Reports are coming in from diplomatic eye-witnesses of serious riots in Damascus over the last weekend that sound worrying for the still fledgling regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. What began as protest demonstrations in the suburb of Kabas against one of Bashar's "Modernization" projects, a new road building scheme, turned into wider anti-regime riots that raged through Saturday and Sunday and overwhelmed the riot police. Order was restored when the army was brought in Sunday, and began using live ammunition. Interestingly, the Syrian army then proceeded to use a tactic they had learned from the Israelis, deploying armored bulldozers to destroy the houses of those presumed to be responsible. They flattened half of Kabas -- which goes to show that young President Bashar is a softie compared to his late father, Hafiz al Assad. Faced with dissent in the town of Hamah in 1982, the old man flattened the place with artillery and paved over the rubble -- and the 10,000-plus corpses.
Who can add to that tag line? Bashar's on the list of hereditary iron-fisted dictators the U.S. always catches heat for "supporting." We didn't install him, but somehow it's our fault he's there... |