The names were leaked on January 28 - not announced officially - of seven diplomatic appointees to Chargé d'Affaires posts in various Syrian embassies, including Washington DC and Berlin. Massive uproar ensued as with many Syrian matters; some pushback was justified, some less so.

First, those seven men (only men, as usual) are neither career diplomats nor known to most Syrians. These are political appointments. In itself, it's not unusual in many countries to promise a post to an ally or offer it as a reward to a supporter. It is the prerogative of the minister of foreign affairs, and of the president, even though it usually ruffles feathers when more qualified people are overlooked.

Second, there is skepticism about their relevant experience and qualifications for these jobs, especially in sensitive posts and important capitals. Some of them are rather young, recent graduates, and have little international exposure. Diplomatic work is a mix of many things, not limited to knowing languages and having global experience, but also requiring a flair for communications and protocol, a strong foundation in history, geopolitical acumen, and much more.

Third, there is blatant nepotism and favoritism with the appointment of the Chargé d'Affaires to Berlin, the son of a current minister, with none of the diplomatic or other background that would potentially justify overlooking his father’s connection. This is not sitting well with most Syrians, especially with the huge importance of Germany as a major European power and a current home for over a million Syrians. Such a decision is counterproductive on both sides.

That said, some people err when they point to the huge Syrian communities in the various countries in question, claiming they include many individuals who could be ambassadors or representatives. As Syrians spread around the globe, many have indeed become well-established in influential capitals, known to fellow Syrians and to politicians or media in their respective host countries.

But it's not that simple: they cannot be new ambassadors where they are either. The fact is that it is not the norm to appoint as ambassadors people with dual citizenship - that of the country they represent, and that of the country to which they would be posted. A foreign ambassador also being a national of the receiving state means there would be a clear conflict of interest and divided loyalties, and limitations to diplomatic immunity. While there have been exceptions to this norm, the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations guides many decisions, including that the host country must agree to the appointment.

Many Syrian embassies are currently closed, and even those that are open do not have representation at high levels. These posts must be filled at a time when Syria needs support in re-engagement, reconstruction, and the rebuilding of society and provision of livelihood for its people.

But the government should look at a wider pool of candidates, and accept that embassies cannot be filled exclusively from its close circle. Not every previous diplomat was a hardcore Assadist; there are some who are assets to the country, in addition to former diplomats who very publicly defected during the revolution and made clear statements about their positions the moment they were out of service. They should be part of Syrian diplomatic engagement too.

There are also many capable patriots inside and outside the country, former diplomats and competent professionals in other fields, who would be worthy representatives of Syria - not in their countries of residence, for the most part, but in others they know well and whose language and culture they understand. I hope the foreign ministry and the presidency reconsider not only their current choices, but also the frame of mind in which they have been operating until now.

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 Q&A WITH A HURST AUTHOR - from the November newsletter

Rime Allaf has written and spoken about Syria and the Middle East for over twenty years, including as associate fellow at Chatham House (2004–12). Raised in Europe and America in a diplomatic family, she has contributed to the BBC, Sky News, CNN, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and others. Her book It Started in Damascus is out now.

What are you reading at the moment?

I’ve just finished reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a great recommendation by my daughter who occasionally pushes books she likes my way. As I often gravitate towards nonfiction, I’m trying to revert to having more literature and imagination in my life, and, importantly, more beautiful writing.

If you could time travel, what period would you visit?

2364, when Star Trek: The Next Generation begins. If I could, I would assign a weekly period at schools around the world so kids could watch an episode, and discuss the idea of a unified planet that tries to discover and respect the cultures it encounters. I do have less lofty desires too: those machines that transport us anywhere, and others that magically produce meals on demand and instantly deliver Captain Picard’s beverage of choice: tea, Earl Grey, hot.

What book have you found either the most overrated or underrated?

Not so much underrated as ‘underknown’: Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet which engulfed me when I first read it (in Spanish), a gift from someone who knew my tastes well. Pessoa was a fascinating, multi-faceted and brilliant writer, and this book is full of the mundanities of a serial diarist and the most profound reflections on our existence.

If you could pick three historical figures to come to your dinner party, who would they be?

Simone Veil, whose class and eloquence were legendary, an admirable politician and Auschwitz survivor who pushed ground-breaking women’s rights legislation in France and Europe. Martin Luther King Jr, a magnificent orator, thinker, and principled defender of equality and human rights. And rock legend and Queen guitarist Brian May, because music is art and history and science, and he is all of these too. I think they’d make perfect company.

Your desert island book? 

I always dread these questions about books or music; how can people have such certitude about sticking with one piece, or even one style forever? Under duress, I would choose Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, because it was my first big English literature love.

Printed books or ebooks?

Printed, soft and smooth.

TV series or films?

Films.

Trains or planes?

Trains that glide across the lands.

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It is the 6th monthiversary of Syrian liberation. If you’ve just joined us, here are a few key points on where we stand, from my perspective, since the genocidal maniac fled Syria precipitately on December 8. [TLDR: the situation is encouraging, despite real dangers from foreign enemies and domestic machos, as we wait for reconstruction.]

• The big bloodbath that so many warned would happen did not materialize, despite Iran’s best efforts through Assad regime remnants, and despite the March massacre. There has been no “Afghanization” either, and the new regime is unlikely to lean that way.

• Regional and international support has been immediate and impactful; the sanctions have been lifted, financial aid has been pledged, and Sharaa is being treated as a head of state. I hope this does not lead to complacency from our side.

• The restoration of regular services (electricity and water above all), the building of basic infrastructure, and the provision of a livelihood to more Syrians is still the most urgent priority, as is the facilitation of refugee returns. I think most Syrians will agree it should take precedence over a Trump Tower or the like.

• The machinations of Iran are still the biggest danger to Syrian stability, while the absurdity of Israel’s belligerent actions hurts them as much as it hurts us. They are the only two countries in the region actively working to prevent Syria from stabilizing, and we will not see peace until they are prevented from interfering.

• In the realm of Syrian officialdom, things are still slow and unclear, and the lack of gender representation is unacceptable: there are way too many men and way too few women in practically every decision-making circle. I also think that women are the best placed to describe their own role and place in society, and there is no need for mansplaining 2.0 from certain officials.

• Religious or ideological interference in civil matters is just as unacceptable. For example, there have been scattered checks on men and women seen together in public; their relationship is nobody’s business but theirs. Don’t allow these men to harass and badger free Syrians - rein them in.

• The Great Umayyad Mosque has survived 13 centuries without needing the current administration’s stupid measures to separate men and women. Stop being so ridiculous and don't infringe on our rights to enter our public places, holy or otherwise, as we always have.

