Arming Villagers News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> which is a little surreal, i'm sure, being there as this fight continues. are there young men left to recruit there in this fight as both sides really converge on the outskirts of damascus? >> well, the government area many young men of military age are trying to leave the country so they don't get drafted. the government has spoken about a manpower shortage. so what they've done is in the countryside they've begun arming villagers to defend their villages against isis without recruiting them into the armies under the belief that with weapons and some command and control they will be better...

Is that what is unfolding here or too soon for that? >> it is not yet at that scale. but definitely, look, syria is a divide of the society along various cleavages. there is sectarian and ethnic divides and other social divides. so now what is going on is that the regime is implicating the minority to which he belongs in these massacres. they're arming villagers. they're using the alawhite paramilitary to intentionally inflame the situation and detour ture people from taking action against him. as long as this persists, and the administration acknowledges this will make it more bloody and inte...