You must be deluded on epic portions if you think ASSAD is walking into a clear cut victory and everything ending in ''Forever happy'' Fairytale then you are completely wrong. This could actully be the beginning of the war as more entities have entered and even the focus of the fighting has changed.
Why do you think Assad got bombed 30km away from Al-Tanaf? He was pushing to the border regions in order to connect with Deir-Ezzor and they may hold it there against ISIS under the siege but they won't be able to hold against the forces whom are about to reach there from Jordan.
Raqqah has the largest Oil Field in the country called Al-Omar oil field plus the other one in Deir-Ezzor and that is what the US mainly want to secure. I can guarantee you Assad will never get these Oil Fields back. The US has made it clear to everybody they don't recognize Assad just like how Kurdistan have never been recognized hence the sovereign state claims is nullified. These Oil fields belong to who gets them. Syria is every man's land currently.
He has so many forces to fight with and why do you think The Russian and his regime have been desparately trying to hold talks with the Rebels??? Because they are exhausted and want to switch the battlefield hence they realized they are losing on the oil war in the eastern part of Syria as the Americans have gained the upper hand on them.
If he loses these two cities he has basically lost everything and his regime will become very poor and won't be able to keep his other major allies and make no mistake the US will never release these 2 oil fields back to Assad or any other syrian regime after him.
His lost alot of manpower and wanted to desparately to stop the war against the rebels as it would make certain of his potentially lose on the long run. The Rebels will rise and increase in numbers as usually between years and the longer the war continues the more troops will come into Syria to join the rebels just take Afganistan as example 16-years and continuing while Taliban just goes from strength to strength and In My honest opinion this war is just marely the beginning of the conflict hence we are long way out. I do agree with you on one thing. ISIS won't last past another year imo and they are finished and they were never really contenders imho even from the beginning.
The more furious and dedicated opponents were always HTS, AS and FSA. who form the main rebels. This group will last for a long time to come.
Syria will be balkanized and that is where it's heading right now. Assad lost the eastern part of the country plus the south + Idlib province and can't even free eastern Damascus and I repeat eastern Damascus and your saying his close to victory? I would say that is much delusion.
I would rather say sit back and bring some popcorn this is going to be a long ride for many many years to come
Again your whole premise is based on false assumptions.
First, the Deir Ezzor oilfields are not crucial to the goverment. This is not a "key" to the country or whatever it is you are trying to portray. Syria was never a major oil producer. Whatever the US thinks is irrelevant because the goverment is still fighting ISIS everyday in the city. That small outpost at the Jordanian border? I can tell you they are nowhere close to capturing Deir-Ezzor. Now that is complete delusion.
In fact the eastern part of the country was NEVER a focus. Raqqa wasn't seriously defended, it lies in the middle of nowhere. The only reason the goverment clings onto Deir Ezzor, Hasakah, Qamshili in the east is the "all parts of Syria"-strategy that the goverment employed from the beginning. It was the reason the goverment held onto Idlib in the middle of hostile territory for so long.
The real battles has always been over the control of Aleppo, Damascus and securing their connection to the coast. That has always been the focus.
Look at the situation in Aleppo a few years back, it was the goverment held areas that were besieged. It has been completely turned around. Damascus were under a huge threat that is now completely contained and so on. There is no way you can spin this into a creeping rebel victory, it's basically madness. You can keep moving the goalposts but that won't change reality.
The rebels have been losing every major battle since the Russian intervention. Their latest futile attempts at threatening Hama has been beaten back with huge losses in manpower and equipment on the rebel side.
Second, I never claimed complete victory for Assad. I see rebels holding onto bumfuck nowhere Idlib for a long time. There is no real incentive to waste your effort on Idlibistan.
But the goverment is safe. They already have basically won with the rebels contained to Idlib, a few non dangerous pockets and the very south that has seen little conflict for a long time outside of Al-Qaeda starting some trouble. The rebels lost all their leverage.
The goverment has no manpower issue, outside of the goverment controlling the vast majority of the population there is the Iraqis, Hesbollah and so on that will help Syria from succumbing to Salafi rule. The rebel on the other hand is a long way from the their recruitment top a few years back when jihadists from all over the world where flooding in to fight. Why would people travel to die in a losing battle? There are no mountains for them to hide in unlike in Afganistan and there the conflict has deeper ethnic roots. The majority of the goverments soldiers are still Sunni.
