That's how State Department Syria hand Frederic Hof, speaking for the Administration, described Assad. The Economist looks to the Arab League to make Hof's prediction a reality:
Since it took the unprecedented step of imposing sanctions against Syria last month, the league is the key to diplomacy aimed at bringing Mr Assad down. Western governments, which have steadily tightened sanctions against Mr Assad, are taking their cue from it. So far Russia and China have refused to consent to any measures in the UN Security Council similar to those that helped get rid of Muammar Qaddafi. It will be for the league to persuade them to fall into line.
Streets Inc. disagrees, claiming "the Arab League has failed." Mounir Abdulnasser and Michael Totten are relatively hopefully about a post-Assad Syria. Maysaloon is scared:
I'm exhausted. Not physically, although that is starting to get affected too, but mentally. I want to sleep for longer periods, and I have started to avoid anything which is too realistic whenever I turn the television on. It's almost as if, by watching even more and more ridiculous television I might be able to satisfy this urge for escapism that has grown inside me. The news from Syria is getting progressively worse, and my biggest concern is now for all those loved ones that I've left behind in that beautiful country. Only a few days ago, I asked a Syrian I knew, from the older generation, how come nobody was able to stand up to tyranny and the dictatorship that was forming when Hafez Assad took power in 1970. She told me it was because everybody was afraid, that after this "corrective movement", the Syrian people started to feel a particular type of fear for the first time in living memory.
Jonathan Miller reports on "Assad's torture machine," and The Revolting Syrian flags an interview with torture survivors. This man, Mazen Qadhi, was simply shot in the head:
This demonstration in Idlib two days ago looks rather large:
And finally, Yousif Ahmed's family – including his mother and children – grieves over his bruised and battered body (English subtitles):
The Dish 