Yeah about Iraq being number 4. Did they take into account the fact the majority of the military personnel were forced conscripts who if given the chance would have chopped off Saddams head? I think the same can be said about syria.     it's basically like this; everyone knows assad should die, but his military is going along with the attacks because they're afraid to be labeled as rebels and be killed or have their families killed. in reality, all it would take is one man to kill assad and the rest of his guards would back off, knowing that the man who can punish them is dead.     most of the people following assad are acting out of fear for their lives and their families lives, they just want to be on the side that isn't getting killed. the rest are the syrian rich elites who spout propaganda because they don't care about anything but their wealth, and will say anything to demonize anyone they think threatens that. since their wealth and power is tied in with assads regime, to lose assad would lose them ALOT. if assad were to fall, they would be on a one way plane out of syria at such haste, they'd barely have time to pack a weeks worth of clothes. everything else would be abandoned, including their dinner if it was already plated. their houses would look like robbery scenes, with open drawers everywhere and clothes strewn about. they'd just be in complete panic the whole time, hoping to make it to the airport alive.    have you seen the crap assads little son has been spouting on social media? I'd like to see the look on that little pricks face when the palace he's staying in is stormed and he's got a rifle to his head in his bedroom.     assad may look worried free and cordial and like he's just simply walking around in the open without worry, but in reality he's been living in a bunker and has limited those closest to him to a very small number of people he can trust. when a president of a country has to do that, you know he knows he's guilty of something. 100,000 deaths and rising, he knows there's a bullet out there somewhere with his name on it...and it could come from almost anyone.    assad may hate israel, but the enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend. As I've said before, every square inch of the middle east could be nuked and I wouldn't bat an eye. there will never be peace in the middle east unless ALL of the middle east is destroyed. thousands of years of history has taught us that much. the middle east is an infection on the rest of the world.