Writing in The Washington Post, Reporter Marc Fisher gives us a different view of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad:
In Assad’s mind, his presence and control are the only protection from mass killings for his Alawite clan — a Shiite sect that makes up about 12 percent of Syria’s population.And, who would intervene to protect the Alawites? Perhaps Iran, but then how would the rest of us react?
Hat tip to the The Daily Caller.
Regards — Cliff
After centuries of life in the Middle East, I still find it interesting that it all comes down to tribal dominance and warfare. Not so much Europe as they've "graduated" to the nation-state concept which has replaced "tribe" as the fundamental social building block of the region. You may argue that "nationality" is in the European case a form of tribe. And, your argument is valid, but nationality doesn't carry the same impact of tribe, in this case, religious tribe.
ReplyDeleteOne begins to wonder if the American social scene is not becoming more and more rigidly defined by a return to tribe, in spite of legal proclamations that purport to prevent it. Largely speaking, blacks have become more tribal, latinos the same (despite their nationalistic roots), and we have the traditional American tribe, the Indians, but now add to it Asians which tend to be tribally mixed within the larger group...in many cases with a great amount of animosity. The Koreans detest the Japanese, the Chinese detest everyone, the Japanese detest the Koreans, et al simply because they are obstacles to necessary natural resources.
AND, I think the most demonstrative tribal emergence in America today is political party coupled with partisan philosophy. Already the two factions are engaged in a form of palpably violent warfare against each other, the goal not being supremacy over the other, but its eradication. It is difficult to be certain, but currently it would seem that is more the case of the liberal tribe in its disdain for the conservative bunch.
So....I don't really see a great deal of difference between how the Arabs change regimes other than their use of the methodology is much more raw.....at least for now.