DESPITE PLEDGE, SYRIAN REGIME FIRES ON PROTESTERS – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  The Damascus regime had promised to stop firing on its own people, but the promise is being ignored.  Protests erupted again in Syria today.  Dictator Assad must be looking, with considerable apprehension, at what's happened to his pal Gaddafi in Libya.  is Assad next?  He's a tougher nut to crack, and, unlike the situation in Libya, Western nations are not talking intervention.  From Reuters: 

(Reuters) - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad fired at protesters after Friday prayers in the Damascus suburb of Douma, as demonstrations flared anew across Syria in a sixth-month-old uprising against his autocratic rule, activists said.

"Protesters phoned in to say that two people have been killed, but this is an initial report still to be confirmed," an activist in Damascus told Reuters by phone.

Other activists and residents reported protests in cities and towns, many of which have been stormed by tanks, stretching from Deir al-Zor province in the east to Deraa in the south to the northwest province of Idlib.

They said demonstrations also cropped up in large cities such as Hama and Homs along the main highway leading to Turkey, and in districts of the capital Damascus.

"Gaddafi is gone, it is your turn Bashar!" shouted protesters in he town of Hirak northeast of Deraa, buoyed by the apparent overthrow of the Libyan strongman by rebels this week, according to a witness who spoke by phone.

COMMENT:  Syria is a critical Arab country, and Iran's closest ally in the Arab world.  And, I point out cautiously, there were a number of reports that Iraqi WMD were moved to Syria before the Iraq War.  That is unconfirmed, but must be looked at again if the regime in Damascus wobbles.

Assad is a very bad guy, but, again, we don't know exactly who the protesters are, and what they want for the future of their country.  But they don't deserve to be murdered in the streets.

August 26, 2011