Now, it's revealing how the press paints recent defection by Syrian general as unalloyed positive sign - no mention of him being a Sunni, no mention of his relatives already having departed and his loyalty to the regime therefore suspect to begin with, no mention that as a Sunni collaborating with the Alawite regime he probably didn't have much of future in Syria regardless of how things play out - not sure why media treats conflicts in this part of the world in such simplistic terms. Find it hard to believe reporters et al don't know better, at least to some degree - so is it politically motivated? [in service to which ideology I don't know - I suppose it would be to Obama's advantage if the perception is out there that maybe Assad quietly now goes away and change is ushered in without full scale civil war erupting and this all happens without America having to fire a shot - problem is seems extremely unlikely any of those things is gonna happen].
But possibly I don't know what I'm talking about - look at Libya - holds elections, a secularist apparently 'wins' - problem is there is no government and these elections are virtually meaningless - now, that elections did happen regardless and a secularist may have 'won' is more progress than I would have predicted, that's true - I view what we did in Libya with great scepticism - but the fact remains that regardless of election the country is still controlled by militias, there's still an insuperable east/west tribal divide, unsavory types still maneuver in the shadows for power - whatever this election was, to me it's not the truth, to me the truth is roiling beneath the surface and the election was merely a manifestation of the militias et al jockeying for position - but the fact they got even that far [ie actually holding an election] surprises so maybe I've gotten this whole damn thing wrong. [I will have to wait til people I listen to who understand the dynamics involved here much better than me have passed judgement on these 'elections' before I can form a definitive position - but fact remains, democracy, liberty and the empowering of the individual, is about much, much more than merely casting a vote - it's about culture and institutions first - and the only culture or 'institutions' of any import of real significance in Libya right now are the Islamic faith - hardly a vanguard to an emerging open society - the militias and sundry tribal affiliations - that doesn't amount to democracy regardless of who voted for what - doesn't even remotely amount to what usually passes for civil society in the mideast - but I'll wait and see before passing proximate final judgement].
