I can guess why this report is not getting a lot of upvotes, heh.

It seems perhaps…unlikely, that anything will be resolved by these talks.

But I wonder what concessions Assad, or his opponents, might conceivably be willing to make…

In the seemingly unlikely event that Assad agrees to step down, it seems he would, at the very least, put conditions on that, such as that Muslim Brotherhood and their ilk, for example, would be excluded from any prospect of participating in a new government…which they will scream bloody murder about, but fk a whole bunch of jive ass theocrats, ya know?

I could also see requiring that some fundamental elements of Syrian constitution would be preserved, such as not allowing Syria’s oil fields or other vital national resources to be sold to foreign interests, say.

Which seems to really be the main sticking point, as far as western imperialist powers are concerned, as I understand it…the whole historic basis of hostility toward Syria is their nationalization of resources, rather than being willing to sell Syria’s ass to foreign “interests”.

If western imperialism was not so irrationally hostile toward Syria over that, and were to stand down from relentlessly, ruthlessly trying to infiltrate, propagandize and bribe subversion, sedition and terrorism, as has been the pattern of practice these many years, trying to overthrow the government by hook and by crook, with every dirty trick in the book, seven ways from Sunday…maybe Syria wouldn’t feel such a compelling need for such draconian security practices, or the ultra-centralized martial law structure that inevitably, virtually automatically, results in elitism and corruption.

A big if, heh…I see no way this can happen without a profound popular democratic electoral uprising in the US to force CIA/State to cease and desist from it’s sordid legacy, legislatively and judicially.

Not to be chauvinist about it, heh, but if the US were do this, I think it would have a huge effect on all other nations, whom I think would ultimately emulate such a model.

We came close to that in ’08, but, alas, the putative “Democratic Majorities” were still rotten with Blue Dog ilk, rendering the new administration still hostage to traitorous hostile anti-democratic rightwing majorities, sworn to sabotage the popular democratic mandate.

While Mr. Obama has been able to initiate some fairly substantial, if insufficient, shifts in US foreign (and domestic) policy, the old-school military/industrial complex legacy runs deep, and is even now waging “low intensity” civil war, against the peoples’ will, in virtually every regard.

Clearly that step, of moar resolutely and decisively purging the right from the levers of power, electorally, and suppressing their jive ass, legislatively and judicially, from now on, is necessary for justice and peace to ensue, at home and abroad.

But meanwhile, as we work on that, heh…what prospects are there, I wonder, for popular democratic reform in Syria?

Evidently there are some elements of the opposition that Assad is willing to negotiate with, more or less. As I understand it, he has also allowed some popular democratic reforms, as inadequate as they may be considered by many.

But I’ve not seen a lot of analysis of that, or the prospects going forward, for the popular democratic reforms actually desired and demanded by the Syrian people.

The very serious and most obvious issue of elitist corruption is a tough nut to crack…how do you root that out, without merely handing the country over to other equally venal elitists, just as bad or worse?

No way should Syria be handed over to MB weasels, or compradore traitors.

I don’t claim to know the answer to that…but it seems to me that Syrian “rebels” need to stand down militarily, and engage democratically, electorally. Given the situation, this would be a Good thing, that the whole world could rally around and support.

Electoral boycott and excessive splitting are ruining the prospects for progress, everywhere, seems to me.

Any further military actions should be exclusively aimed at suppressing takfiri, which the whole world will also support.

Call me a naive “American” idealist, blowing it out my ass from afar, heh…but reason and logic demand resolution of these conflicts, and we have to start somewhere.