Syria’s Military Moves To Crush Opposition In Hama
History doesn’t just repeat itself. It stutters. So it should come as no surprise that Bashar al Assad is following in his father’s footsteps in ordering his security forces to bombard and open fire on civilians inside the city of Hama.
The ongoing fighting has gotten Tom Friedman of the NYT to revisit his Hama rules (the term he coined when Hafez leveled Hama and put the city on display to show and warn the populace not to mess with his regime).
Friedman thinks that Bashar’s playing from dad’s playbook, but this time the Syrians are playing with a new playbook that says that they are no longer going to be cowed by the brutality of the regime.
Whether they can be successful is the billion dollar question.