With reports coming out of another 'atrocity' involving women and children in Syria and me having claimed recently that Syria is not going the way of Serbia - I guess I need to address this development. Doesn't make any sense to me. Bashir's father could get away with slaughter because he had the Soviet Union standing behind him - the son quite simply doesn't have this luxury. China and Russia have made it clear they view it in their strategic interests to back Assad - but no matter how much they may want to they can't continue to do so if he's okaying atrocities - and it's hard to see how Assad survives a withdrawal of support by China and Russia - but even if he imagines he can survive, why tempt fate unnecessarily? Therefore him okaying atrocities would make no sense.
So I see only two explanations that seem to add up should the reports turn out to be true - well, three I guess if one wants to believe Assad is either a sadistic madman or a fool - the former I don't see, the latter, ah... possible I guess - so probably only two credible explanations here to my mind: there's a rogue element in the military that is doing this for reasons which at the moment are not at all clear; an extremist Sunni faction, possibly imported from Iraq, possibly associated with AQ, sees an opportunity here to dramatically alter the playing field to their advantage in that dysfunctional part of the world and is willing to do anything to make it happen. I say imported from Iraq because - well, for obvious reasons - but aside from that I just read an interesting article in Foreign Policy making the case that the Maliki government is possibly morphing into a Shiite version of the Saddam regime - so one could see how intemperate Sunni elements might be willing to do some rather extreme things in order to weaken the Shia threat - after all, they've done it before.
[are there any other players who would like to see Assad displaced and might be willing to visit the dark side like this? No doubt Russian covert operatives and the Quds Force are in country and up to god knows what - Russia and Iran may have good reason to get rid of Assad so that they can in essence take over - would they commit heinous acts like this? Wouldn't surprise me, especially the Quds Force - but if they wanted to get rid of Assad why not form an alliance with a Syrian general and have him pull the trigger? Lot at stake in Syria for a diverse set of players so not unreasonable to expect any number of disquieting scenarios bubbling to the surface]
