I always thought that prophesy had to do with the past (it was already fulfilled when the Persians under Cyrus defeated the Assyrians) and allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. But now I am not so sure.
The prophecy, 'the burden of Damascus', as it were, *is* that Damascus will literally cease to be a functioning, inhabited city, literally in a very short time frame. Can you name me *one* instance in its several millenia existence where this occurred? No, it had never happened, and thus *must*, by process of elimination, occur at some future date.
During the reign of Assad's father, I could not foresee this happening, since *that* individual was too cunning to place his nation and his capital in a position where it could become reality. His son, the chinless wonder? Not so much. Even *he* (Hafez Assad) knew that the current 'strong man' in Syria isn't strong at all, and *never* wanted his son to succeed him. Hell, boy-Assad was trained *not* as a dictator (see Uday and Qusay Hussein for examples), but as an eye-doctor...
the infowarrior