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Syria: Where Massacre Is a Family Tradition

(Wall Street Journal) Fouad Ajami - Syria rides with the Iranian theocracy and provides it access to the Mediterranean. It is a patron of Hamas and Hizbullah. And still it managed to sell the outside world on the legend of its moderation. Damascus made a mockery of Lebanon's sovereignty, murdered its leaders at will. Yet the Syrians were able to convince powers beyond that their writ was still preferable to the chaos that would engulf Lebanon were they to leave. President Bashar al-Assad and his younger brother Maher, commander of the Republican Guard, are determined to subdue this new rebellion as their father did in Hama - one murder at a time. In today's world it's harder to turn off the lights and keep tales of repression behind closed doors, but the Assads know no other way. Massacre is a family tradition. Only in Syria does your neighbor go to work in the morning and return 11 years later. Only in Syria does a child enter prison before entering school. Only in Syria does a man go to jail for 20 years without being charged and is then asked to write a letter thanking the authorities upon his release.
2011-06-13 00:00:00
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