AS THE conflict in Syria worsens and the death toll continues to rise, President Bashar Assad is facing increasing pressure to step down
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Assad's regime is being forced into a very tight corner. There is a high probability that chemical and biological weapons will be used as the last resort to get out of the quagmire. It must be utterly scary. Would that be part of Arab Spring outcome? (mtd1943)
There's a high probability ... lol ... according to whom? We used this same point against Saddam, it's worn out. It's proven to be false. The whole situation is manipulated, just like giving voice to one side alone in a two (or more) sided conflict. "Rebels said ..." , "activists said ...", etc. Who actually sabotaged peace plan? FSA and its western allies, who have been filmed smuggling guns into Syria through turkish and jordanian borders.
Saddam thought (probably accurately) that the US would nuke him to hell if he used chemical weapons. Not true for Syria.
Once the people propping up Assad figure out that it isn't a matter of whether but when he will fall, they will abandon ship in droves. So the question is, will this particular bombing be the event that convinces them?
The best way to tell will, I suspect, be a sudden uptick in spouses of major regime figures feeling a sudden urge to go shopping outside the country. Once a man has his family safely out of harms' way, he can act to remove himself from a losing position.
Clever comment! Just take their wives outside the country and they will lose their loyalty. If in 18 months of armed (and western encouraged) uprising they haven't done so, why should they do it now?
Um...because it has become clear that Assad is a lost cause? 6 months or a year ago, it was possible to believe that the rebellion could be crushed successfully. Now, much harder to make a convincing case.
The Sheikdoms are due for a shakedown.
You think the Sheikdoms who are due for a shakedown not Asad regime? The population of the Gulf States, by your logic are the ones suffering from the tyranny of their rulers, not the enslaved Syrians, therefore they are the ones ought to revolt! One can write whatever one wishes, but those who lived in both Syria and the Arab Gulf know better. I do not mean the writer did not know the facts, but the writer could be attempting like his masters in Damascus, deception.