The line between the two can get blurry in the Middle East, but it’s being reported that the Assad regime have escalating what has been a steadily-deteriorating situations in Syria.  The death toll from yesterday is… well, Syria is keeping foreign reporters out, which makes getting an accurate count correct; but what is getting out is consistent with the Syrians using lethal means to enforce a crackdown.

Meanwhile, we’re issuing stern statements.  One half of Hot Air – reasonably enough – asks what else the Obama administration could be doing right now; the other half of Hot Air – also reasonably enough – comments that one thing that we could be doing would be to at least suggest that the Assad regime should relinquish power.  I mean, when a dictator’s firing on his own people already, just how much more upset and repressive is he likely to get if the USA formally calls for his ouster?

To finish up: aside from the running sore that is the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran, watching Middle Eastern dictatorships daring to openly shoot on protesters and demonstrators is something that we haven’t seen for a while.  In fact, for most of the decade we hadn’t heard a peep out of some of these regimes; it was almost as if they were scared of something…

Oh.  Right.  They were scared of something.

Us.

I don’t think that they’re scared anymore.

Moe Lane (crosspost)