ORENTES RIVER, Syria - One year ago, a group of schoolchildren scrawled graffiti on school walls in the small city of Daraa. Excited over the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere known as the Arab Spring, the boys wrote, "The people want the overthrow of the regime."The boys, who ranged in age from 10 to 15, were whisked away by the security forces of President Bashar Assad and beaten terribly. Some even had their fingernails pulled out by their tormentors.The people of Daraa were outraged and mobbed streets in protest, the customary way in which many in the Arab world communicate with their dictatorial leaders.
