Unceasing anguish and anger in Syria

Day after day, the indiscriminate and horrendous shelling of Homs continues, amidst many other petty slaughters in other parts of Syria.  It is hard to remain impassive in the face of such unmitigated brutality.  Maybe Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao can because they could easily find it within themselves to do visit such atrocities on their own people but are cannier political operators than the ridiculous Assad and are better at allowing pressures to escape the seething, boiling pot beneath them.

Now Marie Colvin, reporter for The Sunday Times, along with a French photographer, have been killed in another barrage from pro-regime forces.  The Sunday Times recently boasted that it was the only British newspaper to have a journalist in Homs.  Not anymore.  Colvin, an American, was very interesting for being a woman with an eyepatch (losing an eye from shrapnel in Sri Lanka in 2001) – anyone who wears an eyepatch is a bit of a character.  She and her French compatriot were not killed on purpose as a way of stifling the media.  The Syrian army does not care who it shells.  Collateral damage is not a concept that exists for Damascus.  It is collective punishment for civilians to dare challenge Assad’s right to rule, because it was so long ago but for months the protests were peaceful, in spite of the daily killings.  In Homs, government authority was overwhelmed in the surge of people power and Assad and his even more bloodthirsty brother are making a statement.  In the end, probably not much more of Homs will be left than of Warsaw in 1945.  But without a united Syrian opposition and no bridgeheads other than a few routes through Turkey’s southern border, the options to end the carnage are limited and will not be swift.