I actually de-facto ceased following developments in Syria. It's entirely pointless, then no matter how well-informed one can get, the nonsense fed to the general public is simply overwhelming...
But, you happen to have hit the nail on the head here, Azor.
Namely, while everybody is babbling about 'USA and Russia', and their 'negotiations' and this ridiculous 'cease-fire' they should have negotiated and whatever else - that's all BS. Plain and simple BS.
USA have no say in Syria, and Russia has no say in Syria. What they are doing there is a big pissing contest, in which both sides are pissing against the wind with all their powers - with unsurprising, indeed: 'corresponding' results.
Assad has no 100,000 troops: he's got a hoge-poge of about
70,000 - half of which is Ba'ath Party's Volkssturm and sectarian militias, and the other half
not even really loyal to him any more.
He went bankrupt already back in autumn 2011. Financially, he's surviving ever since only thank to financial aid provided by Tehran (meanwhile
estimated at well over US$ 100 billion spent ever since). Since 2013, Assad is also out of control of his military:
the IRGC is in charge.
But, this fact is insistently ignored by all the foreign observers - and ably exploited by Assadists and Iranians (and all the online-fans of Assad, Putler & CO KG GesmbH, who all the time babble about 'SAA').
The first and most crucial of any kind of useful conclusions about Syria should be: there is nothing to negotiate with Russians about, because they do not control Assad, nor his 'SAA'. Enough said, and 'period'.
If at all, one would have to negotiate with Tehran.
But nah: presently, Tehran is not only completely ignored; it's left to do whatever it likes to do in Syria. Not only because nobody is paying attention, but especially because the USA are so stupidly insistent on buying the Russian story and negotiating with Moscow.
Why are the USA acting that way?
I've got no clue. Perhaps Oblabla is just plain dumb. Perhaps his entire admin is plain dumb. Or it's not only him that's dumb, and it's not only his entire government that's dumb, but also all the media-owners that are so insistently supporting his version of the story, that are so dumb too.
Fact is: Oblabla, his Mentalist & Co manoeuvred themselves into a position from which there is no way out - but this ridiculous BS-itting about 'negotiating with Russians'.
Particularly absurd here is that Oblabla and Mentalist have nothing to negotiate about
: they refused to control the Syrian insurgency already back in 2012, and therefore do not control it now either. 'Somebody else' does, but to admit this in the public seems to be an 'absolute no-no'.
So, here you have two 'negotiating partners' babbling about cease-fires and whatever else - i.e. about controlling something they do not control.
I can't understand how can so many people - all of them at least 'reasonably intelligent' - expect anything else...?
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A 'BTW' for all those hoping and praying it's going to get better if either Billary or Stumpf... erm... sorry: Trump is elected: nah, it's not going to get better.
Billary belongs to 99% of people reporting and commenting about this war as if there is not a single Iranian (i.e. IRGC) there, and Trump neither has clue nor could care any less about 'such details': at best, he'll continue Oblabla's policy of 'negotiating with Russians', because 'Putler is respecting me, so I have to respect him too'...
All of this because they also belong to that entire army of insistently clueless and so idiotically arrogant people, who prefer to babble about 'Jihadists' and 'extremists' and 'IS/ISIL/ISIS/Daesh' and oil and whatsoever, but would never in their wildest dreams come to the idea to face reality about Syria.