Syria is attracting a considerable international attention these days, not only because of the drama of peaceful protest against tanks and sniper bullets which represents a continuation of the Arab Spring started in Tunisia last December, but also because of that small country’s political importance on the Middle Eastern scene. A plethora of informational and analytical articles proliferates in the international press vouching for this importance. Analysts are pressed to speculate about the nature of what is happening, especially at the opaque levels of the Syrian top government officials, and also about the future of this civil unrest that many see as a potential game changer in the region. However, recently, an interesting NYT op-ed and a response to it seemed to pull our attention toward the past rather than the future. The author of the op-ed (“My Syria, Awake Again After 40 Years,” June 26, 2011) is Mohammad Ali Atassi,
