I flunked arithmetic, so I’m not saying much about the Big Deal. But it should be noted that last Friday, 194 Syrians in total died. 123 people were killed in Dara’a alone.
That’s a big number, although Young Dr. Assad has a ways to go before he matches his father’s mass murder of twenty or thirty thousand in Hama back in the glory days of the Syrian Baathist regime.
Which logically leads us to the question that should certainly be asked at tomorrow’s press conferences at the White House, the UN, and the Department of State: what about that presidential statement to the effect that America cannot stand by silently when a tyrant is slaughtering his people?
If it’s good enough for Qadaffi it’s good enough for Assad, don’t you think? Indeed, the Assad case is far more important, because he kills Americans.
But that’s the issue nobody wants to talk about. Not even the ferocious Valkyries (Hillary, Susan Rice and Samantha Power. To which we really should add Valerie Jarrett, the president’s closest confidante this side of Michelle. You know, the woman born in Shiraz, Iran, who is said to speak Farsi?).
Meh, wake me when we get Hama 2.0 ..
Bah, one failed, half-baked intervention at a time!
When I attended my wife’s Medical School Graduation ceremony, 23 years ago, the running joke among her classmates was that they could put a double O in front of their names, since they had just gotten their license to kill.
Dr. Assad is also a Med School graduate. Maybe he didn’t get that it was just a joke!
Well, Syria has no oil to speak of; hence the difference. But, the O’Bumbler might just do something stupid, anyway.
I have friends in Syria, so I’ve kept up with this issue.
They say the media reports in the West are completely exaggerated and the protests have been very small. It’s possible they just don’t have access to information, but the source for these stories always seems to be hearsay or ‘witness reports’ from an activist.
You wouldn’t believe it from a Palestinian activist, why take a Syrian activist at face value? Assad the younger has been a big improvement on Assad the elder – the country has improved and liberalised hugely over his time. For that reason I give him, on balance, more credibility than nameless Arab activists, so I’ll remain concerned but skeptical for now.