WHEN THERE’S NOWHERE TO RUN TO OR NOWHERE TO HIDE
(…you’ll fight like a cornered rat)

Anyone who still believes in the illusion that the Assad regime in Syria (along with its Alawite and Ba’athist Party supporters) will ultimately bow to and submit to international pressure to accept and comply with a negotiated settlement with its rebellious people, just isn’t facing up to reality.

To be blunt about it, when there’s nowhere to run to or nowhere to hide, you’ll fight like a cornered rat, and the Assad regime is just that….a cornered rat.

After fifteen months of murderous assault against its own people it has no other choice now but to fight to the bitter end. The only question about that is….how long will it take for that bitter end to arrive? And that bitter end for it is much more likely to be like that of Mussolini and the Ceacescus than otherwise. Even its erstwhile supporters and providers such as Russia, Iran, and China, are finding the situation more and more problematic for them. Ultimately they will abandon it.

In the meantime what can be done to reduce the continuing rising level of carnage against the Syrian people?

Common sense, if not logic, suggests it’s time the world community quit flapping its gums and babbling on about “diplomatic” options, or, possible military “intervention” and arms aid to the rebel forces. What’s really needed are –safe haven- zones where the Syrian people can go to for sanctuary from such assaults, and where they can begin the process of forming a new united and popular sovereign entity as the alternative for replacing the Assad regime.

And the only viable way for that to happen is if Syria’s immediate neighbors, especially Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon combine together to create such a belt of –safe haven- zone all along Syria’s borders with these, covered by a –no fire/no fly – interdiction perhaps as much as 25 Kms deep within Syrian territory along those borders. And to that end then announce that they will enforce that interdiction against any Assad forces attempting to either assault or fire upon those zones by mobilizing their respective military assets to do so. Concurrently, other countries such as France and the US might offer to provide further backup to such a concerted effort, with both air and drone assets.

Meanwhile, international NGOs would be able to move into those zones to help provide the necessary housing, water, sanitation, medical, and other services needed to support whatever numbers of the Syrian population manage to reach these – safe haven – zones. And there, free from Assad terror and assault, these would be able to re-organize themselves as a society, economically, politically, and even perhaps militarily, in preparation for the day when the Assad regime and its adherents finally collapses.

How long such a process might take is anyone’s guess, but it is not inconceivable that once such measures are in place, there might rapidly evolve an alternative Syrian “sovereignty” which the UN could then recognize as the new legitimate government of Syria, effectively de-legitimizing the Assad regime to bring it to a well earned demise.

The question is…do any of Syria’s neighbors, and the rest of the international community, have the moral courage and the will to take such actions?

That is the question.

CENTURION