Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power...will fight to the end.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/middleeast/11makhlouf.html?hp

Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power, loyalty to family and a visceral instinct for survival, will fight to the end in a struggle that could cast the Middle East into turmoil and even war, warned Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

The frank comments by Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has emerged in the two-month uprising as a lightning rod for anger at the privilege that power brings, offered an exceedingly rare insight into the thinking of an opaque government, the prism through which it sees Syria, and the way it reaches decisions. Beset by the greatest threat to its four decades of rule, the ruling family, he suggested, has conflated its survival with the existence of the minority sect that views the protests not as legitimate demands for change but rather as the seeds of civil war.

“If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel,” he said in an interview Monday that lasted more than three hours. “No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.” Asked if it was a warning or a threat, Mr. Makhlouf demurred. “I didn’t say war,” he said. “What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”

His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.

Apres moi, le deluge.

we ought to be getting close.

There's not much chance of a UN intervention in Syria as has happened in many other countries. China and Russia effectively vetoed even a UN condemnation of what the Syrian government is doing.

I doubt many of us who are in the habit of ignoring oppression just because we cannot predict the future that might come if we speak out against it.

Condemning oppression is quite easy. I suppose the "Speak of no evil, lest we be cornered into doing something about it" approach is valuable advice for those who like to point out problems but don't always think about the possibility that the "solution" could be worse than the problem.

In particular, of the NY Times (and the poster's) propensity toward promoting corporatism and war dressed up as "compassion". :hi:

The fall of the Syrian government would look less like Tunisia or Egypt, and much more like Iraq. Syria is not as homogenous as either Tunisia or Egypt; it has a rather diverse society from various ethnic/religious backgrounds and social classes. The fact that most of these protests are occuring in the more rural regions such as Daraa and Homs rather than the capital Damascus or urban Aleppo worry me. For all its faults (and there are MANY) the one thing Syria has going for it is a secular government that has kept the country relatively safe for decades. It's come at a high price, but it's really not surprising what people will sacrifice for security. I fear for the citizens of Syria (where my in-laws live) if Assad is ever toppled.