Perhaps years from now, a new term along the lines of "Syrianization" will take
over the significance of the sweeping (and some say inaccurate) concept of
Balkanization. The northern Levant is quickly overtaking every other part of the
world as the paradigm of complete fragmentation of a geographic and political
entity.
It is hard to tell who or what is falling apart more quickly: the regime, the opposition, or the possibility of reaching international consensus over the civil war which has killed at least 70,000 people so far, a figure that former United Nations secretary general and envoy to Syria Kofi Annan called in a recent Reuters interview "a gross under-estimation".
Shortly after a symbolic Arab League summit in which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's place was taken by a rebel leader (who had himself resigned from his position several days prior to the meeting), Annan said that it was "too late" for either a military intervention or arming the opposition. "My own view is that as late as it is we have to find a way of pouring water on the fire rather than the other way around," he added.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-280313.html
It is hard to tell who or what is falling apart more quickly: the regime, the opposition, or the possibility of reaching international consensus over the civil war which has killed at least 70,000 people so far, a figure that former United Nations secretary general and envoy to Syria Kofi Annan called in a recent Reuters interview "a gross under-estimation".
Shortly after a symbolic Arab League summit in which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's place was taken by a rebel leader (who had himself resigned from his position several days prior to the meeting), Annan said that it was "too late" for either a military intervention or arming the opposition. "My own view is that as late as it is we have to find a way of pouring water on the fire rather than the other way around," he added.