{"id":10759,"date":"2011-07-15T13:31:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T17:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=10759"},"modified":"2011-07-15T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T21:02:12","slug":"the-street-will-wash-them-away-amb-ford-biggest-demonstrations-so-far-friday-15-july-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/the-street-will-wash-them-away-amb-ford-biggest-demonstrations-so-far-friday-15-july-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Street Will Wash Them Away,” Amb. Ford – Biggest Demonstrations So Far: Friday 15 July 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I have seen no evidence yet in terms of hard changes on the ground that the Syrian government is willing to reform at anything like the speed demanded by the street protestors. If it doesn\u2019t start moving with far greater alacrity, the street will wash them away.” That was the blunt verdict offered by U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford in a wide-ranging telephone interview with Foreign Policy today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ambassador Ford<\/p>\n

Syrians mount biggest protests so far, 20 killed<\/a> – By Khaled Oweis | Reuters<\/p>\n

“These are the biggest demonstrations so far. It is a clear challenge to the authorities, especially when we see all these numbers coming out from Damascus for the first time,” said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights….<\/p>\n

At least 350,000 people demonstrated in the eastern province of Deir al Zor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syrian forces shot dead two pro-democracy protesters there on Thursday, residents said. …<\/p>\n

Syria’s main ally, Iran, is considering offering $5.8 billion (3.6 billion pounds) in financial help, including a three-month loan worth $1.5 billion to be made available immediately, French business newspaper Les Echos said, citing a report by a Tehran think-tank linked to Iran’s leadership. …<\/p>\n

“We have said Syria can’t go back to the way it was before, that Assad has lost his legitimacy in the eyes of his own people,” U.S. Secretary of States Hillary Clinton told a news conference in Istanbul.
\n“We, along with many others in the region and beyond, have said we strongly support a democratic transition,” she said. “The ultimate destiny of the Syrian regime and Syrian people lies with the people themselves.”… Emboldened by the spreading protests, prominent opposition figures and activists are to hold a conference in Istanbul on Saturday that will be closely coordinated with another conference in Damascus to form a shadow government of “independent, non-political technocrats” to prepare for when Assad loses authority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are the reports<\/strong> of the Syrian TV<\/a> and Addounia<\/a> about today:<\/p>\n

Jad writes:<\/strong> “Every Friday for the last 3 weeks I read the exact same sentence and the problem is that every Friday I see less peaceful people go out in the street with more younger kids joining the same youth stone throwers of the week before, and there numbers are not ‘more’ than the week before, they are steady and in many places less.”<\/p>\n

Unfolding the Syrian paradox<\/a>
\nBy Alastair Crooke in Asia Times<\/p>\n

Can Syria properly be understood as an example of a “pure” Arab popular revolution, an uprising of non-violent, liberal protest against tyranny that has been met only by repression? I believe this narrative to be a complete misreading, deliberately contrived to serve quite separate ambitions. The consequences of turning a blind eye to the reality of what is happening in Syria entails huge risk: the potential of sectarian conflict that would not be confined to Syria alone.<\/p>\n

One of the problems with unfolding the Syria paradox is that there is indeed a genuine, domestic demand for change. A huge majority of Syrians want reform. They feel the claustrophobia of the state’s inert heavy-handedness and of the bureaucracy’s haughty indifference toward their daily trials and tribulations. Syrians resent the pervasive corruption, and the arbitrary tentacles of the security authorities intruding into most areas of daily life. But is the widespread demand for reform itself the explanation for the violence in Syria, as many claim?<\/p>\n

There is this mass demand for reform. But paradoxically – and contrary to the “awakening” narrative – most Syrians also believe that President Bashar al-Assad shares their conviction for reform. The populations of Damascus, Aleppo, the middle class, the merchant class, and non-Sunni minorities (who amount to one quarter of the population), among others, including the leadership of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, fall into this category. They also believe there is no credible “other” that could bring reform.<\/p>\n

What then is going on? Why has the conflict become so polarized and bitter, if there is indeed such broad consensus?<\/p>\n

I believe the roots of the bitterness lie in Iraq, rather than in Syria, in two distinct ways. Firstly, they extend back into the thinking of the Sunni jihadi trend, as advanced by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which evolved in Iraq, surfaced violently in Lebanon, and was transposed into Syria with the return of many Syrian Salafist veterans at the “end” of the Iraq conflict.<\/p>\n

Secondly, and separately, the bitterness in Syria is also linked to a profound sense of Sunni grievance felt by certain Arab states at Sunni political disempowerment following Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki’s rise to power in Iraq, for which they hold Assad responsible…….<\/p>\n

Yet the Salafists understand that the exiles are using them to provoke incidents, and then to corroborate a media narrative of repression by the external opposition; this might actually serve Salafist interests, too.<\/p>\n

These two components may be relatively small in numbers, but the emotional pull from the heightened voice of Sunni grievance – and its need for redress has a much wider and more significant constituency. It is easily fanned into action, both in Syria and in the region as a whole.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia and Gulf states explicitly trade on fears of Shi’ite “expansionism” to justify Gulf Cooperation Council repression in Bahrain and intervention in Yemen, and the “voice” of assertive sectarianism is being megaphoned into Syria too.<\/p>\n

Sunni clerical voices are touting the Arab “awakening” as the “Sunni revolution” in riposte to the Shi’ite revolution of Iran. In March, al-Jazeera broadcast a sermon by Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, which raised the banner of the restoration of Sunni ascendency in Syria. Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar, was joined by Saudi cleric Saleh Al-Luhaidan who urged, “Kill a third of Syrians so the other two-thirds may live.”<\/p>\n

Clearly many of the protesters in traditional centers of Sunni irredentism, such as Homs and Hama in Syria, comprise of aggrieved Sunnis seeking the Alawites ouster, and a return to Sunni ascendency. These are not Salafists, but mainstream Syrians for whom the elements of Sunni ascendency, irredentism and reformism have conflated into a sole demand. This is a very frightening prospect for the quarter of the Syrians that form the non-Sunni minorities….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Economic facts about Syria for the year 2008<\/strong> (source statistics office<\/a>)<\/p>\n