nothing in the Korean culture, for example, that could be attributed to the economic success of S. Korea, because the S. Korean and N. Korean culture is identical (same language, history, ethnicity, race, and tradition). Koreans are not superior because they are Koreans, but because of a chain of events that have been initiated by government policies. The same can be said about all other success stories in Asia and Europe.

No one can argue that the Sourian economic failure is due to their culture or past wars, because neither of these two factors could explain the failures and successes of Koreans. No one can argue that nationalist ideology is incompatible with the Sourian people because of their culture or religions. The age of cultural theories have long been exposed as a hoax. For instance, in the 1960′s two American political scientists argued that Germany could never achieve democracy because fascism and dictatorship-complex was innate in the German culture. In the 1970′s they retracted their paper. If democratic nationalism worked for the Norwegians and Japanese, it can work for any people on earth.

Unlike Arab governments that sponsor and promote Islamization of society through a US-certified version of Islam, Seoul instead sponsors and promotes democracy and Korean nationalism. When nationalist aspirations were held most high in the Egyptian revolution, the despotic regime (funded and supported by the Empire!) was unable to break them. When a pregnant Egyptian woman (wearing a niqab) yelled during the protests “let the child in my womb die if it must, to let Egypt live,” her words resonated with every Egyptian citizen, regardless of their religious views. When the Egyptian protesters yelled “tahya Masr,” the Christians turned themselves into human shields to protect their Muslim brothers and sisters while they prostrated in their prayers.

Had the Egyptian revolution slogans been religious, it would have divided the country and very likely turned the battle into a religious one, at the point of which all the government would have had to do was plant bombs in mosques and churches and turn Muslim against Christian, and turn religious against secularist (as they tried), until the revolution was buried or turned into civil strife. Had the Egyptian revolution slogans been internationalist or globalized, it would have ended up being a rally to end world poverty and calling for world peace. No! It had to be about the territory of Egypt, all of Egypt, but not beyond Egypt. In other words, it had to be of a nationalist nature.

>>> Continue to Part 4/4

As soon as the Islamic revolution in the seventh century began spreading throughout the peninsula and beyond, Muslim Caliphs moved to Damascus (661 ~ 750 AD) and Baghdad (750 ~ 1244 AD), turning them into two of the greatest cities the world has ever known. Although Mecca and Medina were Muslims’ holiest cities, caliphs did not see them fitting to become capital cities of the great Muslim Empire that spread across three continents.

That is because Mecca and Medina could never compare with cities like Damascus and Baghdad in terms of availability of resources and the historical progression that can only exist on fertile lands. The abundance of rivers and aquifers allowed for the birth of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Because they could get all the food and water they needed at a constant location, building more permanent (immobile) structures became prudent, which also meant building high, strong walls, and appointing governing bodies to run the first cities known to mankind. In cities, people no longer had to worry about food shortages or security, consequently moving them up the Maslow ladder of human needs towards the arts and sciences; towards spiritual growth and self-actualization.

What Unites the People of Souria

Although western education begins history with the Greek civilization, they were actually preceded by the Egyptians (the earliest Greek philosophers went to Egypt to learn), who were preceded by the Phoenicians (also known as the Canaanites), who were the first to sail across the Mediterranean and build cities. A recent biological study reconfirmed that today’s Palestinians/Jordanians and Lebanese, of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, are Canaanites, the first people to develop an alphabet, and the first people to discover wheat and process it into bread.

Along with the Canaanites were Assyrians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Hettites, Amorites, Nabateans, and other Syriac tribes throughout Souria. And it was due to natural geographic boundaries (mountains, deserts, seas) in that Fertile Crescent (Souria) that separated this group of people from their neighbors: Persians, Greeks, and Egyptians. Back then, the Arabs (descendants of Nabateans, i.e. Sourians) were not a civilization yet, but nomads (Bedouins). The word “Arab” itself means just that. Small desert towns like Mecca and Medina existed, however, because they were transits for traders and merchants traveling between Yemen and Syria, a safe route connecting all three continents.

