With ISIL moving towards urban warfare, serious questions regarding the efficacy of the US-led strat
![Before and after images of air strikes in Syria during a briefing at the Pentagon [AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20149246422692734_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
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On the campaign trail, Assad can only offer an exhausted and bleeding Syrian public a pyrrhic victory.
![Syrian demonstrators shout slogans and wave portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in support of the president in Damascus on April 28 [AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014511125046164734_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
Had Assad declined to run for a third term, he’d have shown that the country’s future is more important than one man.
![Recent visitors to the presidential compound in Damascus say that Assad seems very confident and convinced that military victory is near, writes Gerges [EPA]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014427111049512621_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180&quality=80)
The protests in Egypt and the rest of the Muslim world over remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI, who implicitly linked Islam and violence, particularly in regard to jihad have still not abated.
