Courage Is Not the Absence of Fear but the Triumph Over It - Nelson Mandela

The United States is tightening sanctions against the Syrian al-Assad regime.  The US Treasury Department has announced that the mobile phone operator Syriatel, the Commercial Bank of Syria and the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank have been designated. It said Americans are "generally prohibited from engaging in commercial or financial transactions" with the companies.

CNN reported that Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said the government is "taking aim" at the "financial infrastructure" of President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, criticized for cracking down on peaceful protesters over the last five months.

In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton targeted Syria’s oil industry, telling reporters, "We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history." Mrs. Clinton specifically named China, India and Russia. The International Monetary Fund says that oil and gas make up about a quarter of the Syria's economy.  

Secretary of State Clinton said the United States and its allies are trying to help opposition groups "create a unified vision of what an inclusive participatory democratic system in Syria could look like."

But, the killing goes on. After prayers today, some 16 Syrian protesters were shot after they emerged from their mosques to join marches against the Syrian regime.

In a further escalation, the President of the Syrian Human Rights League, Abdel Karim Rihaoui, was arrested by al-Assad authorities. The UN, the Unites States, Italy, France and Turkey have protested vigorously to the al-Assad regime, demanding his immediate release.

Nelson Mandela said, in speaking of his own political imprisonment, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

We might say that the quotation also applies to all the Syrian marchers, who are risking their lives for freedom.