A Useful Read on Syria

When Josh Landis (Syria Comment) says of anything, "This is the best piece of writing on Syria since the uprising began. Read it," attention must be paid. Do read it. Also note his regular contributor Alex's corrections to the maps. Called "Syria in Fragments: Divided Minds, Divided Lives," the main article addresses the sectarian, ethnic, and secular vs. Islamist issues in turn.

But one cavil about Alex's corrections: he says Christians are found almost everywhere in Syria "but not in Deir Ezzore as shown." I had a good friend, a longtime Arabic translator for the US State Department many years ago. He was an Assyrian Christian from Deir Ezzore (or Deir al-Zor as I would write it). So there are at least some.