Obviously this muslim against muslim sectarian strife has been going on for centuries{1400years}...."Sunni Muslim district has been among the most active in the capital in the protest movement against the 42- year rule of Asssad and his father, the late President Hafez Assad." Yes as we read here this is nothing new as his father also had to deal with sunni terrorism! This is not as simple as Hillary and Obama would have us believe? It is as complicated as 1400 years of Islamic cult history!

Looks like Russia is working overtime to save their flunkey in Syria....but is it too late?

Too much water has gone over the dam.....too many loved ones tortured and killed...including children...

Any retention of power by someone willing to do Russia's evil will, will demonstrate no change in the brutality in Syria.

Only the Russians are incapable of smelling all the dead bodies this fellow has produced...but then they have plenty of experience themselves in producing dead bodies, chiefly among themselves.

The only solution is a total enema..

Sounds like he's stalling so that he can gather better intelligence and carry out the necessary logistics to really hit the Freedom Fighters..

Bee careful....the man is a cynic....

my god ! what is the world waiting for. hitler is alive and well in syria. a tragedy,to say the least.

So Assad wants a referendum. What's it for ? For
"Approving" how well he's turning Syria into HELL ??!!!

You cannot believe anything he says...he has lied to the Arab League...everyone.

i'm confused; seems to me much less people were getting killed in oil-rich Libya; yet obama rained cruise missiles down on them for "humanitarian" reasons.

Assad to Syrians:

'Vote or be killed.' 'By the way, I'm your caring leader.'

All nations of the planet should have convened at the UN to allow foreign intervention in Syria. Syria is for the Syrian people to live in peace and with dignity! But now, they are being slaughtered like pigs and the international community should not allow it! For God´s sake, we live in the 21^st century. Especially, in this particular case, the Arab League Nations should act overwhelmingly to cause the fall of those demented murderers Assad, both Bashar and Naher.

Russia and China have demonstrated that they too want to have a free hand in their countries to maim, assassinate and jail their nationals, at will. They have plenty of experience in producing dead and mutilated bodies all over their countryside. Their veto should also be punished eventually by curtailing oil exports to them who need it so badly, especially China.

Why doesn´t the International Penal Court seek to investigate and prosecute Assad´s animal behavior, ASP?

Nice, huh, after 40 years of his family being in power, this stupid animal named Bashar Assad -- all he knows is killing his own people with his country´s army. He´s been president for 11 years, but he has reached the point of no return and should be killed, alongside his family. The referendum should be for his ouster from this planet, period! He´ll surely lose. Lest, of course, in the case of Assad, countries like the UK, where his bitchy wife is from, try to give him asylum. At this point, any type of sectarian violence is better than outright killings by this demented moron and his brother Maher. The Sunni Muslims will in the end prevail, while the Alawite, related to Shiite Islam, will probably be massacred in Syria.

The Royal Saudis, and other blue blooded Arabs, including Assad, and other (assassins) “presidents” of the region´s economies, are not reforming anything in the political arena, like redefining their rules for economic growth in democracy, western-type. They´ll all be kicked out eventually! And, when the population realizes that the West did not help, they´ll surely turn to more fanatic means, engulfing both politics and religion, as in Iran!! Eventually, to protect oil sources the West might have to set up a NO-FLY ZONE all over the Middle East, case by case.

Bashar Al Assad is a despot, demented moron, and murderer – an international shame for the 21st century -- and should be executed quickly by Syria´s (shabiha in rebellion), or foreign, armed forces – the Mossad -- even for the sake of saving their skins if not solely to save Arab lives, while at the same time taking over and installing a temporary military government,, that over a period of 2 years could bring things back to normal. Needless to say, in the process, the armed forces there should be purged of any of Assad´s cronies so that these freedom fights continue for the benefit of the Syrian population.

The only political system that will last forever, so to speak, will be a western style-type democracy. Apparently this truth has been realized by a whole new generation of Syrians educated within and outside of that country. The internet has helped bridge the technological gap and to come to full realization that their young lives were meaningless and had no future with corrupt animals like Assad, in power.

However, Syrians will not have freedom and dignity for a long time. They have to work at it, together with their armed forces that must see their role as only temporary -- 2 years -- until the country´s new institutional basis is set up so that political parties can prosper in peace and without fear. Once this is achieved, elections must be convened so that regional-party political representatives can be elected nationwide with a view to integrating a National Assembly to draft a new Constitution for the country. This would be the beginning of a new future for the Syrian population.

Meanwhile, if captured alive, the military government should prosecute Assad so that the death penalty can be brought to bear on this god forsaken animal, and his family. Their own and family assets, in general, should be confiscated in Syria as well as outside of the country. Those monies belong to the people of Syria.

But more than anything, the world must congratulate the Syrian population for acting with great courage, with their hearts and minds, to try to topple a ruthless and corrupt regime from the face of the earth.

Needless to say many more countries will follow, not only in the Middle East – mainly, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, etc. -- but also in Latin America, especially in the case of those with presidential lunatics trying to emulate the Cuban political system which under the noses of the USA and the rest of the Americas has failed miserably, i.e., Venezuela and his gorilla Chavez.