• One notably positive impression Sharaa and his team give is that they are listening to others. In most meetings, he holds a pen and jots down notes, and he seems aware of public discontent about various issues. That said, appointments and decisions have been centralized, but I think it is understandable at this stage.

• However, many Syrians are fed up with the lack of transparency and the lack of a clear communication process. They don’t want to have to look for news, rumors and statements on miscellaneous Telegram channels. Get official spokespeople already, and do not let your ministers give what they think are press conferences – they are not. Upgrade your written comms too, it’s still too reminiscent of SANA.

• It is heartening to see real efforts towards progress from several ministers and ministries, especially those who speak directly to the population and measure their promises and manage expectations. Personally, I find poetry less actionable (a point Syrians will understand).

• The absence of one component of Syrian public life over the last few months has me wondering why they are all suddenly so quiet. Where is the political opposition? Where have they all disappeared? Why are the Syrian people not being addressed with political agendas, manifestos, ideas, principles? Are they waiting until the 11th hour just before the elections in less than 5 years?

• So far, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly have been overwhelmingly respected. We must ensure they remain a civil right protected by the constitution along with all the other personal rights, and not a temporary exception.

Onward and upward.

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If Syrians were to mark anniversaries of atrocities committed by the Assad regime and its allies over the past 12 years, we'd have a full calendar and an array of mass murder methods - good old artillery shelling, barrel bombs, airstrikes, basic slaughter with knives, starvation, torture, and of course the chemical weapons that President Obama had told us all would be a red line, but that ended up being a green card for Assad to carry on as long as he focused mainly on traditional mass killings of Syrians who objected to his violent and greedy rule.

This crime against humanity, committed ten years ago, continues to generate copious amounts of disinformation and laughable propaganda by the usual selective "anti-imperialist" groupies of the so-called resistance front, who dismiss not only solid evidence but also survivor testimonies.

Despite the obligatory commemorative statements made by those who at least condemned the regime for this atrocity in Douma, some actually wish we'd all forget about that chemical massacre (and other non-chemical ones) and just get on with it, in the name of stability for the Syrian people, with the refrain that Syria is now safe, the war is over, refugees can come back, and a number of absurdities of the sort.

We already know all the main elements of the chemical massacre of August 2013, whose perpetrator is now again welcomed on some red carpets and addressed as Mr. President.

With a mountain of investigative writing on the subject, and many Syrian perspectives on the need for justice, and on why they can't and won’t give up, there can be no turning the page when hundreds of children died gasping for air, foaming at the mouth as Assad’s Sarin filled their little lungs. For Syrians, justice is still delayed, and still denied.

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After living in Moscow for a couple of years on the cusp of Putin‘s era, Russian affairs were always on my radar. I followed closely again since the 2011 Syrian revolution and Putin's new role as kingmaker. For me, Putin is a bit different from the one I often see described.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, I find myself disagreeing with some comments on Putin’s alleged state of mind, expectations, or position. I wish I could believe that he now feels cornered and taken aback by events, but I don’t – quite the opposite, in fact.

I don't think Putin is lying or delusional when he claims things are going according to plan. He never expected Ukrainians to welcome his troops with flowers, nor did he underestimate the capacities of Ukraine‘s army. A quick victory would have been the surprise for Putin.

In fact, this is one of the reasons for Putin’s hateful obsession with a democratic Ukraine, and its people who rejected their Soviet past with no hint of nostalgia remaining. Putin knows full well that going back to Russia is the last thing most Ukrainians want.

Armed resistance may be tougher than expected, but the loss of Russian troops in the line of duty is only problematic for Putin if numbers spiral out of control, something he believes he can avoid when Ukraine is occupied, and when killed troops are feted as heroes back home.

Unlike with far-away Syria, which most Russians didn’t know, care about or follow, the war and Putin’s justifications to invade Ukraine have been steadily seeping into public Russian discourse, convincing many that Russia is the victim and that it needed protecting.

As seen in other authoritarian states, nationalistic frenzy is much easier to whip up when a different history and narrative is fed consistently to restless people who need a common outlet for their frustrations. It’s "the others" who are conspiring and forcing us to react.

Those who don’t buy it and dare protest are "traitors" who are thrown in jail for 15 years – or worse. Again, nothing Putin didn’t expect and nothing his security and intelligence haven’t been dealing with for over two decades. For Russians, dissent is lethal.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees crossing borders into the EU is also going to plan. Putin revels in this chaos and misery, and in watching Europeans struggle with the prospect of a new immigration crisis, while exposing themselves as hypocrites in their humanitarianism.

Putin knew there would be no NATO intervention, whether with a no-fly-zone or more. His bullish statements only resulted in more western leaders hurrying to say out loud that they could do nothing for a non-NATO member. Music to Putin’s ears, and a green light to hit harder.

While the massive extent of the sanctions is probably one major factor not going according to Putin’s plan, it also serves to convince his hostage population of alleged Russophobia - they hate us because we are right, they hate our noble values and history, etc.

What’s also not going to plan is Zelensky and those he commands, making many hearts swell when we see and hear them. In a world bereft of leaders in the true essence of the word, we dare to hope that the one good guy will win and save his people, and justice will prevail.

But how long can you fight a mighty attacker who has no qualms about besieging a population until submission, or about pounding civilian areas into the ground, knowing that no help is forthcoming? Brute force worked in Syria, and it will work anywhere Putin is not stopped.

Putin doesn‘t care about winning a social media war with democratic audiences. He gets his kicks from his tankies, assorted groupies, and the usual knee-jerk anti-US, anti-West folks who - unironically - describe themselves as anti-imperialists.

Putin does have only yes-men around him. He knows it. When they hesitate, he makes them squirm publicly. When he sits far from his advisors, it’s theater, not paranoia due to the pandemic isolation. Putin loves watching everyone worriedly trying to analyze his moods and moves.

Putin never was a great strategist, but he is certainly not stupid. What he is, and has proven repeatedly, is that he is an opportunist who has known, until now, how to balance risk and gain. When given an inch, he’ll take miles and wait for the next opportunity. He has time.

When Obama refused to act when he could and should have, after Assad’s first chemical massacre of 2013, Putin jumped in with both feet. When Obama made sure others would not help Syrians, he effectively handed power over to Russia. Creeping Putinization followed.

And while Obama was focused on the nuclear deal at the expense of all else, Putin brought in his army and his air force to Syria, took over a port on the Mediterranean, and made sure millions of refugees brought Europe to near paralysis. Brexit didn’t happen in a void.

