This week the Syrian Uprising has taken on a newly sectarian character, a disturbing development, and one that could spell a much more violent and unpredictable future for the unstable nation.
On Sunday, Homs, Syria’s third largest city, saw the first openly sectarian violence of the now almost five month old …
In chess there are several ways a game can end without a victor, none of them particularly satisfying. There is the stalemate, when a player cannot move but is not in check; essentially a locked board. There is the fifty-move rule, which kicks in when fifty successive moves do not …
As the FPA Blog site is going under the knife in about an hour, I won’t have time to put up a full post today. However, I wanted to get something up before the anesthetic sets in.
As readers of yesterday’s post know, signs were pointing towards a governmental …
First of all, allow yours truly to apologize for the conspicuous gap in posts of late. There has been a fairly serious medical emergency with the paterfamilias which has kept me away from the blogosphere. My bad. The good news is that all is now well, and I’m back to …
Another day of Syria dominating the press. I’ll try my best to continue to update things in anticipation of another pivotal friday of protests coming up tomorrow. Check it.
Northern Exposure Continued
I just want to continue to update the Jisr al-Shaggour story. As of this evening, the number of Syrian refugees …
Before I start off today’s post I want to thank the OLLI program of Portland for having me yesterday. I gave a presentation there on my experiences in Syria, and could not have had a more pleasant experience. It’s very rewarding to get the opportunity to speak with …
On Friday I mentioned the now completed “Conference for Change” held by the Syrian opposition in Antalya, Turkey. The conference was very important for a variety of reasons. Today I want to expand a bit on why that conference was so important, who exactly was there, dissect the final statement …
So the outcome of the Syrian uprising is not as clear cut as I would have had you believe a few short weeks ago. The opposition has rallied and is once again putting some pretty serious pressure on the Assad regime. Protestors took to the streets in significant …
“President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition, or get out of the way.”
This is the key phrase of President Barack Obama’s speech regarding Syria. Yawn. I can’t say it came as a big surprise, but this speech was largely a waste of time, and a missed opportunity, …
May 15th is a complicated day in the Middle East, and this year was no different. While Israel marks its independence day, Palestinians mourn the Nakba, or catastrophe. In years past there have usually been protests of a relatively low intensity, a few marches and a few protestors, heavy on …
Another friday of protests has come and gone: Assad is still in power, however, many protests continue.
The past week has seen a raising of rhetorical stakes from the West, despite the fact that the West is pretty much powerless to do anything. US Secretary of State Clinton suggested that …
The one issue that seems to be getting thrown under the bus, and what might just be most important in the Syrian context, is the issue of class.
This week has seen the chances of success for the Syrian opposition go from slim to none. The revolutionary moment has passed and the Assad regime is no longer in immediate danger of being deposed by the Syrian protest movement. Protests will continue in pockets of ongoing resistance, however, the …
For the third friday in a row, casualty numbers have declined in ongoing Syrian protests. It would appear that the large scale preemptive arrests carried out by the government over the previous days have been successful in keeping protest numbers down.
Reports also indicate that …
As unrest continues to grip Syria, and opposing viewpoints continue to battle it out over the airwaves, in the pages of newspapers and magazines, and over the interwebs, let’s try to take a look at some of what is going on; both in Syria, and in the battle to frame …
