Demonstrations and destruction of Assad icons in other cites.
But… but…
Bashar al-Assad lifted the State of Emergency (without actually changing his regime’s brutal approach to unarmed demonstrators).
The US funded the Syrian opposition.
Kevin Ovenden has warned that there are several political forces seeking to hegemonise the Syrian protests.
Assad is the last Arab ruler, and Syria is lucky to have him as her President
If you are Assad today, what are you thinking?
Update: They finally noticed.
Alec Macph adds:
Clare Short is deeply impressed by Bashar:
From south Lebanon, we went to Syria to meet the President, Foreign Minister, other Ministers and parliamentarians, the British ambassador and many others. The President lived for a long time in the UK. He is a charming and open man who, for a long time, was not going to be President and therefore took on the style of an ordinary western citizen. He is very popular in his country because he does not have a grandiose or fine-living style. He is keen to deliver significant reform in Syria, to open up the country and to improve the economic opportunities of the people, but he made it clear that the situation in the region made that difficult. Shortly after he took over, there was what has been called a “Damascus spring”—a sort of opening up. It is difficult to continue such reforms when there is such bitter division all around and organised extreme Islamist groups in the region.
The President stressed that the Syrian regime is secular and takes a tough line against Islamist insurgents, but that it was keen to work with others to help to stabilise the situation in Iraq. He deeply regretted the fact that the UK did not have, as he put it, an independent foreign policy. He said that, before Sir Nigel Sheinwald visited Syria for talks on behalf of our Prime Minister, he had been to Washington and that his view was that the UK could play a much more useful role if it had an independent policy, but sadly it did not and it continued to be a complete echo of US foreign policy.
What a cockweaselette.
Update: A massacre. In Homs:
