Syria and the west: another wasted decade
As Bashar al-Assad celebrated his 10th year as president of Syria earlier this month, Human Rights Watch marked the occasion with a commendable report on the continued human rights abuses and anti-democratic nature of his regime. The report describes Assad's reign thus-far as a "wasted decade", with the 44-year-old eye doctor disappointing many by entrenching authoritarian rule rather than promoting greater political openness.
While these domestic failures should not be excused, they should not be viewed in isolation since they are closely related to the other major disappointment of Bashar's first decade in power: Syria's bumpy relationship with the west.
External threats have long provided the Ba'ath regime with a pretext for repression at home, and the past decade has seen no shortage of those.… Seguir leyendo »