The Syrian Revolution 2011 Group and the Elephant That's Still in the Room

Hama, the Syrian city where Bashar al-Assad's father sent his army to kill tens of thousands of insurgents in 1982, is again the target of the Syrian al-Assad regime. Tanks opened fire indiscriminately this weekend, according to eye witnesses, and left 100 dead and many injured. At the same time, Homs and several northern cities, including Deir Essor and Masrib, were also attacked, with deaths reported.

President Obama said he was “horrified” by the attack and would seek tighter sanctions against the al-Assad regime. Turkey, which has been Syria’s closest friend recently, said it was “saddened and disappointed” by the attacks which would serve no useful purpose. Italy has called for a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the unjustified and horrifying attack. The European Parliament president has demanded that Bashar al-Assad begin the process of a transfer of power at once.

SYRIAN REVOLUTION 2011, the name of the group that now seems to be coordinating the Syrian demonstrations against al-Assad, has called for “demonstrations and reprisals” after the Tarawih night prayers that are said during Ramadan. More than 4,000 people descended onto the streets in Harasta, a town near Damascus, in response to the call, in which Syria was described as “bleeding.”

The argument against world action in Syria usually runs along the lines of, “there is no formal and organized rebel governing group calling for outside help and without that, intervention would be interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation and, in addition, the ensuing chaos would be impossible to control or predict.”

One might say that this really means the world has still not decided what to do with the aftermath of intervention - that is, what would the loss of the al-Assad regime mean in terms of control of Hamas and Hezbolleh and the safety of Israel, as well as in the buffering Iran in the region.

The elephant that nobody wants to dance with is still in the room, and somebody really ought to try to dance or push the beast out of the room so that the world can act without being trampled.

Surely, we can find a way to deal with the Syrian problem before chaos results, not from our actions but from our inability to act.