Fascinating middle paragraph. Had no idea Syria had fake grassroots groups in places as far afield as Australia - I thought it so regionalised that there'd maybe be something in France (given their historic association) and that would be it?

Good questions asked, anyway. Syria situation continues to distress me because it doesn't seem like there's much way out of it. A Syrian friend circulates all the anti-govt/popular resistance news on FB and the tone of that has shifted dramatically over the last six months. It's pretty acidic and pessimistic now. Shifting Bashar is going to take years at a heavy cost. But there's no way back to the old equilibrium either; it just seems nasty no matter which way things go from here. That's not based on any deep reading, of course, if you can see any rays of light out there I'd love to hear them.

I loved Damascus. One of the nicest places I ever visited.