Because of these natural geographic borders, the people of the Fertile Crescent were able to maintain a unique culture, language, as well as a common history that their neighbors (Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians) did not share. Even with Persian, Greek, Roman, Mongolian, and European invasions and occupations that lasted for centuries, it was the invaders that assimilated to the Syrian culture and language, not the other way around, because geography and other structural factors overwhelm and determine the adaptable culture of a region. In fact, the assimilation between all foreigners to Souria over the last 2000 years has been so strong that we can no longer tell which Sourian is the descendant of which former nation.

The Imposed Division (Sykes-Picot Agreement)

When the British and French occupied Souria in 1917, they immediately split it into two regions: the French would take the north (Lebanon, Syria, and north Iraq) and the British the south (Palestine, Jordan, and south Iraq). However, the British found oil in the northeast, and thus they readjusted the map and that was how Iraq and Syria were split into two countries.

While the French ruled over Syria, they had plans to divide it into five smaller nations: Suwaida, Damascus, Aleppo, Alawite Territory, and Lebanon. But the resistance they faced from the Syrians was so strong that all French plans to further divide Syria collapsed, except for one: Lebanon.

As for the region that Sourians called “the South,” the British established a separate state called Palestine, in preparation for the Zionists to establish their Jewish home. As early as 1919, the British had realized that subduing the south Sourian (i.e. Palestinian) resistance to the Zionist project was simply impossible. Thus, in 1920 a new plan was introduced, to split Palestine into two halves (one on either side of the Jordan river). The goal was to move the Arabs into the east, and let the European Jewish colonize the west side.

The Rise of Sourian Nationalist Movements

The division between Iraq and Syria, between Syria and Lebanon, between Syria and Palestine, and between Palestine and Jordan, were all imposed to weaken one of the most rebellious people on earth. Nevertheless, the entire Sourian population opposed these divisions and fought hard to reunite. The Sourian rebels quickly organized and formed several nationalist groups. Among these groups were the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) created by the intellectual Antoun Sa’adeh in 1932, the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) created by leading Arab historian and professor Constantin Zureiq and Dr. George Habash in 1948; and the Baath Party (1946), created by Syrian philosopher Michel Aflaq, which later merged with Akram Horani’s Socialist Party to form the Arab Socialist Baath Party (1952). These nationalist movements were supported by people from all religious sects, including clergymen. Marxists and Communists also gained momentum and were the most fierce in their battles against puppet regimes, most notably in Iraq when Abdul-Kareem Qasim overthrew the Hashemite monarchy (1958).

The Islamists were there, but almost no one listened to them because their solution to occupation, colonization, and puppet regimes was to pray and fast and be good Muslims, and wait for God to save them when the time was right. The Islamists call to “calm down until we have revived the Islamic empire” did not resonate, and in most cases was seen as a colonial instrument to thwart the nationalist revolution.

Continue to Part 2/4

Some speculate that the tyrannical fear barrier has been breached, meaning people are past the point at which they can be intimidated and brutalized into submission.  Robert Fisk thinks Syria may be past the “tipping point.”

However, the AJE report raises the possibility of direct western intervention.  That would clearly spell the end of the revolt in Syria. If it’s to prevent genocide, a case can be made for intervention.  But even floating the idea at this point is not going to help the protesters who the regime is already trying to paint as foreign agents. Yes, the regime’s in complete denial of its own authoritarianism.

Syrians have to make their own future, and already some on the outside want to poison it, to shape it so that it suits their interests rather than the will of the Syrian people. Whether that means tacitly supporting  the regime, or seeking to further de-stabilization through the use of agents, or propping up dissident groups, the hands of external players in Syria will likely doom it to a new tyranny.

Also, Palestinians should not back the Assad regime. As much as they think it is a friend against Israel, a. it is not and b. Palestinians must in principle refuse the support of regimes that oppress others.   Failure to do so constitutes hypocrisy.

