i'm in hama, a town which (to the extent americans have heard of it at all) is known only as the site of gruesome brutality. the odd thing is just how peaceful and beautiful it is now. i walked through what little is left of the old city. most of it is now a restoration. in 1982 virtually this entire place was bulldozed flat. they seem to be trying to recreate things as they were here. the surviving bit of the old city is filled with artists selling their paintings in the shadow of the 300 year old nurias (giant water wheels that are the symbol of hama)
i haven't been trying to follow the news while i've been here, but for the past 24 hours every syrian i meet has been asking me about bush's threat to attack syria. so then i have to answer the unanswerable, why my country is threatening to kill the very people who are being so kind to me here. thanks a lot george.
the whole thing is so ridiculous. if the american army, the most powerful military force in the world, cannot close the syrian-iraqi border, how are the syrians supposed to do it? and why would a regime which 23 years ago, obliterated its own city, killing tens of thousands of its own citizens in an attempt to wipe out political islam, support the zarqawis of the world?
