DAY 155 - AUGUST 23, 2011


You respond to the Syrian National Council. Your rationale is that bloodshed can be avoided if the the number of sheer supporters for Assad's ouster exceeds his Ba'ath Party cohort. However, you also see the opposition as a way to bring Syrians together and there is no better way to build unity than to find a greater evil to assemble against. With that said, you see how people begin to form brigades in their neighborhoods. They are fighting alongside their brothers, among friends. Dissent is very much starting at the local level. The more you talk to the Syrian National Council, the more you realize that this may be the group's ultimate drawback. The Council is based in Istanbul. It seems fragmented and directionless. It's lacking the unity on the local level, the brotherhood. You will try to help them but unless something changes you can't see this movement becoming the one that topples the regime. In the meantime you also respond to the Salafists because, in their case, you see local brotherhood forming. You believe in grassroots more than anything else.  

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