Meanwhile, in Syria ...

While we have been watching the death of Usama bin Laden, the civil war in Libya, the royal wedding and the NFL Draft, a significant popular revolt in Syria has flown largely under the radar.

This is unfortunate.  In many respects, Syria is a linchpin of the trouble in the Middle East.  Syria has involved itself in a complicated relationship with Iran that has troubled the US and Israel for decades.  Under Hafez al-Asad, Syria became the major conduit for Iranian support of the Islamist group Hezbo'allah, a policy that has continued under Asad's son and successor Bashar.  Syria has never accepted the French carving out Lebanon, then a Christian enclave, from Sunni Muslim Syria proper, or "Greater Syria," as it is known, which encompasses Lebanon, parts of Israel, Jordan and, not generally publicized, Turkey, including such Turkish cities as Antioch (Antakya in Turkish) and Alexandretta (Iskenderun).
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