Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Gene Sharp in Syria

I really don't hear anymore the notion of peaceful, non-violent uprising in Syria anymore...except in Hariri and Saudi media.  Here is a description of Homs in the New York Times today:  "They also spoke of an intensifying war in some neighborhoods, pitting defecting soldiers and other armed government opponents against the security forces and the army. Soldiers surrounded neighborhoods, tanks patrolling the streets. The residents, holed up in bathrooms or lower floors, could not say where most of the firing was coming from.  The fighting was concentrated in the Bab Amr neighborhood."  This is why I was surprised (a bit more than surprised) to read an account with a Gene Sharp bent in Jadaliyya--of all places (and written by a Now Hariri columnist).  It reads like the press releases of Hariri MPs in Beirut.  More, it makes this claim about the uprising:  "Consolidating national affiliations over narrow and primordial loyalties, with declarations of solidarity among towns and cities subjected to successive war crimes, and restoring the political, emotional, and social fabric that has been systematically fragmented by despotism."  Let me get this straight: so the sectarian kidnappings and torture between both sides in Homs serve to reinforce national loyalties?  I read this piece and learned what I knew not before about the operations of Hariri media and propaganda.