Syria, Dilemma
And then this, via the daily Perlentaucher, which strikes me as a sadly accurate assessment of the dilemma, by the Syrian philosopher Sadik J. Al-Azm in the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) in my quick translation, this morning:
“The international discourse on Syria is shaped primarily by concerns for the protection of minorities: Christians, Kurds, Alawites, Druses, Ismailis, Turkmen, Circassians and others. It is however the majority — the Sunnis — who are horribly set upon by the army units, the militias and the Scud-missiles of a small minority that holds absolute power as well as the wealth of the whole country in its hands.”
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I suspect, sadly, that any cease fire will come, like those of the past in the Middle East, at the end of a cheque signed by the U.S. and borrowed from who knows whom. Religious warfare, or violence carried out in the name of religion, tends to have a rather long life span, centuries in fact. Religion is the the problem as it seems to want to become radical faster than an anarchist can throw a cobblestone. Perhaps if those of a more moderate belief would get off their bottoms and step to the forefront things might change. Why do I doubt this?