The only power Putin has been careful not to cross is Turkey; it is only because of Erdogan’s own stakes in Syria that Russia hasn‘t yet completely destroyed Idlib. When Turkey shot down a Russian jet over Syria in 2015, it took Erdogan months to apologize. Putin did nothing.

Putin is only strong if those who are stronger act like they are weak. When the powerful stop pretending that they are incapable of reacting to Putin’s provocations, we will be able to say Putin has blundered with the folly of invading Ukraine.

I pray Ukraine survives Putin’s criminality, that sanctions and the right military support help make Putin’s army retreat. But I also pray that Russians survive the hardship coming their way. They don’t deserve it, and it will be much, much harder for them to get rid of Putin.

Putin is now betting there‘s little the world can do apart from the sanctions that will hurt Russians and others too. Until now, he has been right, and when he is appeased by assurances there’s nothing else to do, he is emboldened. And there is nothing delusional about that.

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This was the cover of The Economist on August 31, 2013. The Assad regime had just committed its largest massacre to date, suffocating some 1,700 Syrians to death with chemical weapons in Ghouta, near Damascus. The rest is bloody history, and not just for Syria.

But had the powers leading the response at the time - US, UK, France – heeded the advice in this editorial (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/08/31/hit-him-hard) and neutralized Assad's air force and WMDs, Syria and the world might have been a very different place today.

14+ million Syrians – over half the population – wouldn't have been displaced. Most of Syria would not have been carpet bombed. Authoritarian, populist leaders might not have stoked people's fears so easily. The Brexit referendum could have gone 52% - 48% ... the other way.

The collective abdication of responsibility allowed the ongoing catastrophe to reach incomprehensible proportions. Red lines evaporated, and with them accountability for crimes against humanity, encouraging an emboldened Assad to increase the pace and scope of the mass slaughter.

There is enough blame to go around for this appeasement of mass murderers and their allies, and for the abandonment of people left helpless in the face of monstrosity, but, above all, the responsibility lays with Barack Obama and Democrats, and with Ed Miliband and Labour.

Now, with these superpowers' retreat from Afghanistan, there was much stupefaction at their incompetence, short-sightedness - even after 20 years - and abandonment. I also saw schadenfreude from some who believe all intervention is evil - but only when it comes from "the West."

When opposition to intervention of any kind screeches to a halt when it's Russia, Iran or China intervening, or when revolution against the severe excesses of democracies is good but revolution against authoritarian regimes is bad, the short-sightedness is even more dangerous.

There was a lot wrong with the recent world order. But a new world order where ideologue, authoritarian, violent regimes are given carte blanche to do anything they want to the people they are supposed to govern, under the convenient concept of sovereignty, is terrifying.

It can't be either or. There must be a way to impose the Responsibility to Protect doctrine whenever it is needed, whether we want to help or not. We don't choose to assist a person in danger we happen to pass; we have to, legally and morally, on common ground or on private property.

One of the worst sensations is knowing that someone could have saved you, but chose not to. And what doesn't kill you doesn't necessarily make you stronger: it can make you more bitter, radical, desperate, with nothing left to lose - whether your torturer wears a suit or a robe.

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I wrote a long thread on Syria one year ago for the 20th anniversary of its official metamorphosis into a hereditary republic. Since then, none of the basic issues or root problems have changed, but recent developments would make you think otherwise.

Bashar Assad claims he's been “re-elected” – though he was never elected in the first place. The genocidal maniac got more votes than there are eligible voters in the areas he, Putin and Khameini control. It's a miracle in the face of the galactic conspiracy.

If you're even remotely familiar with Syria, you know there's been no such thing as elections since the Baath’s military coup in 1963. The farce just got more blatant with the Assads.

Meanwhile, normalization with the 21st century's most murderous regime now seems to be all the rage. Several countries are openly flirting with the genocidal maniac, teasing him with the prospect of reopening their Damascus embassies at the chargé d’affaires level … for now.

Some Europeans now pretend all is well in Syria, so they can send Syrians back there. Adopting a post-war narrative that is music to Assad, Putin and Khameini’s ears, they find Damascus safe enough for terrified Syrians who had fled, but not safe enough for Danish diplomats.

Gulf countries, which never welcomed Syrian refugees in the first place, are openly playing footsie with Bashar Assad. Bring him back to the Arab League, they say. Enough with this revolutionary liberty nonsense, they pray. Amen to that, nod other authoritarians near and far.

Putin’s allies are all having a grand time doing what they do best, because why not? Forcing civilian airliners to land and arresting passengers - who then "confess" great conspiracies on Belarusian television - is now a thing. New precedents. What could possibly go wrong?

Still, the Biden administration couldn’t be less interested in Syria or in the havoc the regime created in the region and beyond. No one in DC got the memo that what happened in Syria did not, and will not stay in Syria; on this, apart from the issue of Iran, Biden = Trump = Obama.

The Iranian regime is biding its time, waiting for the new nuclear deal and its fringe benefits: every risk it has taken, every investment it has made paid off. Hezbollah reigns supreme, demographic engineering changed Syria forever, and IRGC leverage over Iraq is unparalleled.

The “international community” claims helplessness and laments Syrian suffering, but the butcher of Syria - proven perpetrator of chemical massacres, carpet bombing, sieges, torture, and annihilator of hospitals - has joined the executive board of the World Health Organization.

Seven years of bad luck? Syrians have endured 21 under Bashar Assad, yet are told to swallow more of the same as the genocidal maniac's malignant narcissism reaches new dizzying heights. Thing is, those darn Syrians still believe they deserve a life of dignity. Imagine that.

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Nearly 10 years on, with enough evidence to the contrary to fill history books for decades, I have just heard "experts" still speaking of an imaginary US push for regime change in Syria and explaining that this has to stop.

They are devastated that American sanctions are what's really hurting the nice Syrian people who don't seem to have suffered a bit from Assad's barrel bombs, chemical weapons of mass destruction, mass displacement, relentless Russian airstrikes - nor were Syrians hurt by, God forbid, the "exaggerated" killing machines of Hezbollah and Iran.

No no, Syrians would be just fine and dandy if the world embraced Assad and just stopped bugging him with conditions like stop killing your people and we will lift sanctions, or pressured him by saying liberate your 10s of 1000s of prisoners to lift sanctions. That's counterproductive, we are told by these new groupies of the just-let-Assad-be-Assad club as they advocate, without the slightest sense of irony, that we need "responsible" policies.

Such “responsible” statecraft notions have no time to spare for minor principles like accountability, justice, or even agency, let alone intangibles like the dignity Syrians have been clamoring for at the highest cost imaginable. As for democracy, it's just not for the natives.

When we ask for changes in US policy on Syria, amongst others, it’s certainly not to go from bad to worse. If letting Assad live and let die is the top agenda being promoted by such self-proclaimed responsible policymakers, we have much bigger problems than we ever imagined.

