Last week I wrote that inaction in Washington and at the UN does not live up to the brave and hopeful Syrians who have taken to the streets in protest of the Assad government. Many there probably looked at NATO’s intervention in Libya and expected something similar to happen if protests in Syria persisted. They were wrong.
There will be no help coming from the U.S. or UN to the Syrian protestors. The protests in Syria are fundamentally different from those in Yemen, Egypt, and Libya, and they have been distorted by the international media and other forces using the protests to pursue narrow and selfish goals. In the calm that seems to have settled in Syria over the past few days, and as I mull over the true nature of these protests, here are two great resources on the situation in Syria.
First, a video by two Hungarian journalists who posed as tourists in Damascus. With English subtitles.
Second, check out this interview by blogger Elias Muhanna with Montreal-based Syria commentator Camille Otrakji.
