Offer some kind of guarantees to Assad's desperate Alawite, Christian and secular supporters in Syria

Submitted by Demsci (Netherlands), Apr 14, 2013 at 04:37

I read somewhere that the remarkable resilience of Assad's regime is much due to the conviction of many Alawites and Christians and even secular minded Sunni's, and especially the female half, in Syria that the rebels for them are much worse than Assad's regime. Many fear heavy oppression and violence when the rebels win.

And the rebels might well be split in mindset in Islamists and "secular democrats", perhaps in numerous ways supported by rebel or neutral women. These secular democrats perhaps can, under the right conditions and guarantees, even of UN military assistance perhaps, be acceptable to Alawites, Christians and other Assad-supporters.

I do understand that this may well be wishful unrealistic thinking, but could the Free Syrian Army not switch alliances, away from all Islamist fighters, toward Western and democratic nations? with the intent to prosecute te worst offenders on the Assad-side, but also to forgive and cooperate with the ordinary supporters of Assad?

After all, the FSA must realize that much of the support and stubbornness of Assad's forces and supporters is precisely due to the clearly visible Islamic fundamentalist dictatorial actions and intentions of the jihadi rebels and the mortal threat it represents for them. These fundamentalist rebels also contain a large number of foreign Islamist fighters, from which the Free Syrian Army, as well as a substantial part of the Syrian population, may well desire to distance themselves.

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