You can hate the game, but not the player. While the majority of Arabs support the Palestinian cause and want to see it resolved, there are those Arabs who do not have warm feelings toward Palestinians. Despite this, along with the Arabic language, the Palestinian cause unites most people of Arab descent. Nevertheless, there are groups of Arabs that will forever remain wary of Palestinians. Here they are:

1. The 1975 to 1990 Lebanese: civil war is an ugly business and in Lebanon, the Palestinians are the everlasting punching bag. Now, I’m not saying that some Palestinians didn’t play a divisive role in Lebanon’s civil war, but the Palestinians are definitely Lebanon’s scapegoat. Unfortunately, this will never change until Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees are allowed to either return to Palestine or are given the ability to live dignified, productive, and free lives in Lebanon.
2. The 1990 Kuwaitis: now, I don’t know what the Palestinian leadership was thinking when they supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Supporting an occupation or being silent when you see one happening – especially when you have been placed under occupation yourself – won’t help endear anyone to your cause. Despite repeated apologies and a number of initiatives, some Kuwaitis will always remain skeptical of Palestinians.
3. The 1970 Indigenous Jordanians (bedouins): remember when Palestinian militants harassed Jordan’s young king and shook his (corrupt) regime to its core? King Hussein took no prisoners and bombed the hell out of Palestinian refugee camps. Until this day, grudges still exist. It does not help that the Palestinians in Jordan have a superior soccer team that, more often than not, defeats those dirty bedouins.
4. The Naive Arab: he (or she) watches their country’s state-sponsored news and truly believe that their respective despot is doing all he (never she) can to free Palestine, feed the hungry, protect the refugees, and heal the sick (they also walk on water, too!). In reality, all these despots do is talk (sometimes out of their mouths, but mostly from their asses). Yet, these naive Arabs refuse to see their dictators in a negative light, and look forward to the day that they liberate Palestine.
5. The Paranoid Egyptians: now, these people are hilarious. they have no clue of the social and tribal makeups of the areas bordering Palestine, and get freaked out by news of smuggling activities, weapons and drugs tunnels. There are even people in Egypt who believe Hamas is the one closing the Rafah crossing, not the other way around. They tend not to mind that their sworn enemy enters their land with no visa, and would rather look down on those “dirty Gazans.” Of course some of their fears are rational, but paranoia is never helpful.
6. Other Arab Expats: they live around the world alongside many Palestinians, and they envy the Palestinian expats for their success despite all odds. Sure, some Palestinian immigrants can hardly be considered saints, but they are hard workers. These jealous Arabs like to mumble about an existential “affirmative action” policy for Palestinians, and they also believe in some magical “Palestine Card” that exists to prevent Palestinians from being deported (how can you deport someone that doesn’t have a country of origin?). As my grandpa used to tell me, “if the poor takes a large shit, the people would want to know what he had for dinner.”
7. The “Me” First: you know those suit-wearing and soft-spoken Arabs, the ones you find in Palestine and countries bordering historic Palestine. They’re running governments under the banner, “Palestine is complicated, but hey, you can enjoy Mc burgers and fries if you wanna…” They are loved in the West, and they lead their political lives by the motto: let’s dance until the music stops. They cannot stand all the tragic news form the Palestinian territories so they try to make it into the news by making the world’s biggest kabob, bowl of Humus, Flag…etc. This policy is often in place to help cover up for the traitors and uncle toms running the country and opening up casinos for “tourists”. They mistakenly think running countries is like running brothels, something they are very familiar with.

[Tarboush Tip: Andrew]

The strike organizers are promising to escalate their strike grid to eventually include the entire nation, to suffocate the regime economically (i.e. hit them where it really hurts), until they receive the fate that the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes got: throw out the dirtiest apples to save what’s left in the basket. This means that eventually Bashar al-Assad and his cabinet are going to be brought down.

