Fake It Until You Make It

Has Assad won his multi-war? Not yet and maybe not ever depending on how you define victory.

They want this to be true:

The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it is time for political leaders to accept the survival of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.

I don't know, this map doesn't look like an Assad victory even if Assad's forces have been making gains this year, largely into a vacuum left by retreating ISIL forces as American-supported forces drive ISIL back and kill off their fighters.

Syrian government control is still limited. And where do they make significant gains unless the Kurds accept Assad's authority by cutting some type of deal with him for significant autonomy?

That would be a big deal, of course.

But Assad has lost 120,000 troops dead to get this far; and Hezbollah has lost 2,000 propping up Assad. How much more will people give up their sons for Assad's victory if the alternative is to stick with holding what they have now?

I'm just saying that Hezbollah has an incentive to claim victory so rebels will give up and to justify Hezbollah packing up and going home to Lebanon.

UPDATE: More:

Syria's war has entered a new phase as President Bashar al-Assad extends his grip in areas being captured from Islamic State, using firepower freed by Russian-backed truces in western Syria.

Note that Assad's advances to the east require both an America-led effort to defeat ISIL in the east and the easing of fighting in the west because of Russian-sponsored truces with rebels in the west that free up Assad's scarce mobile forces.

Assad may yet win. But his strength is not high. And I don't know how resilient his forces are.