Syria: a long war lies ahead | Editorial

Assad's army is intact and he retains no shortage of options despite high-level defections and deaths of senior figures Some wars do not end. Russian forces – Tsarist, Bolshevik, and post-Soviet – have been fighting in the North Caucasus for the best part of three centuries, and the conflict stubbornly refuses any attempt by the Kremlin to declare its mission there accomplished. What confidence