Image of the Day

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube shows Syrian children waving
the pre-Baath former national flag during an anti-regime protest in the northwestern Idlib
province.
Everything about Syria is steeped in miasma: is this conflict
politically and sociologically definable as a civil war? Has it become a
sectarian war? How strong and widespread is the Salafist (and global
Jihadi) presence? Was militarization wise or did the opposition have no
choice in this regard? Are the armed groups able to defeat the regime’s
forces or will there be a perpetual, bloody stalemate whose only certainty
is Syria’s complete physical destruction and long-term division? Is a
negotiated outcome, that is, a political solution the only possibility, or is it
uninformed to speak of political solutions at this stage of the conflict?
Despite this fog, there are, in my mind, several certainties. One, Syria
is not a clear-cut case of bad regime versus good society, for that society is
not at one regarding the violent overthrow of the state. This is not a mass,
democratic revolution but a Sunni rebellion. Any spontaneity to its
genesis, including the goal of non-violent resistance, came to a speedy
end, provided with a significant impetus by the flow of foreign arms,
money, and intelligence, including from the US. A substantial ‘silent’
majority desperately wishes to avoid Syria’s disintegration because they
simply love their country, not the regime or armed rebels, and prefer
reform and a negotiated settlement.
Two, it is false to equate, as the regime portrays it, every Syrian’s
opposition to the Ba’athi state with acting on behalf of Zionists and