Syria unrest

BBC News - Syria unrest: UN condemns government crackdown

It is inconceivable to me that a supposedly civilised state would take to the streets and fire on its own citizens. And yet, the "Arab Spring" has seen so many instances of this: Egypt a little bit, Libya a lot and now Syria joining the "Gadaffi Kill Your Citizens" movement.

John Simpson on the BBC last night felt that the Arab Spring was teetering out, that the protests were meeting more government resistance. Depressingly, it looks like he may be right. Judging from the size of those tanks on the Syrian streets, Assad does not look he is moving aside any time soon. Watching his snipers on the rooftops on TV, I found myself wondering what those soldiers felt like: how could they live with themselves killing the very citizens the armed forces are supposed to protect?

And now Mubarak is in court: as Simpson said last night, there will be some other Arab leaders looking nervously at those proceedings to see how things might pan out for them. Absolute power must be a truly an intoxicating aphrodisiac, one that blocks the sights, sounds and pain of your citizens being crushed on the streets. I wish all these abusive leaders a very short term in office and a long time in court for any crimes against humanity they may have committed.

In short, I hope the guilty share the Mubarak experience soon.Very soon