he may try and just say, look, survival is victory. if i get through and come out of the rubble with my arm in the air, that s enough. it s possible given how volatile and messed up that whole region is he may do something which could impact allies like israel, take a country like lebanon that s so close to the edge anyway and push it further toward disaster. a lot could potentially come in the blowback from this, which may actually be significantly more of an impact that the america strikes in the first place. footnote for this, i think we should not really in a way overestimate the options open to bashar. israel has hit syria time and time again, and bashar did nothing. he looked the other way. bob, you said the syrian regime may be set to launch a new offensive. explain that. don, let me put it in context. i m hearing this from inside the regime from damascus. people come out, they can skype me from lebanon. these are alowites.