Link to an excellent Foreign Policy piece by an Irish journalist who lived in Syria from c. 2007-2012. Accurate and insightful.
The link is to an article by Stephen Starr published in Foreign Policy. Stephen is an Irish journalist who lived in Damascus from around 2007 to 2012.
I know this guy Stephen personally from my own three years in Damascus, and he's very informed, he works hard at his journalism, and he's doing high quality work. For anyone who's interested in the Syrian situation, this is worth reading... hence I'm sharing it here.