Poor Bashar ... he is most definitely what one would call a "pencil neck" :)

Yup, a regime change war in Syria would be a horrible idea, and might very well cause the rise of a democratically-elected Sunni-Muslim fundamentalist AQ regime, that could well decide to spread to neighbouring countries like Jordan or Sunni Iraq. Bashar is a nasty little dictator, and he should be opposed in Lebanon and punished if he tries to export terrorism, but he isn't doing a great deal of harm outside his country.

20% of Turks are Alevi and all of them dissimulate? Seems a little farfetched. Dissimulation is a Shia practice in times of Sunni persecution -- and Turkey doesn't persecute Shias. Where did you get this data from?

Seems a little farfetched. Dissimulation is a Shia practice in times of Sunni persecution -- and Turkey doesn't persecute Shias. Where did you get this data from?

i read some alevi ethnographies in college. and there is still a lot of bias against alevis in turkey (ie; legends about their alcholoic orgiastic ceremonies, etc.).

OK, do alevis and alawis have the same religion? Wikipedia says no, this site says yes. Which is it? If they aren't the same religion, what is the connection between them?

danny, see, that is what i meant by having a hard time pinning them down.

anyway, i think they are similar. don't trust wikipedia, as an alevi or alawite might try and to add distinctions. also, remember that many of the non-orthodox ottoman period sects had ill-defined boundaries. the bektishis of albania are assumed to have some connection to the same sects that gave rise to the alevis and alawites.

Dear Razib, leave Syrian issues to us Syrians. Go on and fix whatever fucked up country you come from. Thanks.

as an american...the opinion of my countrymen matters a lot to you syrians. like it or not, allah has ceded to us the power of life and death over the nations of the world :)

Those who argue for the democratization of Arab states should keep in mind that here you have a situation where you are shifting from extreme despotism to universal suffrage in a matter of years. Say what you will about the dysfunctions of Arab culture, and they are manifold, but I am skeptical that any culture is robust enough to make such a sharp political transition with grace.

Well, thank God someone in the United States recognized this. Where these highly fantastical notions about democracy emerging from a magical sprinking of fairy dust and American bombs came from, I don't know. I can't think of a single instance in which a true attempted, abbreviated, social revolution (as oppposed to a mere political one that shifted power from one elite to another--like the American or Indian independence revolutions) actually worked. Grand vision is important for animating our hearts, but it needs to be fleshed out with a realistic understanding of how we (and more importantly) our societies work.

But I am greatly hopeful for the prospects of an Iranian democratic revolution if the U.S. doesn't manage to fuck it up somehow in the meantime or the mullahs somehow achieve victory over popular will, tradition, and demographics.

What r u trying to point to by saying "aimed at the babes of lebanon"? Please, don't be like typical arabs who think that Lebanon is the only country with westernized good looking women?

Asma Akhras Al-Assad reflects a genuine trend in Syrian women, beauty, fullsomeness, and brain. This is a result of hundreds of years of outbreeding with the rest of the world. Whereas Lebanese women, the progenies of multiple inbreeding episodes over the centuries resulted in what we can observe in the so called Babes of Lebanon. Those poor Lebanese women, they look like clones of each others...the resulting husbandry of close relatives. Oh, my what a tragedy.