out in syria have been really on any challenge to bashar al assad and defending his shrinking area of control in the western part of the country. but they do see an opening through diplomatic channels, the talks that are going on in vienna, where both sides could get to a place. they see a possibility, i should say, where both sides could get to a place where they agree there s a political transition and if al assad is not leaving tomorrow or next month or next year, that at some point he is out of the picture when you have elections. while also you ll hear this from officials, conceding you don t necessarily want them out today because you ve seen in other places what the collapse of the existing regime has been to the stability of libya, et cetera. as bad as gadhafi was, there are a lot of analysts who believe the situation there is a whole lot worse today. let s get to another major story. a vicious military assault on isis, operation free sinjar, is aimed at taking back the