<https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/306342-russia-warns-the-us-of-serious-consequences/page/6/#comment-6111984>
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"Assad is winning but not by a lot, he still controls only a fraction of his country, lost between 40% and 55% of his military, recently repelled an organized assault on the capital which probably scared him some, has had 22% of his country flee the country as refugees with another 40% displaced internally, and peace talks that are going no where with large groups either walking out or boycotting them out right.  \n \n\n\n\tAssad knows as things currently stand he only remains alive for as long as Russia and Iran decide to back him, which with no end in site of the conflict there is no guarantee one or both won't decide to cut their losses at any moment and just leave.\n \n\n\n\tIts not unimaginable that Assad is far more desperate then he lets on and is quickly trying to end the civil war before he either loses support from the only two nation's keeping him alive or before the amount of people that has left Syria becomes far too great from Syria to recover from.\n \n\n\n\tThen one has to be careful with trying to understand the mind of Assad, what may seem irrational to most people very well be rational to Assad.  As a dictator part of how he retains power is by using fear and brutally punishing/crushing any that oppose him.  \n \n\n\n\tUltimately Assad is winning but his victory is far from certain, which even if he does win at this point it would at best be a pyrrhic victory, so using any means necessary to win the war quickly and punish those who opposed him may very well be a rational decision especially given that past use of chemical weapons only resulted in a relatively shorted lived pr problem.\n \n"
<https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/306342-russia-warns-the-us-of-serious-consequences/page/6/#comment-6120405>