المرصد: اشتباكات عنيفة ليلا بين الجيش السوري ومنشقين في دمشق

Al-Jazeera cites rebel leaders as saying that a special team of the Free Syrian Army kills Defense Minister Rajiha and head of military intelligence Shawkat.

I guess things in Syria seem to be moving a little faster than expected. Yesterday Halab and today Damascus. Plus the behavior of the regime with the letter to the UN is bizarre, it reflects more a desperate act rather than a rational behavior. It seems that the regime is not only loosing ground and control in Syria very fast, but also loosing grasp on the situation and how to deal with it.

(1/2)@Mowaten: If history is anything we can take projections from, the middle class were the last to enter any political revolution. Halab and Damascus is where the middle class lives, and this is the epicenter of the Syrian economy. If I personally were in Syria, I would not care about any revolution, I would care about keeping my business running and being able to pay my employees' salaries and keeping food on everyone's table. I don't support Assad, absolutely not, but I would not join the revolution myself. But that's only a personal choice. Middle class commonly have bigger responsibilities, tighter margins for accepting losses, and as such have the most to loose. Doris Goodwin (who's considered one of the best historians in modern times) wrote a series of essays on the role of middle class in political revolutions in history and clearly reflects the behavior we're seeing today in Damascus and Halab.

(2/2)However the evolution is clear in the Syrian situation and now we see not only the protests but the fact that the rebels are becoming bolder and we are hearing about activity taking place in Damascus and Halab. Saying Assad is going to fall is not wishful thinking. Nobody can survive this. Just like the Russian envoy to the UN said to put it mildly: "No one is expecting Assad to stay in power for the next 10 years".

You want them to line up and get shot?