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I wrote this thread of 30 tweets on the occasion of Bashar Assad's ascent to the Syrian throne 20 years ago.

20 years ago today, I was at a Damascus hair salon when an assistant rushed to tell us Hafez Assad had died. What I saw and lived in the next days and years is set in stone in my memory. This thread is but a glimpse of life in Syria then and the slow descent into implosion.

Hafez started preparing the ground for 2nd son Bashar in 1994 when original heir Bassel was killed in a car crash. While Bashar's meteoric rise in army ranks and early public appearances in late 90s prepared people, Hafez was busy clearing regime ranks of potential contenders.

Big names Syrians had grown up fearing, from Hekmat Shehabi to dreaded head of intelligence Ali Douba, were officially retired to ensure only the most loyal and least ambitious men stayed. Bashar never had to fight an "old guard" in later years as some clueless media claimed.

Within an hour of Hafez's death, parliament held a special televised session to amend the constitution. In 5 minutes, the required age for the presidency was lowered from 40 to 34, Bashar's age. We all watched in stunned silence: we expected it, but it was still humiliating.

When Bassel died, Hafez Assad forced the entire country to shut down & mourn for 40 days. So when Hafez died, Syrians went into self-preservation mode: within a couple of hours, streets emptied & shops closed, with people at home glued to TVs, trying to interpret developments.

Turns out Bashar couldn't care less if people grieved "the eternal leader" as long as they cheered "the hope" - the cute moniker his folks spread for us to repeat. Bashar was devoid of emotion, even flippant at the funeral, a bit ungrateful considering his hefty inheritance.

The formalities of Bashar's "election" took place the following month, and many would have wanted the story to end with "and we all lived happily ever after" ... but we didn't. To begin with, the personality cult imposed under Hafez paled in comparison to what Bashar demanded.

Hafez liked being feared, but Bashar was desperate to be admired. Over the years, he sidelined any Syrian personality who came even close to being popular or, God forbid, to outshine the king. Old wooden Baathist dinosaurs are still his core ministers & advisors for a reason.

To be admired, Bashar strived to be cool. The rumors about work ethics, love of technology and humble demeanor, the wife, the living quarters, the interviews, the cafes, the modernity, the posters magically appearing "against his will" - all meant to drip with coolness.

Before Hafez died, I was one of the first few thousand Syrians to buy a mobile phone. For that privilege, in addition to the cost of the phone (illegal to bring one from abroad) + various fees, I paid $1,200 to Syriatel just to have a number. That's how Rami became cool too.

As portfolio manager of the Assad and Makhlouf clans, Rami was the most visible and most powerful "businessman." But all the children of the Hafez buddies became the new business people of the Bashar era - not that it's a feat of entrepreneurship with no competition allowed.

The so-called economic opening was merely an erratic crony capitalist economy so a few could live it up. As they watched mounting obscene wealth around them, Syrians were beginning to face rising prices, diminishing means, a dismal housing situation and a transport nightmare.

From the start, Bashar claimed the economy would be reformed; if this was reform, imagine the rest. There were a couple of private banks, some media, a few private schools - none of which had an effect on the lives of ordinary Syrians. On the political front, empty words.

Some dared to call Bashar's bluff. In September 2000, 99 brave Syrian intellectuals signed a statement asking him to lift the state of emergency (in place since 1963), free political prisoners, allow freedom of speech ... if you know Syria, you know where this is going.

Syrians waited for these basic freedoms and rights for an entire decade, and paid dearly for it. While Rami scooped up every possible penny made in or coming into Syria, Bashar was scooping up Syrians who dared to speak out and populating jails with prisoners of conscience.

The Damascus Spring, as we call it, turned rapidly into a Damascus Winter. Many old opposition figures who the world discovered in 2011 had been prisoners of conscience for years - under father and then son - for “weakening national sentiment.” Defying Bashar was verboten.

Abroad, Bashar played statesman with disastrous effect, giving absurd interviews pontificating on world affairs. A mansplainer of the first order, he tediously denied claims about any action by saying "it's not logical." He riled up the US by sending fighters to Iraq ...

… even though he voted for Resolution 1441 on his Security Council stint, giving the US the unanimity it had sought and the justification it needed to invade Iraq a few months later (Bashar always wants to be wanted, and if that doesn't work he makes trouble to be noticed).

And then there was Lebanon, which he had been messing up since the day he inherited his realm. In 2004, he forced the Lebanese parliament to extend then-president Emile Lahoud for 3 years (unconstitutionally), and in February 2005, with his ever stronger ally Hezbollah, ...

... he killed Rafic Hariri, setting in motion a sequence of further assassinations and upheaval, and the forced retreat of Syrian soldiers who had been there since the 1970s. When brave Syrians dared to stand with their Lebanese counterparts, he threw them in jail, again.

Syrians watched Lebanese protesters publicly insult Bashar, shaking the regime for the first time. That is when the "menhebak" (we love you) posters started appearing, and when the regime began peddling Syrianism (basically, Syria First) to replace Baathist Arabism.

After the hasty Lebanon retreat, Bashar promised Syrians big changes were coming. We were not holding our breath, but when he then convened a Baath Party Congress (the first since 2000), some again dared to hope the regime had finally learned its lesson. Silly them.

The Congress declared that the economy (officially socialist for people, capitalist for ruling elite) would henceforth be known as a "social market economy," whatever that means. Poverty continued to rise, the velvet society continued to sip frappuccinos at the Four Seasons.

Ostracized by the entire region and the world, Bashar was saved by Hezbollah's infamous May 2008 assault on Beirut which led to a reconciliation agreement sponsored by Qatar, leading itself to his reintegration into the international community and an invitation to Paris.

The bigger Bashar’s head got on a regional level, the more his actions increased Syrian despair and disparity. And when he declared in early 2011 to WSJ that Syria was immune to the Arab spring, the children of Deraa pointed to the naked emperor and wrote: it's your turn.

Syrians endured suffocating hardship over decades of Assad tyranny before they started the revolution - a revolution in every sense of the word. To understand this seemingly sudden unleashing of the free Syrian spirit, you need to know about the decade that preceded it.

This thread merely scratches the surface of the trajectory of Bashar Assad and Syria, which I researched for years at Chatham House, and wrote and spoke about in hundreds of articles, talks and interviews. Expertise on Syrian affairs is needed, above all from Syrians.

Hafez Assad bequeathed him a hereditary republic; Bashar took this massive trust fund and destroyed it over the course of 20 years, little by little at first through reckless abandon, and then with every weapon of mass terror and destruction.

