"Joshua M. Landis" is Associate Professor in the School of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He also serves as a Faculty in Residence Professor for the Walker Center residence hall at the University of Oklahoma.

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Syria's in for a very dark period ahead, ... The president is in a real struggle to keep people close to him.

They are worried their people will be held in Lebanon. They are trying to get guarantees this is not going to be out of their control. They want to bargain but have no bargaining power.

It offered a secular vision of Syria that would dismantle very serious religious splits.

It's a declaration that they're not going to cooperate.

Syria is looking for more time. It is promising cooperation on a broad scale but has launched diplomatic contacts to try to slow things down.

I don't know know how they're going to get Saad Hariri back home.

They are going to grab Syria by the throat and squeeze and shake, and see what kind of change falls out of the Syrian pockets.... It's going to be the harshest isolation they can manufacture.

They worry they are the ones that are going to eat all the revenge and discrimination, if the state falls, they are going to pay the price for the privileges of a few.

Like [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak, Assad will be smirking at U.S. discomfiture as Washington sees its desire for democracy fulfilled.