A Nightmare Future For Syria?

Joshua Landis is pessimistic:

Even if demonstrations can be shut down for the time being, the opposition will not be defeated […] It is hard to see any soft landing for the regime or the people. It is also hard to see how the regime will be brought down short of economic collapse and its inability to pay wages, which would lead to wider social defections and a possible splitting of the military […] Regions not divided by sect could remain fairly quite and stable for a time if there is a unified political leadership to step into the vacuum. Otherwise competing parties will develop militias as happened in Iraq and Lebanon.

He doesn’t seem to be supporting the regime, but some will argue that the ultimate result of reading this post is to conclude that the Assad family is the least bad thing for Syria which should therefore be preserved..