Car Repairs and Syria

I stopped by to see Hafiz, the man to whom I entrust my cars. In between phone calls and customers, we did manage to string together a conversation covering events of the last few months: the deaths in my family, what the status of my retirement was, the health of his family, particularly Muhammed, his son, who is legally blind and has little skin pigmentation. He is well and enjoying high school, al hamdu li_llah.

His eldest son is in Turkey teaching, and I expressed the hope that he was not near the Syrian border. Hafiz said that he would be proud if he were involved, for men cannot live as slaves. Then he recounted the origins of the popular uprising, graffiti painted on walls and arrests and mistreatment of young men in prison.

He was, of course, correct. I was correct, also. He spoke of the corruption of the police and other institutions in an old dictatorship and I was speaking of foreign fighters and influences.
We agreed that thousands were dead and millions have lost their homes.

The Syria has changed from its nascent embryonic "Arab Spring" into a deadly Summer of pestilence.

The theory is to let both sides bleed themselves sufficiently until such time as the outsiders may impose their will upon them.
In the meantime, the disease spreads. Iraq's violence is increasing; the west of Iraq, Anbar Province, may very well seek independence as a Sunni majority state. Then there are the Kurds who continue to strain against their inclusion into the states of the region.

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