In general, the combination of authoritarian rule, high unemployment, poor opportunities for social advancement, demographic youth bulges, low public investment in education and health and other public services, and anger at high levels of corruption, and outright thievery, in the Middle East and North Africa, and in Latin America, will prompt public uprisings that will topple their leaders. Chavez, Assad are definitely in this list after their close friend Gadhafi has moved on to better pastures, in hell! Needless to say, the Cuban government also needs to be overthrown!

Instead, Presidents from these poor, backward economies, that have not even approached the take-off stage in economic development should instead concentrate their public administration efforts in fighting corruption, reducing the size of their inefficient and corrupt public sectors, and increasing public/private investments with the help of the multilateral financial community -- including in the strategic social sectors; i.e., education, health, and basic services – to increase employment.

The UN Security Council should give the OK for NATO to intervene also in Syria, so that these people are not slaughtered like animals by their own army. The intervention at this stage should be humanitarian aid, drones, and light weapons with plenty of ammunition so that these peoples can defend themselves from the butchers of Damascus.

In the final analysis given the severity of the situation, the UN/NATO should propose that Syria, a sovereign country, transfer its right to national self-determination to an overseer. The UN should argue that given the failure and the criminality of the Syrian state, UN and NATO members have the power and moral right to suspend the principle of national self-determination. In other words, Syria should be taken over by the rest of the world to stop the mass assassinations being conducted there by Bashar Assad.

More than TEN THOUSAND SYRIANS HAVE ALREADY DIED in their fight for LIBERTY!

And the rest of the world, especially her neighbors, should not allow it!

I'm glad to see the Arab community not allowing this behavior to pass. Hopefully the days of brutal dictators slaughtering the ordinary people are drawing to a close in that part of the world.

The Arab world does not need our help in this conflict. America needs to heal itself now.

this seems like a fight with no good guys. Maybe Obama is right. Let them kill each other. If half the country dies the palistinians might have somewhere to go.

Assad wants a 'referendum'? How does a 'veto' sound to you? Get your dumb azz out before the people buy a rope made in China, or steal one off a Russian naval vessel to hang you upside down! 11 days? You don't even have one day! Anchors away!

Why no reporting on what is really important....What was Asma wearing? Did she and the kids vote on this in their "wildly democratic" home? What will happen to Asma's shoes?

too little,too late Pal,, if! he had done this at the get go? then perhaps it may have played,,, now??.. not going to make a bit of difference,,once the weapons come out,, especially the heavy weapons?.. it has to play itself out and only then, come out of the darkness,[and we!! best have a plan in place for when! that happens, no??],,This "person" was advised at the start,..after!! watching other countries and their changes,,, what to do and how to do it,,,and he chose!!...chose mind you!!... to not listen to those who were for trying to help him and his country move on and ahead without this violence,,,so be it!!...one must only hope?? that the rest of the Despots in our world are paying attention,,, yessir!! this could very easily be you! sir!,.. and likely will too,,,this is not! the "old days"... far from it,,,people will not accept evil rulers and their corruption and nepotism any more,,,and rightly so too,,, they should not!!...to do so is to condemn our children to the same evils,,, the US constitution says,in part,"if you have the ability to act, then you! have the RESPONSIBILITY! to act"...and in the case of very real EVIL!,,, yessir! this means you!!...I am not saying we should all become Yanks, before you all go off on that track, I am saying that FREEDOM! is not! "FREE",,,not at all, far from it in fact,..and it might be you that has to act for the good of others,, could, or better,,,would!! you do it??..eh??..we cant hear you??..

uh.... how about.... NO?

to even discuss provides credability.

between dead,wounded,inprisoned,tortured,exiled etc etc, there will be nobody to vote ,combined with stuffed ballot boxes,he will end up winning the referendum. you can't have a referendum without peacekeepers and observers.

The Free Syrian Army came to the rescue. Now Assad wants a referendum and a vote as he wipes out the opposition and rigs the vote. Face the facts his time has come. Maybe he can hold out for 3 months at the most before they chase him down like a mad dog.

I figure no matter how it turns out utopia is a long way off. For some reason God blessed America. We just have some finishing work to finish up before we get to utopia ourselves.

Last ditch effort to save himself.

Last ditch effort to save himself.

Now that an armed Arab coalition is mounting, Assad offers late concessions. At this point he has to cut bait and leave, as no one is stronger than the will of the people.

A little to late wouldn't you think?What he should do is run like hell , before he is taken down,and hide.ICC will probably put out an arrest warrant for him.

I am impressed that they can organize a nationwide referendum in 11 days. Perhaps they will save time by having the votes counted before the ballots get to the polls?

There should be an offer from Assad for the UN to send in forces to preserve the peace (paid for by the Arab league and staffed by non-Americans) and for an election for the Presidency to be held in six months. Assad should go, but there should ideally be some sort of orderly procedure for deciding who will take over. The parties will need time to organize. The UN should supervise the vote and the counting of the vote.

"Meanwhile, the bombing of Homs, an anti-regime holdout, continued for the 11th day, while activists reported violence in the northwest of the country,"

Assad is far a better ruler than most of the Sunni ME despotic, barbaric, beastly and bigoted rulers like those of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Yemen and others.

Assad should start bombing those Saudi inspired Sunni rebels.

Let them kill each other as they have been doing in the past 1400 years.

We should not get into the business of deciding winners as in the case of Iraq.

On Iraq wars, we lost the support of most of the nations in the world.

Let us not make it worse by getting into Syria and Iran business!