Hama Black Force Pad Driver Download
Verne Hodge
Yet for me personally, Syria had until recently been a country where on arrival at Damascus International Airport taxi drivers would enquire with concern whether I had somewhere to stay. And as incredible as it sounds, I have accepted their offer quite a few times and stayed with drivers who valiantly resisted any offers of payment and who, on the contrary, turned out to be caring and attentive hosts. Another personal memory conjures up the dusty setting of the Syrian desert, where I succumbed to sudden fever, bringing on a shivering fit. Not only did the Syrian soldiers on duty, who happened to be travelling on the same bus, selflessly go hunting for hot tea and some sweets for a foreigner in distress, but five of them took off their army tunics to cover me. It might sound overly theatrical to say that this is just one of countless stories of this kind I could tell of Syria.
What initially appeared to be a simple question has by now turned into an indecipherable riddle. While at the dawn of the uprising the anti-regime crowds were mostly composed of patriotic Syrians furious with their leadership, the present-day picture of Syrian opposition is much more uncertain and blurred, particularly since thousands of Syrian army and police members began to defect. Although many have sought shelter at home, with relatives or in remote parts of the country, others have begun to set up urban guerilla formations or fled the country and started to set up cells of resistance abroad. Still others have stayed in the country, forming their own anti-regime militias, which in time have most probably welcomed to their ranks a varied and opaque mix of civilians, foreign Islamist radicals, as well as deserters from various security agencies. In this opaque situation, it is likely that a number of further paramilitary formations have emerged, formed on purely family, clan and tribal links or, possibly, on long-term friendly and professional ties. However, we can only guess what role ethnic and religious affiliations might play in the formation of these groups.
The Syrian regime is currently supported by Iran, which supplies it not only with arms and matriel, but also with advisers and fighters. The US influence over the Shiite Iraqi administration seems to be diminishing, and it must be quite frustrating for the Americans to see that, contrary to their wishes, the Iraqis have been allowing Iranian planes to fly over their territory to deliver aid to the besieged Syrian regime. And while even his Palestinian allies have gradually abandoned their erstwhile protector Bashar al-Assad, the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah has so far continued to support the Syrian government.
Unfortunately, the influence of radical foreign Islamist guerilla groups is likely to grow. It is largely thanks to them that the uprising against the Syrian regime is beginning to take on an increasingly ominous nature. Suicide attacks targeting Syrian government forces, as well as some sectarian massacres, have already partly besmirched the reputation of the Syrian antigovernment uprising. In the future, we can quite certainly expect evidence of a growing influence of radical Islamist movements within the ranks of the Syrian opposition, which will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow for secular and patriotic Syrians, who have never been too keen on their revolution being desecrated and hijacked by groups whose ideology smacks of al-Qaida. Most tragic in this development will be the fact that some of the once peaceful Syrian youths may turn into future Islamist radicals because of the war and its accompanying brutality, the disappointments as well as the inspirational potential of hundreds of Libyan, Turkish and other Islamists who are already fighting in Syria.
I believe that Syria ought to be left to its own devices and that the West, in particular, ought not to interfere in the ongoing conflict, and certainly not by arming the opposition. The war in Syria may yet become the unexpected catalyst for many further problems throughout the Middle East.
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