re: #436 GunstarGreen

I was reading Michael Totten’s take on some of this, he points out that the only way Assad can make his side fanatical enough to fight and save his butt is to do everything he can to make sure that this is a sectarian battle, an existential battle where everyone is likely to get massacred if he falls.

So he does his best to drag the the conflict down into the mud and foment hatred…

Of course that doesn’t excuse Al Qaeda and other Sunnis who are happy to play the same game.

I just want to point out that the Assad side isn’t better on this, and they may objectively be worse.