So...Syria. What are ya gonna say about that one? A brutal dictator, following in his father's infamous 
footsteps, attempting to crush all opposition to his regime using whatever tactics and force are at his disposal. I can still recall, though the memory is dim, the Kent State shootings in Ohio back during the heyday of the Viet Nam War protests. Four people shot dead by National Guard troops. Just four. And it changed our country forever. The idea that American soldiers would fire on unarmed civilians during a demonstration shook the fabric of our democracy, stunned even the most hardened conservatives. If troops could fire on them, what next? Things changed. Not that America is a Utopian dreamland. But, as a general rule, the military won't gun down protesters without provocation. Nor will the US military shell cities, slaughtering thousands, because the people think it's time to get a new commanded in chief in office. But Syria is not a democracy in any sense of the word, is it? Nor has it ever been. And Assad is no elected public servant. Instead, he is a power-hungry, ruthless dictator who will do whatever he has to in order to stay where he is. Because, for leaders like Assad, it isn't about the people, and it isn't about the country, and it isn't about patriotism - those are just phrases they toss out to appease Western journalists and politicians. No, for men like Assad - and it does usually seem to be men, doesn't it - it's about power - getting it, using it, holding on to it. Power and the amassing of great personal wealth and a life of luxury and ease. 
And what if the people of your country are suffering? What if they're out of work and starving? What if they have to be constantly kept under your thumb or under the threat of detention and torture and murder by secret police? What if you do have to slaughter seven or eight thousand of them in order to cling to your opulent lifestyle? Small price to pay for a man like Assad. As a measure of how far out of touch he is, every other Arab nation has now turned its back on him and condemned his actions and called for him to step down. And these are not nations that are especially known for their lustrous human rights records or their own commitments to democracy. So, if these guys are condemning you, you know that you've slipped way down the evolutionary ladder. At least, you would know if you had any decency or humanity in you. Assad doesn't appear to have either. He's another in a long line of brutal despots - Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Peron, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Duvalier - the list could go on and on. But one thing about all of these men - they all fell, and they fell hard. All despots do. It's only a matter of time. The wave of unrest is growing in Syria, and I predict that soon it will break, and all of Assad's choices will be gone. Let me close by quoting Stephen Vincent Benet:
We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.
We thought the light would increase.
Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it.
Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.
Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon’s teeth.
Our children know and suffer the armed men.
footsteps, attempting to crush all opposition to his regime using whatever tactics and force are at his disposal. I can still recall, though the memory is dim, the Kent State shootings in Ohio back during the heyday of the Viet Nam War protests. Four people shot dead by National Guard troops. Just four. And it changed our country forever. The idea that American soldiers would fire on unarmed civilians during a demonstration shook the fabric of our democracy, stunned even the most hardened conservatives. If troops could fire on them, what next? Things changed. Not that America is a Utopian dreamland. But, as a general rule, the military won't gun down protesters without provocation. Nor will the US military shell cities, slaughtering thousands, because the people think it's time to get a new commanded in chief in office. But Syria is not a democracy in any sense of the word, is it? Nor has it ever been. And Assad is no elected public servant. Instead, he is a power-hungry, ruthless dictator who will do whatever he has to in order to stay where he is. Because, for leaders like Assad, it isn't about the people, and it isn't about the country, and it isn't about patriotism - those are just phrases they toss out to appease Western journalists and politicians. No, for men like Assad - and it does usually seem to be men, doesn't it - it's about power - getting it, using it, holding on to it. Power and the amassing of great personal wealth and a life of luxury and ease. 
And what if the people of your country are suffering? What if they're out of work and starving? What if they have to be constantly kept under your thumb or under the threat of detention and torture and murder by secret police? What if you do have to slaughter seven or eight thousand of them in order to cling to your opulent lifestyle? Small price to pay for a man like Assad. As a measure of how far out of touch he is, every other Arab nation has now turned its back on him and condemned his actions and called for him to step down. And these are not nations that are especially known for their lustrous human rights records or their own commitments to democracy. So, if these guys are condemning you, you know that you've slipped way down the evolutionary ladder. At least, you would know if you had any decency or humanity in you. Assad doesn't appear to have either. He's another in a long line of brutal despots - Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Peron, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Duvalier - the list could go on and on. But one thing about all of these men - they all fell, and they fell hard. All despots do. It's only a matter of time. The wave of unrest is growing in Syria, and I predict that soon it will break, and all of Assad's choices will be gone. Let me close by quoting Stephen Vincent Benet:We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.
We thought the light would increase.
Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it.
Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.
Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon’s teeth.
Our children know and suffer the armed men.
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