I currently have a resident working for me (who is also my friend) who is from Syria, and he has obviously been stressed for a long time; one can imagine that it's gotten a lot worse in the past couple days. In talking with him today, he told me of an incident in which some 200 people were slaughtered (included, according to his friends who told him of it, women and children). This massacre was perpetrated by the opposition. According to him, there is no side on which to fight in Syria; supporting the opposition, if the groups can be called that, is no morally better than the government, as both are murderers. I don't get the impression that my friend is an ardent government supporter, but he is fearful that Syria will devolve into a theocracy if Assad is toppled. Apparently many of the massacres perpetrated by the so called Free Syrian Army are on people who are secularists who will not submit to Islamic Law (my friend kept referring to them as Al Qaeda, but I have no idea how accurate that is). Helping these people gain power is not only morally bankrupt, but will do nothing for the US's interests. I think the media are really making a mess here just like they did with Iraq. A war will be bad for everyone.