Syrian Government losing the Civil War?

[cthulu2016]

Given the universal rule of positive government spin when making public comments about a war, when one side in a war starts talking about how there should be a ceasefire because it's a stalemate that neither side can win the odds are high that the side doing the talking feels itself to be in danger of losing.

The Syrian civil war has reached a stalemate and President Bashar al-Assad's government will call for a ceasefire at a long-delayed conference in Geneva on the state's future, the country's deputy prime minister has said in an interview with the Guardian.

Speaking on behalf of the government, Qadri Jamil said that neither side was strong enough to win the conflict, which has lasted two years and caused the death of more than 100,000 people. Jamil, who is in charge of country's finances, also said that the Syrian economy had suffered catastrophic losses.

"Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side," he said. "This zero balance of forces will not change for a while."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/19/syrian-government-civil-war-stalemate

[leveymg]

1. If one looks at the maps of contested areas in Damascus, it's clear they're not winning.

The Alawite have a natural manpower problem, as they were only about 13% of the population of Syria when the war started, and have suffered roughly half the casualties. In a war of attrition, the odds are against them.