Betting the Wrong Horse.

Syrians doing it for themselves...

No NATO needed?
Neat-o.

(I suspect, like garden plants with better root systems, the more these revolutions are homegrown, the more they'll produce in the end...)

Protests were reported across the country Friday, with thousands pouring into the streets of the central cities of Homs and Hama, the southern villages of Dael and Otman, coastal cities of Latakia and Banias, the Damascus suburbs of Qudsaya and Douma as well as the capital, Damascus.

In the northeast, about 2,000 protesters marched in the towns of Amouda and Qamishli, chanting for the regime's downfall, the Local Coordination Committees said. In the southern village of Dael, activists said cracks of gunfire could be heard at the center where a protest was held.

Some of the protesters shouted against Assad's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, the country's most influential businessman who is widely reviled by Syrians for alleged corruption. On Thursday, apparently as an overture to the protesters, he announced that he will now concentrate on charity work.

"Go play another game Makhlouf," protesters shouted in Daraa, a city near the Jordanian border where the uprising began in mid-March.

Friday has become the main day for protests in the Arab world, and Syrians have turned out every week in large numbers nationwide, inspired by democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

The opposition has attached a name to each Friday's campaign, naming this one "The Day of Saleh al-Ali," an Alawite leader who led an uprising against French colonial rule in the 20th century.

Using an Alawite figure's name was meant to show that Assad's opponents were not rising up over sectarian concerns. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.