Patrick Cockburn on Syria

A must-read article that appears on the Counterpunch web site this weekend is Patrick Cockburn's "How Syria Became a More Dangerous Quagmire Than Iraq." Cockburn, a veteran Middle East correspondent, provides an even-handed, no-bullshit assessment of the Syrian civil war. To give you a flavor of the analysis provided, check out the following paragraph:

The feeling that the future of whole states is in doubt is growing across the Middle East – for the first time since Britain and France carved up the remains of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. ‘It is the end of Sykes-Picot,’ I was told repeatedly in Iraq; the reference was to the agreement of 1916 which divided up the spoils between Britain and France and was the basis for later treaties. Some are jubilant at the collapse of the old order, notably the thirty million Kurds who were left without a state of their own after the Ottoman collapse and are now spread across Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. They feel their moment has come: they are close to independence in Iraq and are striking a deal with the Turkish government for political rights and civil equality. In March, the Kurdish guerrillas of the PKK declared an end to their thirty-year war with the Turkish government and started withdrawing into the mountains of northern Iraq. The 2.5 million Kurds in northern Syria, 10 per cent of the population, have assumed control of their towns and villages and are likely to demand a high degree of autonomy from any postwar Syrian government.

Cockburn doesn't see a way out of the current violent stalemate.