what he cannot do is cross a redline that has been firmly established and a penalty is being affixed to that. second of that, bashar al-assad s military is on the narrow margins of survivability. the air force and all practical purposes barely exist anymore. the syrian air army no longerns desists. that is why they need conscripts and mercenaries from afghanistan and iran and iraq to fight the war for him because the syrian people will not fight on behalf of bashar al-assad. he does not have the bandwidthal to risk conflict. bill: doesn t he have the iranians he didn t have it before, guys! bill: let s not allocate our coverage. doesn t he have the iranians helping him out, though? absolutely. he s got the full support of the iranian government, the islamic revolutionary guard, the full support of hezbollah and russia. with that said, bashar al-assad has a very narrow definition of success right now and that s staying alive. there is no fallback option.