Brookings Institute: After 7 years of war, Assad has won in Syria. What’s next for Washington?

[TomSea]

After 7 years of war, Assad has won in Syria. What’s next for Washington?
Mara Karlin

In 2012, one year into the Syria uprising, I testified before Congress and made the following assertion:

    “The United States knows what it does not want in Syria.
But getting to what it does want—the end of the Assad regime—will be messy, difficult, and unsatisfying. The outcome in Syria is not evident today, but I can say with some confidence how it will not end. It will not end with Bashar al‐Assad voluntarily stepping aside, or choosing exile. It will not end with him making sufficient reforms to enable a transparent and free Syrian state. Let me be clear: continued oppression and violence in Syria will continue.”

Looking back, it appears that grim assessment may have even been too bright.

Read more at: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/02/13/after-7-years-of-war-assad-has-won-in-syria-whats-next-for-washington/

Thinktank stuff.