It turns out that the Iraqi leadership essentially backed the Syrian side of the divide over their repressive attacks on their own people. It’s credible to suggest that Iran played a role in Iraq’s decision-making.

The Iraqi government is most certainly not unified on this point. The Parliament has denounced the violence in Syria, particularly the Kurdish and Sunni factions. But Maliki appears firmly in the Syrian camp, in contrast to his government’s anger at Bahrain when the Sunni minority brutalized a Shiite majority. So the sectarian lens has come to govern Iraq’s positions in the region.

What continues to unfold in Syria is a massive crime against humanity. The UN Security Council has unanimously condemned the violations against human rights and use force against civilians by President Bashar al Assad’s regime. But sending a US envoy to open lines of communication with the Syrian people and the Syrian government could further aggravate the situation in Syria.

The uprising in Syria may have reached a tipping point. The Arab League has ended its silence on Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of protesters and condemned the violence, expressing “growing concern and serious distress” at the attacks. But more important, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador, a crucial vote of no confidence in the Assad regime.

n the aftermath of a massacre in Hama, Syria state media broadcasted images of “burnt, buildings, makeshift barricades and deserted streets strewn with rubble,” according to the New York Times and claimed the revolt in Syria has ended. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports tens of thousands have taken to the streets all over the country and are continuing a five-months old uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

If it’s possible, things are getting even more intense in Syria. The incursion into Hama, site of a large massacre of citizens at the hands of the regime in 1982, carries symbolic significance, as well as continuing the brutal repression which has killed or disappeared thousands since the start of the uprising.

So, have you heard the one about the former American ally in the Middle East turning against us? I know, how rare.

Today eight Bahraini Shia protesters were sentenced to, wait for it, life in prison, on trumped up charges related to the island kingdom’s peaceful protest movement. Specifically, the Bahraini government royal family accuses them of conspiracy to commit a coup. In response, Shia protestors have defied the security forces and gone back to the streets.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has just done something it hasn’t done since Vietnam, passing a resolution that supports efforts to speed up the ending of our current wars and calls on the President and Congress to “bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs.

Welcome to the open road, sisters in Saudi Arabia. There, in a celebration of freedom that has become regular Friday fare in the Middle East and North Africa, women took the wheel and drove themselves about. While no actual law constrains them, women are under a fatwa against taking off driving a car – and are subject to being detained when they do.

The House Republican leadership, after agreeing to allow a vote on a privileged War Powers resolution from Dennis Kucinich which would end US involvement in the war in Libya, has now yanked that vote from the calendar….In a statement, Kucinich said he was “disappointed that the President and leadership feel the need to buy even more time to shore up support for the War in Libya.