well said Joseph, a sound and human response to all that war propaganda pumping through the corporate media

Good article. Who are the new regime? This man seems to have a good knowledge of this complex and awful situation. Surely a negotiation is better than a war where the minorities face annihilation.

The current anti-Assad movement are backed by Western Imperialists.

Freedom for all people on this planet won't happen until our media is far more diverse.

Arjay,

A typically half-witted comment, but you are half-right - sections of the West may well be backing the anti-Assad dictatorship, and some - including morons on the Left - may even be backing the Islamists, clear-eyed, since Islamists are 'against the US' - complete dumb@rses.

Maybe - as it seems to a complete outsider - the tragedy for Arab/Muslim countries is that it is never a two-way struggle, between dictatorships and democrats, or between Islamists and secularists, but almost invariably at least a three-way tussle. In Syria, it may be more complicated than that, with large Shi'ite and Sunni populations, not to mention large numbers of Christians.

Perhaps as well, almost everybody tends to have a very authoritarian mind-set - 'we want power for our group, and therefore the power to oppress all of the others, perhaps exterminate if necessary'. So as soon as one group seizes power - and degenerates rapidly into a new dictatorship - other groups brood and plot to overthrow it, and replace it with THEIR dictatorship.

The long, vicious struggle in the West, over the past thousand years or so, to winkle power out of the hands of elites, kings, popes, and princes, and into the hands, no matter how imperfectly grasped, of the people, has barely begun in those societies and polities. Perhaps weak state structures 'need' dictators to hold them together, but inevitably degenerate into semi-fascist facades dependent on their secret police.

I certainly wish the democrats well, but I do remember earlier efforts, of Nasser and the Algerian leaders, Ben Bella, Boumedienne, etc. and Bourguiba in Tunisia - how secular movements were co-opted to bolster dictatorships. I hope I will see genuine democracies in the Arab and Muslim countries in my lifetime, but perhaps we are in for decades of fascist-Islamist rule, in Egypt and Syria, perhaps in concert across most Arab countries, and an increasingly hot war between the Saudis and Iran.

So much for a democratic Arab Spring.

Dear Joseph Wakim,

You've written an extremely good article, and the theory of a 3rd way is very sound - in principle. In fact though, such commonsense, easy answers to the Syrian problem do not fit the agenda of the vested interests of the many parties involved.

Regardless of the outcome of this conflict, one sad thing is certain. Conflict will continue to spill over into neighbouring countries, and opportunists will embrace it. Innocent and guilty alike will continue to die.

My sympathy is with all Syrians who want only to live their lives in peace, and have wise, compassionate leaders to guide them.

I wish you a peaceful festive season.

Well at least events in Egypt and Syria have silenced all the hype about an "Arab spring" that never was.

The only sensible thing for Syrian Christians is to make plans to make tracks as soon as possible.

The Alawites, of course, have nowhere to go. I doubt that the Shia will have much use for them once they've lost control of Syria.

Most Syrians are caught in the crossfire of the strategic rivalry between Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Gulf allies and Iran and its Shia / Alawite allies.

C'est la guerre.