I doubt that it is a recruitment exercise in Syria, it is most likely a brutal and bloody battle for power. They are not selling newspapers or handing out membership cards, they are throwing bullets and grenades about. Until I see thousands of people on the streets and the workers occupying the factors and distribution networks, I’ll see nothing but a bloody power struggle between authoritarian groups, religious faction fighting, and a bloody and brutal civil war to those ends. I can’t for the life of me see why I should take sides in this bloody conflict. It would be nice if one of the sides was for true democracy and power to the people, but I think to believe that would be deluding myself. It would suit the West if Assad went and Syria descended into the mess that we left in Iraq, as that would allow the Western corporate world to get its hands on Syria’s crude oil resources, as it did in Iraq. Syria has not co-operated with the Western corporate world and it nationalised its assets, that makes them angry, From wikipedia: Given the policies adopted from the 1960s through the late 1980s, which included nationalization of companies and private assets, Syria failed to join an increasingly interconnected global economy. Syria withdrew from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1951 because of Israel’s accession. It is not a member of the World Trade Organization(WTO), although it submitted a request to begin the accession process in 2001. Syria is developing regional free trade agreements. As of 1 January 2005, the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) came into effect and customs duties were eliminated between Syria and all other members of GAFTA.
The Western corporate bosses are sitting waiting to jump in a grab those nationalised assets, so naturally they will support any ratbag of thugs who will do a job for them and bring his regime down, with no concern for the ordinary people of Syria. That doesn’t make me an Assad supported or apologist, in this instant, I just don’t support the factions that are supported by the West to do their dirty work.
Also we are starting to seeing the true picture of the “people’s ” uprising we supported in Libya, with Western nationals now being advised to leave immediately.

ann arky; http://www.radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.com