A Not So Flowery Revelation!

A flurry of conflicting reports about arrests, releases, harassments and hostage-takings against Syrian dissidents and their family members are streaming out of Syria.

Is this part of a new full-fledged crackdown? Or is it the usual round of intimidations and scare tactics? Well, it’s too early to tell really.

But, in view of the recently appointed hard-line cabinet, the former possibility seems to be the more likely one at this stage. Bashar & Co. seem to be consolidating their hold on the reigns of power in the country by way of preparing themselves for the worst.

Still, even here, one can easily detect a certain amount of hesitancy in their tactics, or a certain desire to leave the doors open for the possibility of striking some kind of a deal, be it with some figures from the country’s internal opposition, or with the international community. Our little mischievous demons seem to believe that some possibility for salvation does still exist somehow. But who can blame them for such a wishful thought? After all, damnation is not the kind of prospects with which one can easily reconcile oneself.

But damnation is all there is left to give on all sides. The Hour is nigh, and the Accounting promises to be terrible. All I can do at this stage is hope that the Bewitching Hour will be swift and short-lived, and that, at the end of the day, there will still be something for us to salvage, something worth salvaging.

I hate to be a prophet of gloom and doom, and I might still end up, as I hope to end up, by being wrong about this. In fact, everything I am doing at this stage, no matter how big or small it seems to be, is meant to help prove me wrong in this connection. Perhaps we can still wrestle some chance for a smoother more humane transition from the jaws of impending mayhem. Perhaps.

But let us not put too much into this perhaps, and let us too prepare oursleves for the worst. They will create the mayhem, and we will have to manage it.