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The Blog
With the horrors becoming a household story, at least in the west, it is useful to remind ourselves what prominent world figures said about Bashar Assad until very recently.
Turkey is a real force to be reckoned with in the Levant. And if memories serve well, upsetting the Ottoman Turks never proved to be a very intelligent policy. Upsetting modern-day Turks may not differ.
The odds are that even if it takes more time than previously anticipated, Bashar Assad's defeat is going to happen, and there will not be a need to relate to the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising.
What is happening inside Syria is unlike any conflict I've covered in my career.
Very few Syrians have really been loyal to the Ba'ath party, and so no new constitutional gimmicks of Bashar Assad will do the trick. The die for him was already cast.
My people, who have faced death bare-chested and singing, are at this very moment being subjected to a campaign of violence like never before. Our rebel towns face sieges unprecedented in the history of world revolutions.
The Syrian crisis can end only when the current regime leaves, and the fact that in the twilight period of the dictatorship the human price exacted from the Syrian people is enormous and, tragically, is likely to rise dramatically.
The Syrian rebels needed a victory to serve as symbol, and even more so, as a rallying point for the continuation of the uprising. So, the town of Zabadani, so insignificant in the past, is suddenly becoming the flash-point of the Sunni uprising.
According to some reports, the Russian ships which visited the port of Tartus left Syrian waters. Many Syrians hoped that they would take Bashar with them. They did not. Did the dictator miss these boats as well as all of the others ones of late?
5,000 casualties and counting did the trick, and an agreement was signed between the Arab League and Syria to allow Arab observers to come to Syria in an attempt to stop the bloodshed. This is too little, too late.
The ink is not yet dry on the joint Arab League Syria document that was supposed to put an end to the Syrian uprising, and the tanks are back in the streets. And they kill, mainly in the Sunni stronghold of Homs, but not only there.
It is no longer a question if Bashar al-Assad will fall -- it is a matter of when. Now the matter becomes what happens after Assad leaves.
The Syrian regime is getting increasingly desperate and with that comes dubious reports about Bashar Assad's last resort: a regional conflict, involving Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey, NATO and, of course, Israel.
How long will public opinion accept to watch peaceful crowds murdered by tanks, helicopters and snipers? Neither Bashar Assad nor his supporters should receive any moral or diplomatic immunity: a crime is a crime and to turn a blind eye is no longer an option.
As the Syrian regime loses its grip over large parts of the country, the age old Kurdish question seems to get back to the limelight.
According to eyewitnesses, Syrian-American blogger Amina Arraf was abducted and physically assaulted by three armed men in Damascus, Syria, Monday.
