Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Alawites are worried in Syria

From the BBC,
Syria's minority Alawites fear for future
By Kim Ghattas BBC News, Read here.

"Alawites worry they are the ones that are going to eat all the revenge and discrimination"

What the article didn't mention is that about 20 years ago there were widespread reports that Hafez al-Assad's regime killed 70,ooo - 80,000 people including up to 40,000 in the 1982 Hama massacre where people were killed by poison gas.

So yes, the Alawites should be worried and the fact that they are is good news. Change is in the wind in the Middle East. The question is - who will most affect that change? Salafists, Wahhabis, Iranians, or the West?

George Bush deserves a lot of credit for bringing a freedom movement to the Arab world. Because of politics he's not getting it. The invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam Hussein have so far resulted in Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi renouncing terror and giving up his nuclear arms program, The first election in Egypt and a growing freedom movement there, Syria's pullout from Lebanon, democratic elections in Iraq and a growing resistance movement in Iran.

1 comment:

Tiger said...

Yes, I agree. President Bush does deserve more credit.