Hussein's Fall Leads Syrians to Test Government Limits

This article from the New York Times discusses the new attitudes of Syria's citizens resulting from the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Syrian Baath Party remains firmly in control, ruling through emergency laws that basically suspend all civil rights. The government says the laws are necessary as long as Israel occupies the Golan Heights, 40 miles from Damascus, and the two nations remain at war.

Yet subtle changes have begun, even if they amount to tiny fissures in a repressive state. Some Syrians are testing the limits, openly questioning government doctrine and challenging state oppression.

Syrians who oppose the government do so with some trepidation because it used ferocious violence in the past to silence any challenge. Yet the fall of Mr. Hussein changed something inside people.

"I think the image, the sense of terror, has evaporated," said Mr. Amiralay, the filmmaker

Update: A. Taheri discusses the recent events in Syria and the internal struggles of the Regime

Update: There was a demonstration in Washington DC protesting the treatment of Kurds in Syria