Geneva II failed in no small part because the US demanded that Iran play no part. Invite the principal players to a conflict resolution meeting, or watch that meeting fail. Conflict Resolution 101.
Peace in Syria will remain elusive as long as the West funds the insurgents and supplies them with armament. Stop that trade and the civilians will begin to be looked after as a matter of course.
And what will happen when some of these mad jihadists return to their country of origin? To Russia? To Australia? To countries in the EU? Who decided it would be a 'good thing' to get into bed with them in the first place. More better we talked to Assad. After all, quite recently he was torturing people at W's behest.
Lydia was a wealthy functioning state until the West stepped in with a no-fly zone. They used that pretext to turn Lydia into an international basket-case. Russia is to commended for refusing to go along with such a ploy again.
Ukraine anyone? There is great evil afoot in the world today, and guess where it is coming from!

Marika. If your concerns are genuine, please respond to hulduell, before hobbyhorses trample over the substantive issues in the Syrian crisis.

SO MUCH DECEPTION..mike talks of the upcomming war

http://216.240.133.177/archives32/Rivero/2014/02/Rivero_1_022014_130000.mp3

http://republicbroadcasting.org/Stang/index.php?cmd=archives.month&ProgramID=77&year=14&month=2&backURL=index.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives.getyear%2526ProgramID%253D77%26year%3D14%26backURL%3Dindex.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives

DITTO ALEX
http://rss.infowars.com/20140219_Wed_Alex.mp3

but as usual the zion controlled press gang[MEDIA]
KEEPS PUTTING OUT THE FLUFF..not really saying..what really happend.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/

Agree with most of what this Author writes. However, short of dropping a nuke on the regime, can see no why out.
The opposition is little more than a divided rabble, that has been infiltrated by Alqiada and the govt has engaged Hezbollah, which is an equally murderous terrorist organisation.
The opposition cannot win, when they continue to fight among themselves for the spoils of defeat, and or, allow terrorist organisations to infiltrate for their own evil purposes!
Which is less productive than pissing into the wind; and in turn, dries up meaningful western support!
Rhrosty.

Hello Marika,

A couple of weeks ago the UN published census data for Iraq. It showed the population has undergone a 6-fold increase since 1950 with the rate of population increase rising. This census data was a conservative projection based on the last national census conducted in 1997. It is possible that the Iraq's actual population is even higher.

I view Iraq's census data as a template for a lot of areas in Asia and Africa, including Syria. Such population increases in my view are aggravating pre-existing ethnic tensions that sometimes result in civil conflict.

Any lasting resolution of the Syrian conflict must confront underlying issues such as increases in population density and the strain it places on existing resources. That means addressing culturally sensitive issues surrounding how these people (including the 6-7 million Syrian refugees) live their lives.

In my opinion your article Marika seeks to address symptoms but avoids issues that are culturally taboo.