and suny has done that magnificently well for many years. it is a precious jewel of this state, and it's a jewel that we starred polishing last year and we're going to continue. we started the new york suny 2020 program last year that allowed campuses to compete for grants to improve the academic excellence of the college but also become an economic development generator for the region. the research centers competed last year. it's going very well. we want to expand that competition to the 60 other campuses for suny all across the state and have three awards of $20 million each to spur competition and provide funding for suny to reach the level of excellence that we all want them to reach. it is an exciting program. suny is doing mastly well. we are blessed with a great leader. let's give a big round of applause to chancellor nancy zemp fer. slurg for all the progress and for all our sophistication, we still have wrongs to right. and some of them are frighteningly basic. one in six children in new york live in homes without enough food. and

not because they were christians and sudanese, but because they were not part of the urban suny community establishment. unless we take into effect these nuances, we will revert back to the policies on these issues. finally, opposition. who are they come in what is it we should be supporting? -- who are they, and at what is it we should be supporting? let me just say this because i want to stop here. what is it we should be supporting? i really feel it is a very important to ask questions especially as americans or people representing the americans what should we should be doing is a question that is very difficult and problematic and sometimes depending on who is asking, is hypocritical to ask our officials say what we should be doing in the region, are you serious? arii skipped a word. [laughter] what we should be doing is military dictatorships and dictatorships in the region. we talk about democracy and fighting in pushing for a particular facet what we are supporting the most vicious secretary and authoritarian regimes in the world including saudi arabia and many other regimes in the

mutanabbi street is a mixed shia-suni area. more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. this locale is the historic center of baghdad book selling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. named after the famous 10th century classic poet, al-mutanabbi, this is an old and established street for book selling and has been for hundreds of years. mutanabbi street also holds cafes, stationary shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. it has been the heart and soul of the baghdad literary and intellectual community. this tragedy is part of a wider and continuing tragedy, but one that we want to isolate and address, not only for the loss of lives but also for the implications underlying the destruction of a street where books were sold. book selling on mutanabbi street is no different from book selling here. we traffic in memory, ideas and dreams. in that sense, we feel that mutanabbi street starts at the front door of all of our book shops. mutanabbi street starts here. our first reader will be

i mention inside the region, new polarizati ons, such as shiite and suni countries. there was rejectionist camps, we do not want that type of separation. or pro west anti-west countries. in our region today, there's one single difference, those who are trying to keep cold war structures and those who are trying to understand the flow, the logic of the flow of history. and try to respond to the demands of the people accordingly. what do i mean, this? mubarak was pro west, assad was pro soviet, in cold war and anti-west afterwards, mubarak and gadhafi was shiite, or close to shiite approach. our attitude against mubarak, gadhafi and assad is same and the demands of the young people and today of the people of homs is the same, they is a society, they had a same demand. what people in the square, young people wanted, is free and fair election, transparency accountability and what people in homs today want is same. rule of law, accountability, free and fair election. so it means, it is not an issue of shiite and sunni, we need one consistent approach. turkey has a consist

vote to try to stamp out opposition in predominantly suny opposition neighborhoods in homs which haste honestly, i don't think he can -- his troops are not capable of being everywhere and there's much more opposition springing up other than just in homs. we are in a civil war as far as i'm concerned. >> excuse me, ambassador. can you speak to the polling that's been done with the people and how large is the opposition? >> well, quite honestly, i'm not aware of any polling that has been done or can be done, but about 2/3 of syria population is so suni arab. i don't want to say all of them are against the regime but many of them are. they are arming themselves. they believe they'll be slaughtered like lambs if the regime ever manages to stamp out the opposition arm presence. the regime does have support because there are important minority groups, assad's own minority, the alouites, an offshoot of christians and jews. there is a curd dish minority too. >> the ambassador joining us today. thanks for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> still ahead on "starting point", today's rev

