"Skepticism in the West & throughout the region that Assad can be defeated ..."

Via FLC

"... There's also skepticism in the West and throughout the region that Assad can be defeated – at least anytime soon – by a protest movement with no identified leader and whose participants come with a range of competing ideologies, especially amid reports that the number of demonstrators has dwindled since the government's fierce Ramadan offensive began last week.
The business class has yet to abandon Assad, and, so far, there's no wave of high-level defections from the military or government. "We do expect further cracks in the army but, to be realistic, it would have to happen at a late stage in the collapse of this regime," said Najib Ghadbian, a Syria expert at the University of Arkansas and an opposition activist. He added that it was incumbent upon Syrians to build a credible transitional body if they want foreign powers to move past the anxiety over succession and demand Assad's ouster.
Despite criticism of the crackdown, anxiety over a collapse of the 40-year-old Assad dynasty covers a range of fears...

Saudi King Abdullah, who this year crushed his own nation's protest movement and was instrumental in putting down Bahrain's uprising, issued a statement calling on Assad to "enact reforms that are not merely promises, but actual reforms." Few regional commentators, however, missed the irony of an absolute monarch whose kingdom doesn't allow women to drive lecturing a fellow authoritarian on power-sharing reforms..."

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