Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Wouldn't by any chance be an elephant...?

I hadn't realized that Syrians in opposition to the murderous government are still bravely coming out for regularly scheduled Friday demonstrations, today's under the slogan "Damascus, here we come."

Protests in Tripoli, Syria. Photo by AFP from Dawn.

The protests are going on all over the country, in spite of snipers and helicopter buzzing, in the most dangerous and already beat up places as well as Damascus itself, where something like a thousand people are doing something like Occupying the capital tonight, according to the BBC, after marching up King Faisal Street chanting, "Peaceful, peaceful, God, Syria, Freedom."

The situation seems horrible beyond horrible. The number killed has now mounted up to 9100, as if Assad were directly competing against his father (the famous 10,000 butchered at Hama in 1982) for a record of some kind. I can't imagine anything from the outside that could help, further sanctions or (illegal) military action, although the kinds of support provided across the border from Turkey are surely a lot better than nothing. Assad yesterday said he would consider dumping the 1963 emergency laws and will put some of the thugs from Deraa, where the movement began just a year ago, on trial; and is said to have ordered the freeing of everyone arrested during the "recent events", whatever "recent" means, but that's just in the BBC as far as I can tell. The protestors are still getting arrested and shot at, and serious warfighting is going on as well.

The image above caught my eye as something that might startle Thomas P. Friedman: the Israeli and Iranian flags as the Syrian rebellion sees them, to be burned as practically interchangeable symbols of oppression.