Bashar-al Assad’s all too deadly caricature as an ass. The Syrian Army lying in wait. Night-vision shots of night-time attacks. A bombed out car. An anti-Qaeda revolutionary insurgent who insists that al Qaeda’s presence in Syria, the popular narrative nowadays, is more tall-tale than truth; that the attacks roiling the country have been mainly perpetrated by the Syrian regime to discredit the opposition. A leader of the Syrian Free Army begging the United States to intervene against the Syrian regime’s brutal crack down that began in the easier days of the Arab Spring.
Even as Egypt is slowly figuring out its path forward with a new President– uncharismatic, anti-revolutionary and doggedly ensconced in older ways of thinking he might be– in Syria more than 9000 people are dead. And more are dying every day.
The Syrian people can be forgiven for thinking the international community of democratic, civilized nations has sat out this fight.