As for the stringent and delusional pro-government ideologues, it is really about time they get off the Bashar idolatry bandwagon. Enough self-humiliation, self-degradation, self-abasement. It’s really becoming too disgusting to bear. The faster the Syrian people join the revolution, the sooner it will bring down the government and replace it with one that can finally respect the dignity, freedom, and will of the Syrian people.

This is Syria, the cradle of all civilizations, the birthplace of agriculture, science, philosophy, and literature. Over ten thousand years of history and struggle to get to the point we are at right now. Syria is not al-Assad’s property. Syria is our country and if Syrians can’t live free in their own country, then all this talk about “resisting Imperialism” becomes pointless; irrelevant. This isn’t a struggle to choose between a local master and a foreign master. This is a struggle to have no master except ourselves.

موطني
الشباب لن يكل … همه أن يستقل … أو يبيد
نستقي من الردى … ولن نكون للعدى … كالعبيد
لا نريد
ذلنا المؤبدا … وعيشنا المنكدا
لا نريد … بل نعيد … مجدنا التليد

The youth shall not tire; their concern is to gain independence or perish
We would [rather] drink from death [than] ever to become the enemy’s slaves
We want neither permanent humiliation, nor a lifetime of sorrow
What we want is to regain our honorable glory.

(excerpt from the pan-Arab national anthem – 1934 – currently used in Iraq)

Contributed by Abubakr Al-Shamahi, who visited the camp and snapped the photos.

Boynuyogun refugee camp, in Southern Turkey, sits around 15 kilometres from the Syrian border. The families of Jisr al-Shughour fleds there, having left their homes and livelihoods behind, escaping what they described as scenes of horror and a town overrun by Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrians at the camp are not simply visiting family in this predominantly Arab part of Turkey, despite the claims of the Syrian government’s media assault. At Boynuyogun, 3500 people, including many children, are housed in a campsite set up by the Turkish government. A further 6500 Syrians have made their way into Syria, with another 10000 reported to be in the mountains on the Syrian side of the border.

A crowd of people came towards the fencing on our arrival, mostly children and adolescents, and began speaking to the journalists.

The people of Jisr al-Shughour were finally being given their opportunity to tell their story.

They described how protests erupted in the town, which has a population of around 50000, more than three months ago. As each week passed the protests against the Assad regime grew bigger and bigger. From their stories it appears that the brutality of the regime matched it.

The refugees described how the army and armed thugs, ‘Shabiha’, fired indiscriminately at protesters. One man said that he had lost two sons, and his family had had to leave another injured son behind with neighbours who had stayed behind. It was simply impossible for him to make the journey to Turkey.

Rawan, a university student in her 20s, lived in a building that overlooked a mass grave. She also recounted how girls had their hair shaved off for not supporting the regime enough, and fridges in mortuaries full of bodies. Along with other university students she was forced to attend rallies in support of Bashar al-Assad.

“We saw the example the regime was trying to set in Deraa, we knew what was going to come to us,” Rawan added.

The refugees also described how planes fired at protesters from above, and how the Shabiha fired on them with paralysis darts and then abducted them.

Many of the refugees had fresh injuries to show. One young man, who did not want to be named, said that he was the first protester to be detained in Jisr al-Shughour. He told of how he was imprisoned for a month, blindfolded, and then hung up by his arms for two days.

“I just wanted to live with dignity, with freedom. They arrested me because I wanted freedom,” he said.

The refugees were eager to address the accusations being thrown at them by the Syrian regime. The military’s excuse for its latest incursion into Jisr al-Shughour is that the protesters there were not peaceful, and killed 120 soldiers.

Those I met in the refugee camp were quick to counter. They denied possessing any serious weaponry, and questioned the plausibility of a couple of hundred armed men taking on a military force. They also added to the already heard claims that those soldiers killed in Jisr al-Shughour had defected onto the side of the protesters, and had been shot for this.

“We did not have proper weapons, we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of us had hunting equipment, but it was only used as people were fleeing,” one of the refugees explained.

