Jamal Kanj, the author of Children of Catastrophe, has published a very interesting article called "The blooming Arab Spring in Syria" on Gulf Daily.

http://gulfdailynewsonline.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=319263

FACING the Arab Spring, every dictator encountering public discontent claims to be different from the waning breeds of dictators. Syria today is no exception.
Bashar Al Assad, like other members in the dictators' club, is insulated from real life by political eunuchs perpetuating delusional state of universal deceit.
The anti-Assad public protests continue to grow despite government contention to the contrary.
Meanwhile, his brother-led special army units are doing what they are trained to do best: suppress public dissent.
Unlike Libya, and while the Arab League was mostly united in condemning the government's atrocities, the same level of unison cannot be found among supporters of democracy in the Arab world.
This is mainly the case when it comes to foreign intervention. For there is a strong antipathy to outside interference among the opponents of Assad, especially the home-based opposition.
The Syrian opposition and democracy promoters genuinely distrust Western governments' position on democracy.
The experience with the tank democracy in Iraq, and most recently the Jet fighter democracy in Libya were disappointing.
Iraq was broken into adversarial semi-independent provinces; in Libya, Nato exceeded its UN authority to protect civilians by waging a full-scale war destroying Libya's military infrastructure.
Actually, there were reports of more civilians killed in Libya by Nato jets than those dying at the hands of Gadaffi's forces. Besides, unlike Iraq and Libya, Syria has no worthy oil reserve to induce costly blood investment by the oil- thirsty West.
Western governments ostensibly support democracy while they are enabling Israel to deny Arab Palestinian their rudimentary right to self-determination.
Israel, sheltered by the US, never abided by any UN resolution, violated UN conventions, and murdered more Palestinian civilians per capita than all of those killed in the Arab Spring; yet, while these countries are rushing to bring their nemesis dictators before the UN Security Council, they are blocking Palestinians' efforts to bring an international vote for a state of their own.
Western duplicitous support for Arab democracy was further belied by their evident deeds in stifling Palestinian experience with democracy following an internationally recognised fair and open election in 2006.
Western double standards aside, the Syrian people have shown unrelenting determination to rid themselves of 40 years of dictatorship.
Bashar Al Assad can either be a bridge between dictatorship and democracy, or continue living in delusional popularity with orchestrated public support an 99 per cent approval rating, and end up the last disgraced member of the Assad clan