Human and civil rights need to be restored in Syria. To accomplish this, Bashar Al-Assad and his regime need to go. The regime’s replacements must be dignified, honest, just, and completely in contrast to the “leaders” Syria has seen in decades past. The destruction needs to end, and in its wake shall be a new era of Syrian history, a new body of Syrian pride that refuses to mirror any element of previous oppressive rules.
This much is clear. The sane and the rational agree on this end. But so many questions remain. What about the means? How do we get there? Is U.S intervention — historically problematic and guided by self-interest — the ultimate solution? Will Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory — an affront to Syria’s national autonomy regardless of what the targets may be — bring the end to within our reach? Should we just wait it out — death tolls climbing and all — and pray the opposition continues its slow but certain advance against regime strongholds?
And how about when we cover it, do we keep calling it a revolution or do we call it a civil war? Can it be both? At this point in time, considering the number of fallen civilians, of new refugees, of destroyed relics, is it both? [Read more...]
‘The arrogance of power’
In the video above, a Bahraini police officer reportedly known as Ali Aaref slaps a man carrying his child twice without provocation. The young boy, wrapped in his father’s arm, begins to cry.
The uprising in Bahrain is quite possibly the most ignored in the Middle East and North Africa region. Some of the main news networks in the area, specifically Al Jazeera, have played instrumental roles in limiting the progress of the uprising by almost exclusively ignoring the Bahraini government’s harsh crackdown. Many have also attached sectarian motives to the social unrest in an attempt to delegitimize the protestors’ concerns. The ensuing punditry has painted a situation too intimidating and misleading to approach and the Bahraini regime has taken advantage of this. [Read more...]