The Russians agreed with the ICRC today that the the government of Syria should abide by a two hour cease fire in areas of conflict. Russia seems to be playing both "sides of the street" by supplying weapons and ammunition to the government of Bashar Assad and then appearing to be humanitarian, so that wounded can be removed. The international community thanks the Russians for agreeing that this should be done, now tell your dog Assad to comply.

The Huffington Post and ABC seem to make a "mountain out of a mole hill" today when running a story about Russian anti terror forces arriving in Syria. The whole story? The Russian anti terror/marines are there as part of a two ship mission which is to go on station off the coast of Somalia. Nothing new here. Russia leases the a naval base at the port of Tartus, much as the US leases bases from host countries around the world. These would include Bahrain, Cuba, Djibouti and numerous others. The Russians mission  is that of anti piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Also today, the FSA struck an upper income neighborhood in Damascus in a show of force. This is in answer to recent set backs in the city of Homs and Idlib, much of which have been taken back by by Syrian troops. The FSA is down but in no way out. On Saturday, two car bombs rocked Damascus and heavily damaged two Syrian security buildings, killing dozens. On Sunday another car bomb rocked the largest Syrian city of Aleppo. Both attacks were blamed on Al Qaeda by the Syrian government. Why is it before or right after a UN or Arab League mission arrives, a suicide bomber strikes? That is to  justify Assad's claims he is fighting" terrorist". Look at this phenomena in a little detail. Assad has no shortage of prisoners(political activists), anyone of whom can be forced to carry out these attacks or else. The "or else" part is, that we will kill your mother, your wife or your children. Assad is quite capable of bombing his own forces, his motives are three fold. First it supports the claim of foreign terrorist. Second, it enrages loyalist security forces to continue their brutality. Third, it pits the minority Alawites and Christians against the majority. Finally, the UN special envoy, Kofi Annan advance team arrived today to look into sending in monitors,again. The last time suicide bombers hit Damascus was on in December when the AL observers arrived, the same day as matter of fact.