Rebels v rebels

摘要

Sitting in an Istanbul cafe, Khaled Khoja, a member of Syria's Western-approved National Coalition, recalls how, when he was incarcerated in the 1980s, a prison guard rapped on the door of his cell and told the people inside to stop talking so loudly. "Why, what are you going to do?" replied a brave inmate. "Lock us up?" In similar fashion, Syrians-who for two-and-a-half years have withstood the regime's barrel-bombs, incendiary weapons and chemical attacks-hope that things can hardly get worse. Yet there is a bleak and growing sense that they could.