Syria in a sentence

Andrew Sullivan captures Syria in a sentence: 

"In every crisis, the US will be excoriated if it does nothing and excoriated more for doing something" 

Via Andrew Sullivan in the Sunday Times (15.ix.13), 'Bobbing Obama leaves Putin holding the Syrian powder keg.'

Poem - "I am a Syrian"

From the misery of a bloody and brutal civil war, new poets, poetry and cultural creations are emerging. As the Syria-Canadian writer Ghada al-Atrash said:

"Today there is literature coming out of Syria that we could have never even dreamed of just a few years ago."

As expatriate Syrian writer Ghias al-Jundi said:

"A lot of poetry and beautiful lyrics are rising up from the ashes in Syria. There is a cultural side to the revolution, and it's brilliant."

As Mohja Kahf said, thanks in part to the Internet and social media platforms, "A new Syrian identity and literary tradition are being formed around the events of the last few years."

Ghias al-Jundi also explained that poetry in Syria is also playing a role of protest:

"[Poetry is] playing a huge role in Syria right now because the lyrics are part of demonstrations. People are singing these verses together in the streets."

A poem by Youssef Bou Yihea, "I am a Syrian":

"My sect is the scent of my homeland, the soil after the rain, and my Syria is my only religion."

Read in full here: http://m.aljazeera.com/story/20139784442125773

Andrew Sullivan on Syrian non-intervention

Illustration by George Butler

To my mind, Andrew Sullivan has put together the most reasoned and forceful argument against intervention expressed to date:

"These are not our religious wars. We had ours in the 16th and 17th centuries. No one intervened to police ours  – and because of that, we arrived at our own liberal evolution."

He continued:

"Non-intervention can be a blessing in resolving core internal conflicts that need to be resolved internally before a new order can arise. That may take decades or centuries. And if we are yanked by every outbreak into intervention, we shall indeed soon be like Gulliver."

In full here.