In other words, the Alawite minority is to surrender to the al Qaeda backed Sunni Muslim majority: the lamb is to sit down with the three wolves and vote on what to have for dinner.
George Bush wisely delayed the US attack against Iraq until Saddam had transferred all of his WMDs out of Iraq
Most of those WMDs went to Syria and are still there. Syria has plenty of it's own too.
Every politician in the region is scared sh*tless about what could happen if they get used.
In any direct confrontation Syria will likely lose, but their WMD will take down a lot people all over the region.
Assad is not the kind of guy to go down without taking as much of the region as possible with him.