المرصد: القوات السورية تستعيد السيطرة على حي بابا عمرو في حمص

Mowaten, the Assad regime mowed them down when they were demonstrating unarmed. This led to a shift from "silmya" to "mousallaha". I think that we need to remember this.
But I do agree with joker37: the opposition controls a lot of territory and has powerful backing. It is now in a position to negotiate and try to achieve through negotiations what it set up to achieve at the onset of the revolution.

Mowaten would you please provide a reference where the opposition agrees that there was Al-Quaeda infiltration from the onset of the uprising. I'm googling without any success.

FT: I tend to believe the "mowing down thingy". I rely on countless reports from the field by countless reputable new agencies (they are reputable to me and I fully accept that you distrust them). Arwa Damon's reporting from the field comes to mind, among several others. Besides, there is precedence: Bashar's father sure mowed our civilians down with his réjmét and heavy artillery. I have no reason to doubt that the same system that did this to us would hesitate to do it against the population in opposition-controlled areas in Syria.

And FT: At least superficially , Assad still has substantial support internally. I say "superficially" because there were a lot people cheering for Kaddafi and Saddam until the very last minute and look what happened. Assad still controls better equipped, trained and organized fighting forces. This is the reason he is still around. But I think that we both agree that he lost control of very large areas of Syria and that his influence in the ME and the elsewhere in world has diminished dramatically. Even the Russians are no longer staunch allies and it seems that the Iranians are hedging their bets. I don't think that he is going to make it out of this.

Mowaten, sure, I agree that Al-Quaeda and Al Nusra are key elements of the opposition, but I argue that it did not have to be that way. Had the Assad regime not succumbed to its repressive instinct, the outcome would have become quite different. Please note that there are several reports of the population revolting against the Islamists in opposition-controlled area. The frictions between the Islamists and the FSA are increasing. The Islamists and the FSA have a common enemy today, but once that enemy is gone, the FSA will fight to throw the Islamists out. The FSA will come out on top, I'm sure about this.

That's the only sensible thing to do FT. We need a peaceful, inclusive and stable Syria next door.

Qaddafi was about to wipe out Benghazi within weeks if it wasnt for foreign intervention. Do not question the opposition not winning as support for Bashar.. but more like Bashar, with ALL his weapons (which i think we can all agree are much more powerful than the oppositions) has not been able to suppress the opposition.. kinda makes you wonder who is really with him if he has problems fighting on various fronts.. revolutions last a long time .. 2 years is not much... but i think ( and no offence meant) that it is silly to say that it is obvious people are still with Bashar because they havent been able to topple him.. while in fact the exact opposite is true.