This gluttonous, incompetent, barbaric regime is unreformable, proving repeatedly it will use all means at its disposal to maintain its violent power, 50 years on and counting. Since March 2011, most Syrians have sacrificed everything to liberate themselves, with little help.

As the world rethinks its selective commitment to fighting injustice and upholding human rights, after the exposure of horrific crimes on unarmed civilians, it should help Syrians get justice too. For that to happen, Bashar Assad's 20th anniversary in power must be his last.

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I could swear my boots look sad, sensing that the lockdown’s extension until the end of April means our seasonal affair was cut short this year. As I telepathically reassure them and myself that our time will come again, I steal a glance at the shoes which patiently await their turn to strut their heels around Vienna’s famed café society, upon our conditional liberation, and start imagining the outfits to accompany them.

Random thoughts about footwear and fashion, which may also change as we gradually migrate our work to a digital environment, are some of the mundane things getting my mind off our anxiety-inducing reality. When I scroll (or rather, to borrow a perfect expression I read somewhere, when I terror scroll) various platforms aimlessly from one piece of depressing news to another, I cling to the confidence that our scientists will find a vaccine, and that adapting our habits is a positive necessity.

For me, most of the guidance to contain the spread of this damn virus is welcome. I’ve always hated having to lend anyone a pen. When I use the restroom at my place of work, I touch nothing (think Sheldon Cooper level, really) and use paper towels to open doors, mentally judging people I don’t even know for not washing their hands well or long enough. I’ve taught my daughter since she was little that we don’t sit on our beds with clothes we’ve worn outside, and I love that our winter gloves protect us from a lot more than the cold. I was never enthusiastic about shaking hands or kissing random people. My air travel and public transportation modus operandi, whenever possible, revolves around the mantra of “touch only when necessary.”

So while I wholeheartedly hug and kiss people I care for and conveniently forget about germs when I’m book or clothes shopping, I do like this sudden global fixation with hygiene and the reassessment of the need for endless and pointless meetings.

Of course, that doesn’t take the current stress away, and watching sitcoms – one of my tried and tested methods of decompressing – hasn’t appealed to me in these circumstances. However, over the past few weeks, it is my eternal, internal Trekkie which has helped me hang on to notions of a better future as I re-watch, for the umpteenth time, all the seasons of one of my favorite shows ever.

My brothers and I grew up watching Star Trek reruns in the US, with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock becoming a big part of our ideal world. Years later, they were joined by Captain Picard, Commander Riker and Lt. Data as I became (and still am) seriously hooked on Star Trek “The Next Generation.” In each episode, the endearing characters would face dilemmas and ponder moral and ethical questions over which I would obsess for days on end. This appealing world was a universe where character defines people, where poverty is eradicated and money is meaningless, where there is mutual respect for “the other” and the other’s way of life, where greed and hatred are rejected, where the sense of right and wrong is a guiding light, where the pursuit of knowledge and meaning drives humans and most other races, and where logic and empathy cohabit comfortably.

I’ve often advocated that watching Star Trek should be mandatory at schools and universities everywhere, and I think it can rekindle an aspiration for ideals at any age. Star Trek does make you dream, but above all it makes you think, and we all need to rethink so much about our lives.

Which brings me back to our worldly greeting problems, to which Star Trek offers the best solution even for non-Trekkies. Instead of handshakes, kisses and bearhugs with people you don’t necessarily want to touch, instead of namaste which necessitates two free hands and might be misinterpreted as purely faith-based by some, instead of a hand on the heart or chest which I would reserve to convey appreciation or respect to someone, it’s only logical that we adopt the Vulcan salute and all it stands for.

Live long and prosper.

Originally published here: https://everythingafter50.com/2020/04/08/post-25-coronavirus-and-a-global-perspective/

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You will never get Syria without knowing what it felt like to watch Abdelbasset Sarout, the goalkeeper of Karama Football Club, leading Homs in song for freedom and dignity under Assad's savage military assault, as young Homsis swayed in unison chanting after him. Rest in peace, my heart weeps for what they took from you, from them, from us all.

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In September 2011, the bold, beautiful and brilliant youth of Daraya, epitome of dignified non-violent activism, brandished flowers and distributed cold water bottles to the security forces facing them.

Among them were Yahya and Maan Cherbaji, and Ghiath Matar, arrested for daring to defy Assad. Ghiath's sadistically tortured body was thrown in front of his pregnant wife's door a few days later. After seven agonizing years waiting for news of their beloved disappeared, the Cherbaji family was informed today that Yahya was executed in January 2013, and that Maan finally succumbed to his tormentors in December 2013.

These Little Ghandis were eliminated by the savage regime, one by one, until there were no more flowers left, not even to throw on their graves.

They killed the peaceful, they killed the thoughtful, and along the way they also killed the world's conscience. Rest in peace, all of you, and may our abandoned prisoners of conscience find relief from their Assadist hell as we continue to drown in our collective great Syrian sorrow.

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The images and clips of last night's rain of hell on Syrians defy description. Dozens, of which many small children, were crushed under rubble in Armanaz, Idlib, and elsewhere in the desolate, God-forsaken areas where Syrians have been left to die, at the mercy of their exterminators' relentless airstrikes.

Some children cried for help while others will never make another sound, their tiny bloodied, limp bodies carried out by our heroic White Helmets rescuers. The scene of one father trying to pull out his small daughter as she sobbed and screamed in terrified agony will make the toughest of you break down uncontrollably.

Intense Russian airstrikes have not only continued in Syria, unabated, but have in fact intensified in the so-called de-escalation zones. If you're not Syrian, you probably haven't heard about it because when atrocities and massacres are not committed by ISIS or "the West," they barely merit a mention any longer, and self-righteous, anti-imperialist defenders of "causes" and assorted human rights can pretend not to have noticed these "alleged" incidents as Putin and Assad defend themselves from terrorists like this one.

Idlib, to where tens of thousands have been forcibly transferred by the Assad regime, is being annihilated like Aleppo before it. Bloody murder, on a scale unimagined, unprecedented and unparalleled. The Syrian genocide goes on, and on, and on.

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Moral of the story: what happens in Syria does not stay in Syria.

