Friedman on Syria

Tom Friedman, whose New York Times columns about U.S. domestic matters are purest dreck, often generates good thoughts when he switches to his actual field of expertise, the Middle East. Do yourself a favor: ignore the former, read the latter.

In a recent column Friedman looks at the interplay between matters in perennially conflicted Lebanon and the sectarian civil war in neighboring Syria. He writes:

What is happening in Syria, and across the Arab world today, is the first popular movement since the late 19th and early 20th century that has not been animated by foreign policy or anticolonialism or Israel or Britain. Instead, says Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, “it is about us and our jobs and accountable government. ... It is a profound reorientation to domestic priorities and pragmatism. It is a quest for dignity,” emerging from the bottom up.

Maybe...in any case, I like his conclusion as it is thoroughly pessimistic and thus appropriate to the region:

So let’s help in an intelligent, humane way, but with no illusions that this transition will be easy or a happy ending assured.