Why Damascus remains eerily calm Syrians cross a road as cars
drive past a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in
Damascus on January 24, 2012. (Getty Images) February 18th, 2012
02:00 PM ET  Why Damascus remains eerily calm  Editor's Note:
Bilal Y. Saab is a Visiting Fellow at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies.  By Bilal Y. Saab - Special to CNN
Despite their pain and suffering, Syrians' struggle against
tyranny shows no signs of slowing down.  A year ago, inspired by
the success of revolts in the Arab world, Syrians rose against
the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad, seeking to
replace it with a democratic system of government. Their
remarkable bravery and unrelenting determination
notwithstanding, Syrians are still far from achieving their
goal, a dream that is five decades old. Instead, mostly because
of al-Assad’s systematic and lethal repression campaign, Syrian
society is inching closer to full-blown civil war, one that
threatens to tear the country apart a la 1975-19