What do you think is happening in Syria?

Miscellaneous General
1

I don’t think a government that once murdered 10,000 of its citizens in cold blood and razed an entire town to the ground will apologize for using snipers to shoot down dozens of protesters in the head and neck.

But I want to know: What is REALLY happening there?

Is Rifat al-Assad organizing a coup against Bashar al-Assad, with incited popular support?

Are Syrian Social Nationalists fearing a new version of the old Communist insurrections, and attacking protesters out of such fear?

Is it acually about a sectarian and religious fight?

Is Abdul Halim Khaddam working with US to dethrone Bashar al-Assad and fuelling protests against him?

Are these protests out of fear of Syria becoming an Iranian satellite? Or are they even being used by the Iranians themselves?

Just asking.

2

Those are way too Syria-specific questions. But one thing that could be happening is that they saw what happened to Gaddafi and concluded his mistake was to not put the revolt down fast enough. So the regime wants this over with quickly and is therefore using harsher means than it would if there was not the spectre of international meddling present.