Some timeline highlights from the Pandora’s box that keeps giving:

Evil maniac begins genocide of Syrians, unperturbed …
=> Iran and its resistance minions obligingly move in and help
=> 5+ million Syrian refugees shake the neighborhood
=> Obama proudly ignores own red line on chemical massacre and plays golf
=> Putin and Lavrov waltz into Syria “conflict resolution”
=> Russia invades Ukraine and annexes Crimea, Obama plays golf
=> Free Syrian Army fights ISIS alone in Deirezzor and Raqqa, pleading in vain for help
=> Obama gives Iran a nuclear deal and throws in Syria, then plays golf
=> Refugees cross the Mediterranean or die trying
=> Schengen begins to fade as populist parties become nouveau hip
=> Putin coronated Tsar of Syria over the dead bodies of more than half a million Syrians
=> Global terror strikes, refugees blamed
=> #Brexit and #Camerout after #HoferNearlyIn
=> Markets hectic, Pound Sterling falls, billions vanish
=> Boris The Menace and Donald The Trumpet make themselves great again
=> Referendumania and divorceatons spread, walls go up
=> Evil maniac continues genocide of Syrians, unperturbed

Stay tuned.

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Having spent the greater part of the last couple of days at Westbahnhof, and at the border at Nickelsdorf on Sunday, I hesitate when I claim emotional tiredness after having heard Syrian refugees' stories about their long road to Vienna and seen the state they were in. What they have lived is incredible, and painful to hear. Every person and every family stays with you, and you find yourself wondering how much more they will endure, and how many more will follow in their path.

This week was better organized overall, and the many Austrian volunteers, donors and helpers who continue to show such solidarity and compassion are truly a shining example of the power of civil society, especially when coordinated with and facilitated by authorities. Metal barriers have been brought in to organize arrivals and departures, and Platform 1 has become the transit area. In the midst of the main arrival hall, a new makeshift area for children to rest, snack and play amid a pile of plush toys has been set up and the scenes are heartwarming.

The Caritas operation nerve center has begun to issue badges for volunteers, listing spoken languages. This enables paramedics and police to call for help easily, especially when the inevitable rush happens as long awaited trains to Munich are about to leave, and volunteers are asked to explain the process - and to calm rising tensions amongst exhausted people. There have been slight scuffles and complaints about people cutting the long lines and positioning themselves in front; police and volunteers always try to bring families with young children to the front, but young men travelling alone are faster and less patient, especially when their journey has begun way beyond Syria.

Arrivals to the station can also be chaotic; most refugees are now mostly being brought in by buses from the border (yesterday alone there were 50 buses and 2,500 refugees, and many had not arrived by the time I left), and they are often unsure about what will happen next to them. Cordons of police officers line the platform, and volunteers guide them to the area where food and drinks - and another long waiting period - await them. Yesterday, a lovely choir of some 20 adults moved along the platform singing inspirational songs to bemused refugees. And when Austrian President Heinz Fischer made an unannounced visit as well, thanking officials and volunteers and chatting with some refugees, I can say with great confidence that at least 99% of them had no idea who he was.

The badges also encouraged incoming refugees to ask for help. While most Syrians I met were hoping to start a new life in Germany, many are desperate to know the rules and logistics of asylum requests in different countries, asking a myriad of questions which we simply could not answer, to their frustration. It would be so helpful if relevant NGOs could establish a reliable information base, allowing refugees to understand legal positions across the EU. Refugees arriving here are welcomed with huge posters from the City of Vienna telling them “You are safe” in English and in Arabic, and volunteers continue to explain that they will be taken by train to Munich for free, should they wish to continue beyond Austria.

I happened to spend quite some time taking newly arrived people to the Ambulatorium and translating for the paramedics, whose professionalism and kindness with refugees is to be saluted. At Nickelsdorf on Sunday, we were lucky to have an extended conversation with the official spokesperson of the Austrian police force, who told us of many cases of exhaustion, of extended walking and falling (and worse) related bruising and aches, but also of dehydration and lack of nutrition (that day alone, for instance, 7 small children had to be hospitalized because of severe dehydration), and Austrian medics at the border have been taking care of the most urgent cases.

Vienna doctors were busy too. The situation in Macedonia and especially Hungary has gotten much worse over the last week, the effect evident on the faces of many. On Thursday, l was led to a small Syrian boy who had headaches and had been feverish for several days. I touched his forehead and went straight into the anxiety mode most mothers feel when a child is that hot. After l accompanied little Ahmad and his mother Nour to a doctor, she wept on my shoulder as she recounted their ordeal from Bab Al Hawa to Vienna - from Assad's bombs to a camp in Turkey, to a terrifying sea crossing, to the long journey through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and finally through Hungary. And that is when Nour cried.

If there is one common denominator to the conversations I have had with Syrians refugees this week, and I am sure this is the case with most volunteers, it is their shock at the surreal violent and degrading treatment they received in Hungary. Most thought we didn’t know, that this was not being reported in the media, and they were shaken to their core and bursting to tell those who would listen. I took a young woman limping on one crutch to the paramedics; she had been pushed to the ground in Hungary and seemed to be in great pain. Dima, however, categorically refused to let the Viennese doctor touch her swollen leg (to his shock), traumatized by the Hungarian nurses and doctors who handled her roughly and rudely. After she shared some shocking details with me (including bruises on her arms after they woke her up by pinching her), I asked her father to convince her that she was in good hands here and that I would be by her side the whole time; he was in his late sixties and trembled with indignation as he gave me details of “what they did to us in Hungary” - a sentence I heard repeatedly. Dima looked for me half an hour later, still in pain and still traumatized, and told me her father was now crying. After holding back for so long, he was finally able to break down, in the safety of Vienna.

He was not the only grown man crying. On one side of the platform, a Syrian man tried unsuccessfully to control his tears as he told us how he was separated from his wife and children as they were led into buses. This refugee had no phone and could only wait, and save for a few comforting words, I could only think of our own impotence in the face of a catastrophe of this magnitude. How many Syrians will be looking for family members across the world in the years to come, just as people, Jews in particular, did for years after WWII?

While despair was palpable in many refugees, so was a definite sense of determination in most. Two young couples (from Aleppo and from Hama) chatted with me about their plans in Germany. One man was a mechanical engineer, the other a graphic designer, and as their pregnant wives sat by a pillar resting their aching backs, both told me they couldn’t wait to settle down, learn German and start anew. In a world where there are inevitably haves and have-nots, they were clearly of the former, turned into the latter when barrel bombs pushed them into exile with a only small bag to their name. Likewise, a grandmother from Deraa tearfully explained her family had no choice but to flee the barrel bombs (“al barameel”), worried that one of her disappeared sons would not be able to find them. Her young grandson listened to us chatting as he munched on some peanuts handed out by volunteers; I told him that he looked like a very bright boy who would learn German quickly and do very well in school; he nodded smilingly and, as any Syrian would, offered me some of his peanuts.

