Peace in our time? WTF?

StrategyPage notes that both Assad and the rebels against him agree: the jihadis are the real danger to both sides. Improbable, but maybe, just maybe, Russia might just pull it off.

Such an arrangement would leave intact the powerful commercial family organizations that the Assads long favored and which control much of the economy. It also assures the continued existence of minority (Christian, Alawite, Druze) communities in Syria and makes it easier to revive the economy. While the Assad family would probably lose in elections, and have to surrender many of the assets the clan acquired via corruption over the decades, they would be free from war crimes prosecution and still have a lot of their wealth. They would be able to find comfortable exile (many Syrians would still want them dead) because of the immunity any such deal would probably have to include. The post-Assad Syria would still be anti-Israel but would be without chemical weapons and thus less of a threat to Israel. The vast quantities of Syrian military equipment destroyed in the fighting would not be replaced because of the need for reconstruction. There might even be a peace deal with Israel eventually. 

So if he pulls this off, does this mean Putin will win the Nobel peace prize?

In the meanwhile, a billboard in Tehran celebrates the great Nobel Peace Prize winner, comparing him to the guy who killed Hussein. Actually the billboard has been up since last February, so it's not new, but it implies that Obama is backing the aggressive Sunnis in the Sunni/Shia wars. (i.e. Saudis and Alqaeda not Iran and Hezbollah).

Actually Barry is spending all his time trying to demonize the Republicans as the enemy, so he doesn't have time for minor things like World War III....

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Update: FilAm  writer at Belmont Club remembers how Tom Clancy dared to point out that it was the US Navy who promoted the Pax Americana. And he reminds those who do anti American "stage protests" that they need to recognize that they are helping destroy the very institutions that protect them.

Ironically the courage of Greenpeace is subsidized by the valor of those they detest. For the stage pirates can only go through their steps while the real pirates are at bay; and their right to prattle about fascism is only possible while the real fascists are kept at arm’s length by those they will never thank, whose existence they will never acknowledge.

Yes, and maybe Barry should read Tom Clancy instead of Chomsky. We Pinoys wouldn't be so worried about China's land grabs if we still had the Yanks here. You know it is bad when even the Vietnamese welcome the US Navy...