A Revolution In Syria

•  The people of Syria have begun to revolt against their current government, which is headed by President Bashar al-Assad.
• However, “momentum has not caught on”, there are not as many protestors as there were in Egypt or Tunisia.
• It seems the alliance between the Assad controlled Alawite leadership, which runs both political and security forces, and the country’s large population of Sunnis is strong.
• The protests are too weak and are mainly headed by the small, impoverished region around Daraa.  Therefore, it is expected that the present government will remain in tact.
• March 25^th was to be an important day of protest where the people would march out of the mosques demanding freedom and change but the protests did not spread to the major cities and have only been isolated.
• For now the revolution of Syria seems to be stalled but it is too early to be completely certain.

Bashar al-Assad 

• President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party, and the son of former President Hafez al-Assad.
• He is a controversial figure both in Syria and internationally.
• He has been criticized for his disregard for human rights, economic lapses, sponsorship of terrorism, and corruption. Al-Assad is an outspoken critic of the United States and Israel.
•  His family has filled security organs with loyal members of his own religious group with the purpose of retaining his power. His military, ruling elite, and secret police are closely interweaved.

Repression

• ·      Assad's regime has tightened Internet censorship with laws such as forcing Internet cafes to record all the comments users post on chat forums.  He has permitted existence of radio stations playing Western pop music but websites such as Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook and Amazon have been blocked.
• ·      He has implemented travel bans against dissidents, a practice that is illegal under international law. Syria is the worst offender in the Middle East.
• ·      In an interview with ABC News he stated: "We don't have such [things as] political prisoners," yet the New York Times reported the arrest of 30 political prisoners in Syria in December 2007

The Libyan No-Fly Zone

• In an attempt to get Muammar Gaddafi’s military to stop massacring its own citizens, several countries in the United Nations have attempted to instate a “no-fly zone” over Libya. Though five nations - including Germany, China, and Russia - chose not to vote, none of the UN Security Council members voted against the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.

• The military operation began on 19 March 2011, with the launching of missiles, raids across Libya, and a naval blockade. Having eliminated the Libyan air defense, US military officials stated that the campaign has moved to focusing on decimating Gaddafi’s ground forces, with new forces targeting fuel depots and local military installations in Tripoli, Libya’s capital.

• Since the beginning of the intervention, the initial coalition of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, the UK, and the US has expanded to 15 nations. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took control of the arms embargo on 23 March in order to prevent Gaddafi from firing on his own people. On 24 March, NATO agreed to take control of the no-fly zone, while command of the targeting ground units remains with coalition forces.

• Exact casualty figures are difficult to make out. On March 20, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the National Transitional Council, stated that "more than 8,000" people are killed as a result of the uprising. No military fatalities have been reported, despite the fact that an American fighter jet crashed near Benghazi due to a mechanical failure.

Definitions:

• Coalition: A partnership of several countries to fight for a common cause.
• Embargo: An official ban on trade with a particular country in an attempt to deplete supplies and force the government of that nation to surrender. (An arms embargo is a ban on weapons.)
• No-fly zone: A territory over which aircraft are not permitted to fly.
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): An international organization for peace and defense founded in 1949. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium. Member nations are Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, UK, and US.

Note: The font change isn't working properly so I apologize for the strange changes.