I assume that Assad has constructed a golden parachute. He could bail out and land in a well feathered nest in any one of several countries. But, if he did so, his minority tribe would almost certainly lose and suffer terrible retribution. So far Assad is hanging tough and so are his followers. We often bandy the term, "existential threat" lightly, but there are many people fighting for the very life of their families, themselves, and their country as they know it.

In the early days of my 725-day army career, I spent some time at Ft. Hood, Texas. Luck of the draw, I guess. I had been sent there out of AIT along with about a billion other bald-headed idiots to be fodder in the new Americal Division that was being formed. We were about to surge, and we hadn't even heard the term, but look out, Charlie, here we come. Yeeee ha! Somehow, though, they filled it before they got to me. That was my luckiest number draw to that point, the lottery not yet being in place. And, since everybody has to be somewhere, someone decided to assign troop number U.S. 5 444 ---8 to a short timers unit.