Paul Greenberg
If the news from
That's the
Who would have thought all this possible only a year ago? As an old revolutionary named Trotsky once noted, revolution always appears impossible before it becomes inevitable.
Just ask
Nothing availed. They kept coming, like lemmings bent on their own destruction.
In a culture that has made a fetish of martyrdom, maybe it was to be expected. An earlier suicide march a couple of weeks ago caught the Israelis off-guard. This time they were prepared. And when all else failed to stop this pitiful invasion, they opened fire. What a waste of young lives.
It didn't have to be this way. For decades, the frontier between
The tactic is so transparent it's not likely to work, but a desperate dictator will take desperate measures.
The protests in
Few things are in
What's clear is that the regime there is promising retaliation. Are these the first sparks of still another civil war in the Arab world?
Already there are reports of military commanders going over to the other side, clans rising in revolt, and separate but equally well-armed militias fighting each other.
Such is the chaos of revolution; it's the unusual one that actually delivers the freedom it promises and produces stability instead of more chaos. Rare thing, the Spirit of '76. And rarest of all is a revolutionary generation like this country's Founding Fathers, though even that generation had its traitors (
Not for the first time the government that generation founded is debating whether to side with the tyrants or revolutionaries of the world -- or just continue to waver indecisively between them. As in
Once again American foreign policy needs some serious rethinking, even serious decision-making. And most of all, constancy of purpose. Which has been needed in the
This much is clear: Our policymakers, not for the first time, must think and act anew, and yet adhere to old principles. Like freedom. This land of the free and home of the brave needs to make it clear that
Even if the family dynasty, corporation and racket that has long ruled
Whose side are we on? It's time to let the Syrians, and the whole Arab world, know. Only the incorrigibly naive, like whoever's making American policy in the Mideast these dithering days, if anyone is, might mistake the latest Assad for a reformer -- or keep courting him in hopes he'll change his spots. You'd have to be one of the "realists" in the
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Available at Amazon.com:
Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (The Contemporary Middle East)
The End of History and the Last Man
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource
Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water
Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century
Dining With al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East
Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy
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