How long has it been since I entered Turkish territory coming back from Syria? Two months? Three months? Sometimes it feels like it was two or three days before, sometimes it feels like it happened in a previous life.
I searched certain answers. I found them. Not always the ones I wanted to find. One, if not the crucial question you have to ask yourself before entering Syria is: am I here to save lives or to take lives? And even if you insist with your full conviction that you solely want to save lives there is the percentage possibility that you find yourself in a situation where you have to take at least one life to save your own. I haven't met one single life-saver honestly admitting 'before I kill someone I allow being self killed'. Don't know how it is in the rows of the life-takers. Haven't discussed that topic with those I met.
The only advice I can give is: avoid to be part of the game. You can call it the gun game. The rifle game. The grenade game. Whatever you call it there's one meta-level above it. Arms. All kind of them. 'I must win and to underline my claim I'm walking through the streets with a Kalashnikov.' Due to the law of attraction from that moment you lay your hands on the gun you're tracking the attention of other guns and inevitably their owners. Kind of Buddhistic perception. I'm not expecting too much agreement, see it as my personal view.
It's all about arms in the meantime. For a long time the focus to overcome the regime was on the activities based on non-violent resistance. But the regime had decided to strike the rough path being so seen responsible for the vicious circle of violence dominating the country nowadays. But it is one thing to blame the rulers for starting the mess and another to act constructively instead of react destructively. The ghosts of stalemate are turning the uprising faction with the time in a moral twilight while the regime's ruined reputiation is gaining some thoughts like 'well, maybe they aren't as bad as always reported'. And a third party becomes more visible; those who are neither with the regime nor with the rebels. The longer the stalemate the more this faction is increasing.
What to do in case of the revolutionaries? Definitely not to converge the regime strategies. Wouldn't be clever because the people, the indecisive ones, the sceptical ones, would sooner or later notice both sides as equal exhausting. The greatest challenge the revolting Syrians actually have is to get a united command over the armed groups - each one of them, from fundamental to secular - and a functioning network of responsibles on the ground able to manage a reporting without gap. No, it was never easy to embed a greater group into a structure; yes, it takes a lot of discipline and the ability to handle backlashes. Sometimes you don't need heros. You need simply people doing their job. Doesn't sound as exciting but is at least as important.
Even the slightest thought of the political ongoings under the umbrella of the Syrian revolution causes me lasting headaches. Why? Well, in the beginning it was Burhan Ghalioun, I remember his legislating well, those where the times of a collective confidence, so I perceived them. Today after I-dont-know-how-many successors being more likely replacements I read about Moaz al-Khateeb's withdrawn resignation while I'm studying the profile of the newest player in town, A Syrian-Texan who's position in-between the political structure is .. above al-Khateeb? Or equal? What now? Sigh. The greatest lack the political faction of the Syrian revolution is offering is in my opinion the lack of continuity regarding the staff at the top. I mean, what kind of support can you expect if your efforts to create a representative transitional government appear in the eyes of German, French and Dutch politicians like a blueprint of Italian politics? Sorry, dear Italians, you are all but a role model for stable governments. Silvio of all people was the most long-termed head of .. but that was more the proof that democratic elections are valid even without using the brain. With a raised eyebrow Western European responsibles will think 'Gosh, another problem child ..' while they are shaking your hands with a professional smile in their face promising you 'immediate unbureaucratic aid', another contemporary term of 'Don't know if and how to help'. Yes, there should be a warn sign above each political column: too much studying politics can cause migraineform headaches ..
Don't ask me how the whole thing is going on the next weeks, the next months. Can't predict that. Maybe the revolutionaries are able to gain strategically eminent territory. Maybe the regimers proof their ability to keep up the grueling stalemate until their demands for dialogue are fulfilled. Maybe. But nevertheless it's high time that something happens. The actual condition is indicating a growing resignation, decreasing motivation, the impression that the daily hostilities are becoming normality. That's a dangerous tendency.
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