But the resolution was a step that could have led to another one – an
admission, somewhere down the line, that United Nations sanctions were
inevitable, or to a decision by Syria’s wavering non-aligned Sunni business
elite that the time had come finally to ditch the leader. Now there is
nothing left, other than for the rebels to keep smuggling arms, taking pot
shots and booby-trapping armoured personnel carriers until the army finally
collapses. With the Syrian opposition now armed, fractured and violent,
where that leads is anyone’s nightmare.
A defecting general said at the weekend the army’s collapse could come in a
month. Others say a year or more. But many more will die before then, and,
as seems only too likely now, many more after too.