This is terrible for the soldiers and their families, of course, but if the soldiers' refusal to fire on the people is an indication of swelling mutiny in the ranks of the army, it could be a good harbinger.
However, as much as any decent person would love to see Assad & Co. overthrown, the real question is who, and therefore what, would replace him. And as Philip Jenkins of Penn State University explains,
The evils of the Syrian regime are obvious enough: this is a classic police state with a penchant for assassination whenever it sees fit, and no compunction about supporting terrorist attacks at home or abroad. But just imagine that the Ba'ath regime fell. Whatever happened in the first few months of revolution, by far the most likely successor regime in the long term would be Islamist, led by activists anxious to avenge Hama. Alawites, Druze and Christians could all expect persecution at best, massacre at worst, a fate that could potentially befall five million residents.As the French Revolution should show us, what comes after the overthrow is not always an unconditional good.
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