Linux Beach: State of the war in Syria: Most of Damascus now in FSA hands!

As these maps published Friday by the Institute for the Study of War show, Bashar al-Assad now controls less than half of his capital city of Damascus, and is basically holding up in his stronghold of downtown Damascus. It is these facts on the ground that are now driving this recent flurry of international activity around Syria.

The Syrian people are on the verge of winning this war with very little help from the US or anyone else in the international "community" and NATO and Russia and everyone else are all scrambling for a way to deal with that.

The Battle for Damascus: The Current State of Play in Syriaby Institute for the Study of War on Dec 07, 2012
Recent rebel victories in the Syrian capital region, such as the closure of the Damascus International airport, have led to speculation that the Assad regime may be close to collapse. While this is possible, it is also important to recognize that the regime still maintains control of downtown Damascus despite these significant victories for the opposition. This elevates the question of where specifically the regime still maintains control in Damascus.

Were any Syrians invited to this meeting today?

Russia and US in Geneva talks over future of SyriaBut foreign minister says 'brainstorming session' with UN envoy does not signal Moscow's support for Assad is waning
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 December 2012 11.46 EST
Russian and American diplomats have met in Geneva to discuss the future of Syria with the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who insisted the meeting did not imply Moscow had softened in its support for the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. More...

They describe the regime's tactics this way:

The regime has consolidated much of ita forces in Damascus city center and reduced patrolling in suburbs with robust opposition presence. In retaliation for rebel activity in these neighborhoods, the regime is responding broadly with air strikes and artillery, and with civilian massacres in the Sunni southern neighborhoods of Damascus.

Whatever crimes and mistakes may have been made by fighters on the opposition side, they don't rely on tactics that specifically target civilians the way Assad does.

That is why I will continue to point out that those Kossacks who promote the view that both sides in this civil war are equally bad are spreading Assad's propaganda and are objectively on the side of the regime and in support of its policy of mass murder.

The so-called anti-interventionist "left" is still in complete denial as to the true nature and current situation in Syria as a glance at today's Global Research quickly shows. They still fully support the fascist Assad regime.

Post these statements under delusional:

[I]t appears that the hounds of hell are desperately barking for some action on Syria. Frustrated by the successful efforts of the Syrian government to turn back the western backed and armed terrorists, their stooges and proxies, they have gone back to old tactics again...here they go again, trying to put the international community in a receptive mood to the idea of attacking Syria by claiming that the Assad government, not them, is desperate enough to use chemical weapons, specifically sarin gas.
...
“I think there is no question that we remain very concerned, very concerned,” Panetta said, “that, as the opposition advances, in particular in Damascus, that regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons.”

Panetta has things backwards, like all of them. The terrorist “opposition” is not making advances, even though they try. They are getting their collective behinds kicked. The Syrian Arab Army remains very strong and in good spirits.

Clearly they are lying or completely delusional about how the tide of battle is going, but the troubling thing about all this talk, coming from the pro-Assad forces, about a Western-backed false flag chemical attack, makes me fear greatly that Assad is planning to use chemical warfare in spite of all the warnings. In fact, for Global Research, that is already a foregone conclusion. We don't even have to wait for the attack to see how they'll call it:

Any use of chemical weapons will obviously have the fingerprints of terrorists, not the Syrian government, all over them. Cui bono (to whose benefit) is such an attack? It’s obvious, as has been since the beginning of these fascist, imperialist wars.

and why not, they already blame US imperialism for all the deaths in Syria:

The hungry monster of US imperialism is not satisfied with having killed around 35,000 Syrians, a large number of them defense forces.

Is it the US imperialists that are dropping cluster bombs on Syrian cities or is it that US imperialism is forcing Assad to do it?

Carl Davidson once recommended Global Research to me as a creditable source. I wonder if he still does?