When the cowards come for you they will come with tanks and overwhelming force. They will torture your children for daring to speak the truth. They will shoot your neighbors from rooftops as you attempt to bury your dead. They will bomb and shell your homes into rubble, then sift through the twisted steel and crumbling concrete lest anyone come out alive.
At night, when you are all alone and waiting for the cowards to break down your door you will tremble as you’ve never trembled in your life. You will look at your frightened family and realize how fragile is the world and the dreams you were foolish enough to believe in. Any hope or plans you nurtured for your children’s future will be crushed like ants beneath the bloodstained boots of these cowardly murderers.
When the cowards break down your door and rudely snatch your sons from your arms you will fight like you’ve never fought before. You will struggle against all odds to keep them alive and free. You will struggle in vain to safeguard the only treasure worth defending with your dying breath.
When the cowards kill your sons and wives and brothers you will feel more alone than you’ve ever felt before. And you will wonder how it could be that no one heard your cries for help. That no one who witnessed the brutal killing spree came to your defense. That no one had the strength or courage to stand up to the cowards and shout “Enough! Stop the killing!” You will wonder why your pleas to God and humanity fell on deaf ears. Why your cries for help brought fighting words but no actual fighters to your assistance.
When the cowards come for you they will come with tanks and overwhelming force. And they will kill with defiant impunity; raining down destruction in front of a world that can only stare in frozen disbelief. A world that sadly hasn’t learned that each death of a defenseless civilian not only strengthens the cowards but diminishes the cowardly onlookers.
Look not upon the victims of Syria, friends, lest you see yourselves. Then wait. Sooner or later the cowards will come for you.