Semi-Partisan Politics

A brief but welcome glimmer of light in the darkness that is today’s Syria – a grieving father is reunited with the son that he believed had been killed in an attack by pro-regime forces.

 

Max Fisher, writing at The Washington Post, breaks the story for a western audience, and gives this context:

The man who first appears when the video opens isn’t the father – he’s someone else, perhaps another relative. It’s not until a minute in that the boy’s father appears, his face twisted in joy, running out of the house to see his son.

Even if you don’t speak a word of Arabic, the family’s body language says everything. There is a lot of crying and hugging and grateful recitations of the Takbir (“Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!”).

I am still collecting my thoughts on the latest developments in Syria – the irrefutable use of chemical weapons by regime forces or others loyal to Assad, and the seemingly inevitable military response from the west.

Barring the unveiling of some hitherto-unseen wise and strategic foreign policy or diplomatic initiatives from Barack Obama and David Cameron (neither of whom have stellar track records in this area), I am convinced that nothing good can come of any of this. I genuinely don’t see how any of the likely military scenarios that may play out in the coming days will benefit the innocent civilians of Syria, the national security goals of the west or (somewhat materialistically) the economic and financial wellbeing of anyone at all.

But at least, among the many stories of loss and mourning, there is at least one human story from Syria today with a happy ending.

The short piece concludes:

If you can hold it together through all seven minutes, you’re stronger than I am. But this video provides a welcome, if all too rare, moment of solace and joy in a war that has had precious little of either.

I’m with Max Fisher on this one.