Each refugee is a story of hardship, of tragedy, of a desperate attempt for safety and dignity and of hope that the next generation would at least have a chance for a normal life. The one who will stay with me forever is Loujeyn, a little 8-year old Syrian girl from Damascus whose little bag sank into the sea during a storm, taking with it the few possessions she had chosen. She had been in the same clothes for weeks, and was given some old sneakers when her wet ones finally gave out. She was sneezing, was clearly exhausted, and incredibly sweet as she patiently waited to go on to Germany while her mother Salwa recounted their journey to me; still outraged about what was done to them Hungary, she told me it had been the first time since they left Damascus that she had nearly regretted leaving.

I felt an immediate attachment to them, perhaps because Loujeyn was nearly my own daughter’s age, and perhaps because Salwa was a fellow Damascene with a shared environment and roots, and I arranged to have some clean clothes and a Barbie doll brought to her later that day and to Loujeyn’s priceless smile. As I prepared to leave them, Salwa reached into her handbag and tried to give me the one “luxury" item still with her: a small bag of Arabic coffee, carefully wrapped in plastic. She was pained when I refused, insisting “please, it’s from Syria.” I told her it would make me much happier to know she will drink it when she has a roof over her head, safe from the Air Force Intelligence unit which had taken her older son and prompted the family to flee when they got him out, and that one day I would accept her hospitality in Germany.

As I left the station, my badge already removed, I suddenly noticed many more people than usual begging. A young woman who appeared to be Gypsy approached me; out of habit after talking to so many refugees in the last week, I asked her where she was from as I reached into my purse. She replied: Syria. I was stunned for a second and furiously told her: No you’re not! Ask for money but do not pretend to be a Syrian refugee.

I make no apology for being protective of the people who have shown so much dignity throughout their ordeal, and who have endured every calamity as most of the world watched in silence. That others should exploit their plight adds insult to injury and distorts the reality, and we have gone from having to explain where Syria is, to having our mostly useless passports stolen, our identities borrowed and our tragedy abused. And yet, even in their time of need, Syrians' generosity - and generosity of spirit - remained legendary.

It took a flood of refugees and dozens of encounters with my Syrian compatriots in the most unexpected of circumstances, here where they saw real solidarity and compassion for the first time in weeks, but I am beginning to think that the cliche just may be right: Vienna really is the heart of Europe.

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Two kinds of savages have stoned Syrians to death: those, more recently, who claim to do it in the name of God, in defiance of His commandments, and those who proclaim they do it in the name of Bashar Assad, under his commandment.

Selective outrage, both by Assad loyalists and by international watchers, ensured that videos filmed by savage Assad shabbihas themselves as they tortured and stoned young men to death were either deemed "unverifiable independently” or conveniently ignored; videos filmed by savage ISIS warriors as they stoned a young woman to death, in contrast, have covered virtual walls and generated repulsion, as indeed they should.

Assad's savages have a head start of several years and a few hundred thousand victims, but ISIS is just as happy to starve, torture, stone, butcher and bomb - if not gas - our people to death. The Assad regime and ISIS are both savages, and they must both be stopped.

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Just between us, we Syrians for the Revolution ...

Without rehashing the problems we’ve all discussed amongst ourselves for the better part of two years on our role in supporting the revolution, we should now pause to consider why even a huge chemical massacre, which killed some 1500 in minutes, resulted in the usual general apathy and even aggressiveness from the chattering classes.

There was nearly nothing the political opposition could have done to alter the course of events in Syria, or to influence the stunning developments in countries which have a stake in it. Without powers to support the revolution in real terms - politically, financially, militarily, or humanistically -, coming out of the nightmare imposed by the Assad regime seems impossible.

The Coalition and other opposition cannot really be blamed for having sought the support of governments with blatant double standards and less than clean agendas. When struggling to be free from the devil incarnate, one does not have the luxury of selectivity and must accept the promise of helping hands. After all, those who can deliver Syrians from Assad are those who sit on the Security Council; two of them openly arm, finance, support and protect Assad, the other three potentially offer some hope - at least in pressuring the first two to abandon the regime responsible for such massive crimes against an entire country, and to get the rest of us to a big meeting room to save what Assad hasn’t yet destroyed.

However, the Syrian National Coalition, and the Council before it, and every opposition entity (especially those known as "patriotic opposition") have failed miserably in their duty to inform the world about the nature of the revolution, and the actions of the Assad regime. Opposition figures spent 30 months debating each other (to put it mildly) mostly in Arabic, rather than engaging the world in other languages. There has been no coherent, professional, systematic, effective communication campaign, despite the mountains of evidence of the regime's crimes against humanity, provided by people in Syria who risked their lives to document, film and send them to the world via the Internet.

The opposition must bear the blame for having failed to counter the offensive misrepresentations of the revolution in mainstream media, the ruthless propaganda of the regime, and the misleading narratives of the anti-imperialist brigade soldiers who compensate for limited knowledge about Syria with sensationalist conspiracies and doomsday scenarios worthy of menhebakjis, should anyone dream of stopping Assad's barbarity.

The opposition has failed in proving to the world that this is a revolution which continues to be a revolution, alongside the armed resistance which started after months of peaceful protests and disobedience, and alongside the now blatantly public interference of foreign armed militias supporting the regime, and foreign armed militias opposing both the regime and the resistance. This is certainly not a "sectarian civil war" and it does not have an equal "both sides of the conflict" and it was certainly not "hijacked by Al Qaeda."

The opposition has not carried the Syrian predicament beyond the confines of Arabic-language media, and has made no sustained effort to fight those who discredit the revolution. And now, the opposition has shined by its absence in the aftermath of the barbaric Ghouta massacre.

Clearly, the opposition can and must continue with political diplomacy, with fundraising, with organizing humanitarian aid, with supporting the Free Syrian Army in any way possible; these all remain urgent priorities. But it should now leave the communication to others. Nobody should be speaking in the name of independent Syrians for the revolution, when so many are already speaking for themselves. Independent Syrians for the revolution, your page is coming up.

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A story on Israeli attacks and Syrian retaliation: In October 2003, Israel bombed a site in Syria it claimed was a Palestinian training camp. Of course, the Assad regime did nothing and repeated the sacred mantra that it reserved the right to retaliate at a time and place of its choosing.

However, the-then Syrian ambassador to Madrid, Mohsen Bilal, had forgotten to re-read the memo (it had been a few years since Israel had done its dirty work, even though its jets had casually circled Assad's Lattakia palace, unbothered, months earlier). Commenting to Reuters, Bilal said: "If Israel attacks Syria one, two and three times, of course the people of Syria and the government of Syria and the army will react to defend ourselves." Asked if that meant responding militarily, Bilal said: “By all means."

