Hope & Folly!

The Awaited Report is finally out. I shall not attempt to analyze or dissect it. Many, with much larger analytical skills and expertise than me, will be doing that on their blogs and in their articles. Suffice it to say, however, that all the necessary ingredients for a UNSC Resolution against Syria are there. It remains to be seen, however, whether the US and France have managed to gather enough support in the Council to pass such a resolution. Will China and Russia cooperate? Or will they push to give their not-so-precious lion-cub another chance at trying to make things right?

It does not really matter. Regardless of his recent assertions on CNN, Bashar is bound to squander any chance he is given. He is simply too riddled with incompetence and guilt to take advantage of anything.

I am not the only one who can see this now. Finally. Opposition groups in Syria can now see this too. Indeed, and in this regard, the Damascus Declaration, for all its imperfections, does come as a serious step forward, and does offer some reason for optimism, provided, of course, that its authors have some vision and plans for proceeding forward, and that they are not going to see in the Declaration the final summation of their contributions to this critical moment.

For this, opposition groups should learn how to play the media game more effectively. They need to select a few young spokesmen that can explain their point of view on the various satellite channels out there in hope of urging people to take to the street and take this whole process to a whole other level.

A scenario for a velvet revolution in Syria has always been discounted. I tend to discount it myself. Yet, and knowing what the future might indeed bring to the old country, I cannot but hope.

Still, caught between Islamists, nationalists, wishful thinkers and murderers, can a heretic truly be hopeful?