The issue of sectarianism has been used by the government to strike fear into ordinary Syrians. Painting the protesters as violent religious radicals has scared many Syrians from minority sects to support the regime as the only bulwark against Islamic extremists.

Those at Boynuyogun refugee camp had a different version of events. “We do not want sectarianism, the government is creating it,” ‘Abu al-Shaheed’, ‘the Father of the Martyr’ said. “Even some Alawis are oppressed,” added another refugee.

All were angry that what they called non-violent protests were being labelled by the government as an armed insurrection by Salafis. Pointing at the crowd of children in the small playground one of the men screamed, “Are these Bashar’s Salafis? Are these the terrorists?”

However, it was clear that sectarian differences were playing on the minds of some of the people of Jisr al-Shughour.

“We do not want anyone to be favoured, but Alawis are preferred, given better jobs – everyone has to have connections,” one man claimed. Another made a slightly outlandish claims that ‘Sunni’ air force planes would attack empty farmland, whereas ‘Alawi’ planes would attack the protesters.

For those refugees with longer memories, images of the 1980 government attack on Jisr al-Shughour are fresh. In March 1980 200 people were killed after an uprising erupted in the town. Like today, the protesters then were labelled as terrorists and extremists. For the older refugees it was as if the tape were being played again.

The Turkish government appears to be attempting to stage manage visits to the refugee camp, arriving at the camp we were informed that we would not be able to film or talk to the refugees inside the camp, and that some refugees would be picked out and come to talk to us afterwards. Supply trucks conveniently started appearing as we arrived.

It is strange that the Turks appear to be taking this approach. Although there was some criticism of the Turkish government’s statements on Syria, with many refugees saying that they did not go far enough, there was much praise of Turkey for providing a refuge for fleeing Syrians.

Conditions in the camp were satisfactory, with rows upon rows of tents with clean mattresses and sheets. Women were washing clothes and making makeshift clotheslines in between the tents, and water was also being supplied. Supplies were coming in, but it was clear that the arrangement was very makeshift, especially as many of the refugees came with nothing but the clothes on their back.

Yet despite their hardship the refugees persevere. They were totally against foreign military intervention and yet swore not to return to the country until the regime had been overthrown.

Housed in Boynuyogun the Syrians of Jisr al-Shughour now find themselves as refugees. Their attitudes exemplified the terror they had described living through. As one young man put it, “We just want to be safe and away from the regime. In this camp it is the first time I can breathe.”

The following is a gallery of photos taken by Abubakr:

Abubakr Al-Shamahi is a Politics student at SOAS, University of London and is the editor of Comment Middle East. He is on Twitter.

He assured the public that he was not interested in delivering demagoguery, but the detailed facts of what’s going on. He delegated demagoguery to the greatest hypocrites in all of Syria: the Syrian Parliament, to interrupt his speech in a casual manner with poems and praise. That is the kind of freedom of speech the Syrian regime tolerates; one that literally calls for the sacrifice of the entire Syrian population for the sake of its unelected dictator (إحنا معك، والله معك، وسوريا معك: بالروح بالدم نفديك يا بشار).

Throughout his oration, he explained (in a scientific manner) that what’s happening in Syria is a conspiracy to bring down the regime, i.e. to bring down the country — for whenever a regime faces annihilation, suddenly they become one with the people whose faces they’ve been stomping for decades (recall Saddam). He said that he admits the high level of intelligence that the conspirators (whom he did not name nor refer to by nationality) possess in their methods, but that he also recognizes their level of stupidity for choosing the wrong people to mess with. The flock of sheep in attendance applauded, along with the (shrinking) thousands of brainwashed supporters in the streets.

He acknowledged that Syria “definitely need[s] reform; a country that does not reform is bound to self-destruct. The real challenge is what kind of reform we want.” And in reference to anti-reformists, Bashar said: “No one [in the Syrian government] is an obstacle to reform, except those corrupt and those with special interests, and as you know they were a limited minority and they are gone now; a limited minority you all know by name.”

