A little over a week ago, I wrote that the feel of the fighting in Syria was that the rebels were winning and that this seemed like the end of the beginning. Rebel victories could get more obvious more quickly, I wrote.
This seems fairly obvious:
Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.
Residents also reported Internet connections in the capital were down and mobile and land telephone lines working only sporadically in what appeared to be the worst disruption to communications in Syria since an uprising began 20 months ago.
The past two weeks have seen rebels overrunning army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds.
Another sign is that we are edging closer to open intervention, as the rebels prove they can win. It seems the administration senses the change:
The Obama administration, hoping that the conflict in Syria has reached a turning point, is considering deeper intervention to help push President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to government officials involved in the discussions.
Do this, and it becomes the beginning of the end.
Then the question is whether the Russians send in paratroopers and marines to help secure a rump Alawite state, either clinging to the coastal mountains or with some type of inland buffer out to the main highway between Aleppo and Damascus. How badly does Russia want a naval base in the Mediterranean?
And will Iran attempt to bolster such a rump state, maybe with Revolutionary Guards in a more open combat role, in order to keep a land supply line to Lebanon to support Hezbollah?
Even if we are at the beginning of the end, the end is just for the current crisis. New crises will follow, have no doubt.
But one problem at a time. Shattering Assad's regime will be a victory.
