A Canticle for the Masochists!

Another witness changing his testimony, political prisoners freed, some reform measures about to be announced, the Syrian regime’s strategy is clear: get the people to rally behind it. And they surely will. For the Syrian people desperately want to be fooled. And they surely will.

But the Syrian regime’s real problems is with the US, France and the EU at large, and the people there seem less willing to be fooled. So all this show at reform, and all this bluster, and all these witnesses voluntarily changing their erstwhile testimonies, all these things simply don’t matter anymore.

How long will it take before the situation reaches a head? Perhaps not too long. Should the visit of Ahmadinejad to Syria culminates in some dramatic declarations, such as the formation of a military pact, or something, anything along these lines, the Syrian regime will be going down first.

And the Syrian people will be the biggest losers of course. Rallying behind one’s oppressor is like walking in one’s own funeral. But we have been doing that for such a long time now, we are used to it. Some of us might even find pleasure in it. Indeed, we are more likely a nation of masochists.