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Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/19/opinion/cordesman-syria-conflict/index.html?hpt=op_t1
Syria Problem Is Not Going Away
(CNN) Anthony H. Cordesman - Syria - like Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen - has been destabilized by a mixture of population pressures, weak economic development, authoritarianism, corruption, failed governance, and deep ethnic and sectarian divisions. It will take years for Syria to achieve stability and move along some path toward growth and development. Getting rid of Assad's chemical weapons will be a major challenge. He is likely to resist, and delay. Russia is likely to put Assad's survival before pushing Syria toward full compliance and to oppose any use of force. In short, Syria is just this month's crisis in a region where the Arab Spring has become at least a decade of violence, religious conflict, threat to development and progress, and where the U.S. can neither solve a single problem quickly nor take a single risk of disengaging from an effort to help. The writer holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.