Author-Activist Samar Yazbek Speaks About The Syrian Uprising From Exile

"For nearly two  years, we’ve been watching the incredulous events unfold in the Syrian revolt against the Assad regime."

I've always tended to use 'they' as a third personal singular personal pronoun where gender was in doubt, but to each their own. And you may be incredulous when you witness the incredible.

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EYE: Do you feel like you have a mission?
YAZBEK: Yes, it is the mission of every intellectual to change the reality of the despotism in which he lives.

British Syrians & Friends in

Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution

It is not called civil war nor violence, it is rather a revolution against oppression and injustice. Please world understand this !

Syria’s ‘virtual’ massacres and sectarian storylines

"Every few days, we find on YouTube and Facebook photos and videos of utter brutality in which the thugs and officers of the Syrian regime inflict the worst types of torture upon the bodies and souls of their victims. With every photo and video, a few questions arise: Who leaks these? Is it the Syrian regime that is doing this? If so, why?

Time has shown us that leaking this material is a systematic practice on the part of the Syrian regime. First, the regime wants to prove that it will keep ignoring popular demands and will go ahead with its security choices regardless of any ethical or humanitarian consideration. Second, leaked photos and videos confirm fears of sectarian strife if the regime is toppled, justifying its actions no matter how brutal they are."

Role of Syrian women evolves as war rages on

"Many women say they hope not just to shed a brutal regime, but to ensure women’s rights are protected in whatever government emerges."

The Importance of Logic in an Argument

The Importance of Logic in an Argument

"I'm going to tie this with Syrian revolution. Let me begin by addressing some claims that pro-Assad idiots make."

Syria: Prisoner swap frees 2130, al Nusra speaks out

'While only those with a functioning crystal ball can know what role groups like al Nusra will play in Syria's future, those that see the main task today as overthrowing the Assad regime and stemming the bloodletting that has cost 60,000 lives already, see the Obama administration's designation as yet another strike at the revolution from imperialism.'
And still 32,472 "prisoners of conscience" held by the régime.

THE BANNERS OF THE REVOLUTION
'Many in the “West “have wondered what would replace the Assad regime. With the splintered ideologies of the insurgency, they have asked, “Who are the Syrian people and what do they believe?
Each Friday, and many other days as well, the people of Syria take to the streets in an attempt to provide those answers.'

Syria’s cultural heritage is another casualty of the conflict

"I feel sad and excruciating pain for this country, for the destruction that Bashar has inflicted. It is a kind of destruction that neither this country nor other Islamic countries have seen. He has not left anything undestroyed in this country."

Slow-burning hell for Syrian refugees

'The kids, their bare or sandaled feet icy to the touch, crowd a passing car. "Syria hurra!," they shout, ("Free Syria!") I can only hope they get to see it, and soon.'

Insight: Aleppo misery eats at Syrian rebel support

' "After the regime falls, we still have a long battle just to clean up the revolutionaries."

"Basically a ministry of defense has been created. A force for Syria," he said. "But this force needs weapons and money."
That is a common refrain among those fighting Assad, and reflects frustration at hesitation among Western powers in particular to aid rebel groups whose wider goals are unclear.'

Non-Fiction Heroine

"The sounds of screaming and torture rang out somewhere, somewhere both far away and nearby. I was trembling. I had never heard such sounds of pain, coming from some place deep inside the earth, burrowing into my heart."

The Long, Hard Slog That Is Syria

"Videos have emerged of the Syrian army allegedly cutting heads off with chainsaws and burying people alive, but none of this shocks Syrians nearly as much as watching an American president talk about the horrors of Syria, yet do nothing to help them."

What next for Assad? / Would you give up your nationality?

"This notion of dastardly foreign powers and Syrian puppets is a misreading of the situation."
Robin Yassin-Kassab's contributions at 15m31s, 30m17s & 38m32s.

"This notion of dastardly foreign powers"

How "stalemate" analysis of Syria's revolution goes wrong

 "The rebels' piece-at-a-time approach has worked magnificently when measured by where each side stood just a year ago. Planting and growing takes time. As harvesting approaches, I think the 'stalemate' school will suffer shock at the speed of upcoming regime setbacks.

Syria isn't Vietnam and Assad won't last ten years."

How to Defend Bashar al-Assad in 10 Easy Steps

1. Keep mentioning Jubhat al Nasra and other Islamic jihadi groups without mentioning that the vast majority of armed groups are not nearly as extreme, are mostly locally based folks defending their towns and villages.

2. When referring to the armed opposition keep using the magic word: AL QAEDA

3. Make cursory mention of the regime’s brutality (you won’t have any credibility if you don’t) but avoid resurrecting the roots of the conflict in peaceful opposition to Bashar’s dictatorship. Avoid mention of wanton use of air power against civilians in bread lines and in their homes.

4. Keep talking about NATO, the Gulf countries and Western support for opposition; that will boost Bashar’s anti-imperialist creds among the campus leftists.

Syria on Video

Syria on Video

" ‘I saw and I heard. And I wish I hadn’t.’

On 1 January, Yassin al-Haj Saleh posted these words on his Facebook page. Al-Haj Saleh spent 16 years in Assad’s prisons after being arrested as a student in the 1980s for being a member of a communist group. He is now a prominent dissident known for his sharp analysis of the Syrian conflict. I check his page every day.

The words were accompanied by a video. Clearly, one of the great many videos circulating showing the cruelty of the regime’s militias, the widely feared shabiha. I hesitated before opening it. These videos are evidence. But it’s always the same question: how badly will I regret seeing it?

Once Syrians emerge from the present nightmare – in one, three or ten years – they will be forced to look into one another’s eyes. They will have seen and heard things they wish they hadn’t."

Conversations: Yesterday, I Defected from Assad's Army

This can't go on indefinitely.
'He says one shabiha minder was assigned to each new soldier, to ensure that they don’t defect. It comes after a recent stream of defections that apparently rattled the army’s confidence. “The soldiers, they’re scared of the FSA. A lot of them would like to defect, but the shabiha, they stay with us, they watch us like security so we don’t go.” '

Islands In The Stream

'Military camps, airports and cities are falling to the rebels, while demoralized and hungry Syrian army units are simply giving up. The rebels are already on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, the capital. The army is defending its last bastions in the north and east, like islands in a sea, only able to receive supplies from the air.
"The others, the soldiers, are also tired. But at least we know what we're fighting for," the rebel says. Even though they are sometimes worried about the future, about the days after victory when revenge will be taken, another adds: "Who can blame someone whose family was killed?"
But where would that leave a revolution that was intended to bring down the dictator, but not plunge the country into a civil war? The Assad regime will fall, but no one knows what will happen after that.'
[http://www.spiegel.de/…/shift-in-balance-of-power-for-rebel…]

Dead Man's Curve

"Insurgents are venturing ever closer into Damascus after bringing a crescent of suburbs under their control from the city's eastern outskirts to the southwest."
[http://thehimalayantimes.com/rssReference.php?headline=Assad+to+make+rare+speech+as+Syrian+rebels+draw+nearer&NewsID=360681]

Freedom Dub

January 5th, 2013 
Local Coordination Committees in Syria
The practice of the Syrian regime represented by shelling, destructing and arresting is faced by the insistent people to gain their freedom by demonstration that plays the melodies of freedom every week to prove to the world that freedom is the most valuable thing the great Syrian people have.
[http://www.lccsyria.org/en/]