Today’s killing will not stop because we are grieving for victims
of yesterday’s killing, and the world does not stop because there are
elections, even if they happen to be taking place in the U.S. The world is too
dangerous a place to be left without leadership, and like it or not, this is
still America’s role.
Thursday September
13, 2012
Today’s
Death toll: 165. The Breakdown: 66 in
Damascus and Suburbs (8 from the same family), 52 in Aleppo (15 in Al-Bab town),
15 in Daraa, 11 in Idlib, 9 in Deir Ezzor (3 in AlBoukamal), 6 in Lattakia, 4
in Hama and 2 in Homs.
* Effective
the end of this month, Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Special Advisor on
Transition in Syria in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
will be resigning his post to return to the private sector. Ambassador Hof has
been one of the two key USG interlocutors working with the Syrian opposition to
help them form a viable alternative to the Syrian regime and other aspects of
the transition.
News
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
Until now, the Sunni bent of Turkish
foreign policy has suited the geopolitical aims of the United States, as it has
meant that Turkey, abandoning its previous ambition to have “zero problems”
with its neighbors, has joined the camp against Iran. That advantage quelled
whatever misgivings U.S. officials may have harbored about Turkey’s sectarian
drift. But if the United States achieves, with Turkish help, its strategic
objective of ousting Assad, it will need a different kind of Turkey as its
partner for what comes after.
Yes, it's true: Military involvement
in Syria has its risks. But the costs of non-intervention are growing by the
day.
The more the West waits, the more
radicalized the rebels will become, weakening the standing and influence of
moderate forces.
Even if the Pentagon knew the targets,
knew that they contained biological or chemical weapons, knew which specific
agents were hidden at each site, had the right vehicles and ordinance to
penetrate air defenses and fortifications, determined the agents were
sufficiently away from populations and in calm wind conditions, determined
their use or insecurity was imminent and that there was a high-probability that
all of those factors were correct -- well, it's not that simple.
A Necessary Note
Long ago, I learned that “the mere tendency of speech to encourage unlawful
acts is not a sufficient reason for banning it” (Ashcroft vs. Free
Speech Coalition). But, many incidents over the last decade or so have
made me wonder: what if someone is intentionally trying to solicit a
violent response to serve a particular political agenda that has nothing to do
with freedom?
Over the last few years, a pattern has emerged that no one working on
Islam can claim to ignore: when someone says something negative about Islam and
its Prophet somewhere in this world violence will take place. This in itself is
not a sufficient justification for banning anti-Muslim speech. But it should,
by now, encourage us to question the motivations of those who insist on stirring
this hornets’ nest while hiding behind Freedom of Expression? Who are they? Do they,
or some of them, have a common agenda? If so, what is it? Is freedom really something
they all care about it, even if we think that it is not necessarily served by
their actions or words? We need to ask ourselves these questions now, because the
next few years will witness more bloody developments related to faith-politics
in all our societies, and not just the Muslim World.
At this stage, it seems to me that we are dealing with two subsets of
people: the first in the West, the second in the Muslim World, one using Freedom,
the other Dignity as covers for their own political agendas. These people are currently
being given an underserved free pass to spew their venom and advance their agendas,
with little questioning. I think that this is a dangerous trend. The worst of
us are hijacking policy because the rest of us are doing nothing.
I don’t raise these points easily or callously. After all, I have long
presented myself publicly as a heretic, and an apostate, and have made many public
statements and utterances that so many believers would deem offensive, and will
continue to do so. Over the last few years, I have been consistent in defending
what I called the right to heresy and ridicule. Indeed, I believe that people have
the right to criticize and reject their faiths or other people’s faiths even to
the point of ridicule. Muhammad himself, if we are to accept the veracity of existing
historical records, was not above ridiculing the faith system of his tribe. In fact,
this was the main complaint often repeated by tribal elders in the early year. But
he never recanted. Ridicule is a form of showing a strong rejection of something.
It’s a pretty legitimate avenue for expression, and has been used by most if
not all luminaries throughout history.
But it’s a basic right for all and not just the elite. Drawing a red line
at certain figures and belief-systems is not an innocent or legitimate demand, as
extremists would have us believe and, more importantly, as they would have the average
practicing Muslim believe. By putting their belief system beyond the pail of criticism,
advocates of political Islam are trying to put themselves beyond reproach as
well. Unfortunately, because of the spinelessness and duplicity of our
political classes, their recent rise to power in certain countries, and their
control over most Arabic media outlets, they will have their way. The Islamists will finally have their much-awaited
moment in our region and that large-scale they always wanted to allow them to dream
of the return of the Caliphate. The secularist of the right and left will have
to wait and work extremely hard for theirs.
But for now, in Syria, the dictatorial regime of Assad is hanging on
for dear life, while taking the lives of so many.
Video Highlights
A new massacre in Yelda, Damascus, perpetrated by pro-Asasd
militias: some were shot on the spot, some were burnt, some died in the earlier
bombing http://youtu.be/5qv91d0pVVg ,
http://youtu.be/v_CVB0zMZ6E , http://youtu.be/B98GOqdvtjU , http://youtu.be/jgkSlMxpMo0 , http://youtu.be/Wwfxz76ImlI , http://youtu.be/fYfxvD1yrIY , http://youtu.be/4tNj6yJvW48
To the North, MIGs take part in the pounding of the town of Yabroud
http://youtu.be/t044VnJ6hn4 , http://youtu.be/Gx0QDeOgllE , http://youtu.be/hXrZpn7pokI
The pounding of restive neighborhoods in Aleppo City continues http://youtu.be/_UV_beIMpYg
In Idlib Province, Suqur Al-Sham Brigades use missiles to target
a nearby military base http://youtu.be/gqJzaVinmOQ
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