Increasingly called to arms

The challenge facing Syria’s opposition protestors seems greater today than at any other time during the six months of demonstrations against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Despite more than 2,600 people dead, according to United Nations figures, the imposition of sanctions against the Syrian leadership and an international outcry, an undaunted Assad has redoubled his efforts to crush the uprising by brute force. This durability is causing dismay among opposition protestors who, for all their bravery in facing tanks and snipers on a near daily basis, have yet to gain the necessary momentum to topple the regime. Increasingly, there is talk in opposition circles of the inevitability of resorting to weapons to confront the regime. Reports are mounting of attacks against Syrian security forces and of arms being smuggled into Syria. The prices of black market weapons in Lebanon continue to climb, as they have done since mid-March