A normal response from the ambassador of any country whose sovereignty had just been violated from the enemy - well, any country except Assad's Syria. The regime went down on Bilal like a ton of bricks for this comment which nearly cost him the Madrid post, and for which he had to suck up so much that he exceeded himself and eventually became Minister of Information!

To reassure Israel, meanwhile, an official source from the Syrian Foreign Ministry later told Reuters that Ambassador Bilal didn't accurately represent the government, and that "This is his personal understanding of the official position." Humiliating its own ambassador lest Israel, God forbid, should imagine that the Syrian regime was even thinking of actually retaliating! Ever!

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On Sunday November 25, 10 little children were killed by a cluster bomb dropped on them from a Syrian regime warplane, as they played outdoors in the town of Deir Asafeer ("cloister of sparrows"), in greater Damascus.

Video clips and photos of this devastating crime, one of tens of thousands of similar acts of terror committed by the Assad regime, were widely shared on social media by most supporters of the Syrian revolution, by various observers and by many others who felt this horrific event merited condemnation, with comments expressing grief, outrage and appeals for action.

It was logical to assume that the same people who had just raised hell about the murder of other precious children mere days ago by other criminal regimes - as we all did! - would for once do the same for these little angels. But our little Syrian sparrows were not killed by Israeli missiles, by American drones or by British bombs, so the self-annointed resistance against imperialism and capitalism once again ignored our children, killed by mere old Russian bomblets dropped from aging Russian MIGs flown by loyal servants of the Assad regime.

On Thursday, those same Russian planes again dropped enormous TNT-stuffed barrel bombs over several areas in Syria, as they do nearly daily; the morning included Aleppo's Ansari neighborhood, the previous night had been Assafira's turn. The clips of babies, toddlers and young children's bloodied corpses lying on top of each other, or being dug out of the rubble with bare hands, continue to fill our social media walls - but the anti-imperialists didn't deign noticing, as usual.

They ignored them just as they have ignored all our other child victims (let alone the remainder of Syrian martyrs), from the jailing and torture of the children of Deraa, to the torture until death of 13-year old Hamza Khatib, to little ones shot by Assad snipers even in their parents' arms, to the children slaughtered with knives in the Houla massacre, to infants shot in their mother's womb, to kids bombed as they stood in breadlines, to Sunday's playground massacre, and every other massacre before and after that.

They have ignored our martyrs, our maimed, our wounded, our prisoners of conscience, our hunger strikers, our homes, shops and fields' demolitions, our refugees, our raped women, our tortured souls, our displaced, our hungry, our cold, our terrified and our desperate people - all invisible victims for these strange activists who seldom miss an opportunity to spread condescending sarcasm about various Syrian opposition groups.

We waited for solidarity for nearly two years, as we watched the savage destruction of our entire country under our own army's shells and bombs; we waited in vain - that is until they merely added insult to our injury by circulating numerous photos of our child martyrs and victims under different labels, attributing them to different murderers!

All these months, as we posted and documented our victims, they averted their eyes and didn't deign empathize; these martyrs, these little child victims, were only deemed worthy of compassion when their murder was blamed on the criminal Israeli war machine. An incomprehensible and reprehensible attitude denounced by many, but made even worse by stale, contrived indignant reactions, including the generic weasel statement that "I never said I supported Assad".

Indeed, it is not what they said, it is what they did not say.

The Syrian regime's savage repression of the popular uprising has served to expose many as hypocrites and faux-humanists, chattering classes and fake leftists. We all know who they are - and they know who they are. Some people consider them to be useful idiots; I disagree, they are not useful. The regime couldn't care less about the silent indirect support of this "resistance camp" which, like Hezbollah, decided that all Arabs desperately wanted freedom and dignity, with the exception of Syrians who were manipulated by puppets and led astray by a universal conspiracy which diverted Bashar Assad from his reform.

We thought we knew them when Palestine brought us together in the first place; we know them even better now that Syria provided the ultimate litmus test. Those activists are merely the mirror opposite of the imperialists and Zionists who pretend caring for Syrians while continuing to ignore Palestinians’ suffering and aspirations.

Both sets of hypocrites should go preach about human and national rights to others just like them and spare us the nauseating double standards; they should stick to audiences which also differentiate between victims, which also sympathize with some murderers pretending to act within extenuating circumstances, which are also selective about what is a "two sides" conflict and what is only a case of victims and executioners, and which also think that some liberation movements are mere conspiracies while all the rest are blessed, legitimate uprisings.

Our children are not the children of a lesser cause. Whether they are from Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or anywhere else in the world, children have a right to defense, and we have a duty to protect them.

Hypocrites can ignore our tiny sparrows and our small angels, but they will never honor the causes they think they serve. Rest in peace, all our little children.

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To tweet or not to tweet, that is not the question. What to tweet, and what not to tweet, was not supposed to be the question either, but nobody in Washington thought that Alec Ross or Jared Cohen would commit the undiplomatic faux pas of not only liking something about a country they’re just supposed to disdain, but also of tweeting about it.

The irony borders on the comical; US officials, sent to preach about Internet freedom and to plead for the unblocking of numerous social networking sites, used the one site which isn’t banned to sing like birds about the place, putting Foggy Bottom in a cloud of ambiguous Twitterplomacy, and presenting it with a completely imaginary problem.

The real problem, of course, is that the US State Department has apparently begun to believe its own hype. After spinning the entire Iranian election protests into a gigantic Twitter-planned, Twitter-led and Twitter-reported revolution, it was horrified to read tweets of an entirely different nature from one of those other problematic countries … tweets which were not protesting an election or planning an uprising, but, horror of horrors, praising fancy beverages and passing on nice vibes about Syria, of all places.

The bosses of Starbucks and Star Wars were not amused and probably wished that Twitter would take down the network for immediate maintenance; come hell or high water, the road to Damascus would not pass through Silicon Valley, no siree, regardless of the mission's declared goals.

Alas, it was too late; dangerous tweets about Syrian refreshments had already surfaced on the twittersphere, and the damage to American interests was incalculable. With their tweets, US diplomats had already confirmed that Syrians consumed the same beverages and ate the same cakes as Americans did – and they even had a university! Hell, a few more days and the frappuccinos would have gotten to their heads and made them tweet that Americans and Syrians may even share similar values, perish the thought!

Clearly, these envoys had not been properly briefed about the nature of current US "engagement" with Syria, and rather than merely following their official goal of discussing Internet freedom and related developments, they embarrassed their own government by actually enjoying Syrian hospitality and taking engagement at face value.

Of course, a foreign policy (assuming there currently is something approximating an actual policy, let alone a coherent one, in Washington) which includes a Twitter doctrine can do little more than inspire musings on selective American Twitterplomacy and on the unbearable lightness of tweeting.

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