Thursday, February 05, 2004
600,000 Syrians are on message, and want reform now
'Syrians call for democratic reforms in petition to Assad'
According to the Associated Press, "More than half a million Syrians demanded political and economic reform in a petition to be handed to President Bashar Assad, a human rights group said Saturday.
"Some 600,000 citizens, including intellectuals, lawyers and human rights activists, have already signed the document, the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria said."
The goal of the organization is to collect more than 4,000,000 signatures in a country of 18,000,000 people. Do you suppose that the liberation of Iraq from Baathists fortified the resolve of these 600,000 signers? Will the Syrian Baathists be as likely to hunt the signers down in their homes with thousands of coalition soldiers and, perhaps more importantly, an exploding free press, across Syria's border?
Of course, one might legitimately ask whether democracy is the best thing for Syria (see my post below on the "Lewis Doctrine"), but there is no question that times they are a-changin'.
According to the Associated Press, "More than half a million Syrians demanded political and economic reform in a petition to be handed to President Bashar Assad, a human rights group said Saturday.
"Some 600,000 citizens, including intellectuals, lawyers and human rights activists, have already signed the document, the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria said."
The goal of the organization is to collect more than 4,000,000 signatures in a country of 18,000,000 people. Do you suppose that the liberation of Iraq from Baathists fortified the resolve of these 600,000 signers? Will the Syrian Baathists be as likely to hunt the signers down in their homes with thousands of coalition soldiers and, perhaps more importantly, an exploding free press, across Syria's border?
Of course, one might legitimately ask whether democracy is the best thing for Syria (see my post below on the "Lewis Doctrine"), but there is no question that times they are a-changin'.
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