All quiet on the Syrian front

All quiet on the Syrian front: "In a backstreet of the cavernous Hamadiyeh market, a young shopkeeper's son tells me how most of his teenage friends are excited about this latest chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

'They see the Lebanese resistance, and they hope for a chance to prove themselves against the Israeli enemy.'

I remind him of a similar phenomenon during the three weeks of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, when resistance there was seen as somehow restoring Arab dignity after so many humiliations - and what happened next.

He agrees: 'It is only the young people saying this. The old people know what war is like, and so they want peace.'

People here are used to military threats from Israel, a militarily superior power to Syria despite its vastly smaller physical size.

But the prevailing view is that Syria is too big a target for Israel to take on at this time, especially as its American ally is already heavily engaged in neighbouring Iraq."

(Via BBC News.)