GENESIS:

Flouting Syria's martial law, bold students advocate democracy (James Brandon, 6/06/06, The Christian Science Monitor)

"The student movements are not very significant in terms of being able to change things now," says Joshua Landis, professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma. "But here is the very genesis of a new Syrian effervescence. This is the start of a 10- to 15-year transformation of society." [...]

"We're talking about little groups of 10 or 15 students," says Dr. Landis, who spent 2005 in Damascus and is the author of the blog Syriacomment.com. "They just appeared in the past two years. Every now and again, the government tries to smash them. When there are demonstrations, the police beat them up and their leaders are sent to prison for lengthy terms.

"Most of the time this is enough to convince most students not to get involved in politics," adds Landis. "But there are always some who are prepared to carry on."

If they didn't change on 9/12/01 we lost the war.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 5, 2006 5:55 PM