the more that you have the suni, dealing with the shiites becomes a vulnerability.ly, there is an issue of geopolitical aspirations. who is going to be the hegemon in the area? we see this exemplified and what everyone calls the persian gulf. it was what i was brought up to know as the arab gulf. these issues continue to define aspects of their relation. these are issues that transcend which are jim governs the area. -- which regime governs the area. they are more worried about a nuclear iran that a nuclear israel. israel's ability to influence arab politics is limited. iran with nuclear weapons is a bigger problem for arab government than a nuclear israel. this is true in jordan, egypt, and elsewhere. iran however saw to replace this narrative with a super narrative -- another directive that allows them access to the arab spring and arab public opinion. that is a narrative of resistance versus accommodation. through cultivating that includes iran, syria, and other palestinian organizations, they try to present a different narrative. this is resistance versus accomm

the more that you have the suni, dealing with the shiites becomes a vulnerability. is going to be the hegemon in the area? we see this exemplified and what everyone calls the persian gulf. it was what i was brought up to know as the arab gulf. these issues continue to define aspects of their relation. these are issues that transcend which are jim governs the area. -- which regime governs the area. they are more worried about a nuclear iran that a nuclear israel. israel's ability to influence arab politics is limited. iran with nuclear weapons is a bigger problem for arab government than a nuclear israel. this is true in jordan, egypt, and elsewhere. iran however saw to replace this narrative with a super narrative -- another directive that allows them access to the arab spring and arab public opinion. that is a narrative of resistance versus accommodation. through cultivating that includes iran, syria, and other palestinian organizations, they try to present a different narrative. this is resistance versus accommodation. this is a narrative that has good traction. a

secular muslim brother hood, urban, rural, middle class, poor, and above all the fault line of suni. divisions observers say assad exploits. >> the regime has played games and has managed to divide -- to play on all the divisions, capitalize on all the international, local, regional, internal divisions. >> reporter: assad and his father before him have ruled this way for over 40 years, masters of divide and conquer. he appears confident and the opposition is far more fragmented than it was several months ago. and that's not the only problem for activist leaders. every death builds bitterness, making it harder for them to lead their people to the kind of compromise needed to avoid a civil war. assad is playing by his rules. and right now, there's in one to stop him. nic robertson, cnn, london. >> let's get to barbara sar. we heard from nicnic. he says there is not that much out will there to stop assad from continuing the crackdown. >> publicly here in washington, all of the talk is about diplomatic and economic pressure against the syrian regime. senator tom mccain calling for arming

it will take all syrians working together -- christians, hand-in- hand with suni and arabs and kurdsure that the country is governed by the rule of all law. and takes on the widespread corruption that has marked the regime. for this to work, syria's minorities will have to join in shaping the future and their rights and voices will have to be heard, protected, and respected. and their rights and choices will have to be heard, protect and respected. and then we say to the reach them today, we hear your fears and your aspiration. do not let the current regime exploit them to extend this crisis. leaders of serious nearness immunity, military and other dictation will have to recognize their futures lie with the state and not the regime. syria belongs to it 23 million citizens, not to one man or his family. change can still be accomplished without dismantling the state or producing new tyranny. it is time for the international community to put aside our differences and send a clear message of support to the people of syria. the alternative? burning the arab league, abandoning the syrian p

community college, schenectady county community college, but we have an ag and tech campus in the suny system, the state university of new york system. all of these are doing cutting edge involvement in research that gos to war that spills over to the worker. solar energy, making sure you have trade, all this is happening in our colleges. the president said let's go forward and invest, i believe there's an $ billion investment in community colleges to train the worker. let's not pull back on success. we see what's working. we know what has to happen. we have the formula based on history that ought to speak to us. and let's get it done. the worker can't wait until the next election. this decision making on this floor should be about hope and opportunity, not about the next election. but about the next jobs we can bring into the districts of this great country, the congressional districts that in a cumulative format will spell a reigniting of the american dream. a reigniting of the american dream. my district is -- district is a doe far area to the erie canal. we saw a necklace of commun