Syrians deserve better than international hand wringing

The military had ousted Hosni Mubarak only days before. I had been in Tahrir Square the night his removal had been announced, and had the good fortune of travelling from Cairo shortly thereafter for a conference. On the way from Egypt to the U.S., I stopped in on friends in England and met with a Syrian acquaintance at a restaurant. He was skeptical about the Egyptian uprising and said: “what about us, then? Should we revolt against our ruler?’ I hesitated to give an answer, and simply said “that’s not my call.

The opening of the article. The full text is at Al Arabiya English.