The Arab Spring - Stuck in the sand

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad’s brutal suppression of his domestic and largely unarmed opponents continues.

Human rights campaigners said forces loyal to Assad killed an estimated 137 civilians, including 93 in Hama, in the last few days. Most of the deaths came after troops used tanks in a violent attempt to reassert control in Hama on Sunday.

Assad’s opponents are in an invidious position. They know that military support from outside their country is unlikely and that if they are to remove him they must do so alone. The potential for diplomacy, no matter how active, to do so remains very limited.

Just as in Libya, and to a lesser extent Egypt, the great optimism of the Arab Spring has run into the sand. Those who would build new tomorrows are struggling to remove the tyrants whose actions made revolt inevitable. Their success is not, however, inevitable.

In a world so undermined by instability, economic and otherwise, these despots cannot be allowed prevail.