The uprising in Syria has now become a civil war. I am not sure when that transition took place. Perhaps no-one does. The original attempts to overthrow the Ba'athite regime were cruelly destroyed by the regime's forces (no one has a good word to say about Assad; he has saddamised his own people and is vilified).

Over the last few weeks, the regime has become weaker, the resistance fighters stronger. Strongholds of the Free Syrian Army were massacred and shelled, yet they are strong enough to fight back and obtain territory.

And that is the hallmark of a civil war: opposing sides, holding territory, fighting for the sovereignty of Syria. Civil wars drag on; they disrupt, they spill over boundaries; they foster extremism and end only after bloodletting is exhausted. Let us hope Assad's regime is too weak to last long.