However, he insisted that reforms must be implemented through their appropriate channels, i.e. through the parliament of hypocrisy.

“Being late or not late [in implementing reforms], that’s something we leave for the citizens to evaluate. But as for the main principles, I repeat once again, had we never intended to have these reforms, we would not have made [he meant announce] them in 2005! … Thus, the reforms have been already announced. The matter is a matter of delay or neglect; we are all human beings and sons of this nation and we fundamentally know our nature,“

He meant the Syrian nature of not getting anything done on time, or ever (“delay… neglect”). It’s strange this Syrian nature doesn’t manifest when it’s time to roll tanks, besiege cities, torture and kill hundreds and imprison tens of thousands, and especially when it came to amending the constitution in 2000 [took 15 minutes] to legalize the enthroning of the current Führer Bashar al-Assad.

As for why there are no deadlines to achieve reforms, Bashar said:

“We don’t want to put a deadline and then find out that we can’t meet that deadline for a technical problem. We want to give the Syrian people the best, not the fastest. We want to hurry, but not to be rash.“

“Reform, regardless of its content, when implemented under pressure, will be catastrophic.“

What he was basically saying to his own people (the ones he declared to be brainwashed by the few invisible conspirators): if you want reforms, you need to stop protesting and go back home, and use the “proper channels.” When it comes to reforms, we are all talk and no action, unless of course you try to replace us with an accountable and democratic government, at that point we don’t talk; we act, primarily setting your houses and farms on fire and shooting bullets into your skulls.

In his last speech before the newly appointed cabinet of ministers, April 17, Bashar delivered another eloquent and detailed plan which even gained the admiration of opposition figures. Had this speech been made two months earlier (i.e. when the protests first began with low-intensity), the turmoil that Syria is going through today could have been successfully avoided, and the proof is what happened to Syria’s southern neighbor — The corrupt Jordanian king, who has far greater ties to Israel and the Imperial West than Bashar does, did exactly that: preemptively implemented reforms before the situation escalated.

Nevertheless, this isn’t about tactical errors and how a regime handles a protest here or a demonstration there (Jordan’s king only postponed the inevitable), but about a deep wound that western puppet regimes, like al-Assad’s, have left in people’s souls. Bashar might be eloquent and intelligent, but he was right when he said that the Syrian people are too intelligent to be fooled by a conspirator. The only conspirator in Syria is Bashar and his fascist regime. The Syrian people’s clock did not start ticking on February of 2011, but back at the hour of ascension of the father-tyrant, Hafez al-Assad, to power during the peak of the Black September massacre, 1970, when the Palestinian resistance fighters were being slaughtered, an event Hafez al-Assad (minister of defense then) supported by disregarding orders to march the Syrian army into Jordan to stop the genocide. It is the same Hafez al-Assad who sent the army into Lebanon to massacre whatever remained from the Palestinian resistance fighters in Lebanon in 1976, in what became known as Tal al-Zaatar Massacre; and who sent the army to level the Syrian city of Hama in 1982, killing tens of thousands of Syrians from every political affiliation. These tyrants (e.g. Bush and Obama) and their blind supporters just can’t understand that the killing of dissidents in order to sustain an unelected tyrant, no matter how eloquent and great he was, is an unforgivable war crime!

In a truly free and democratic society, justice must be upheld even against the regime; nay, especially against the regime! The reforms that the Syrian people have been calling for date back to 1970; reforms which Bashar claims to have been seriously on his agenda for the last ten years, and he won’t start now while under “uncivilized demonstrations” and “the pressure of deadlines.”

Bashar: “I don’t refer to what’s happening in the region as revolutions, but as waves.”

Now, this “wave” has narrowed down its reform demands to just one: to throw Bashar out of the office he was never rightfully entitled to, along with his cabinet and parliament of hypocrites.

Spotted on Facebook, protests in Hama, Syria today.