The Battle for Aleppo Looms

While the entire world is breathlessly watching the 2012 London Olympic games, the stage is being set for perhaps one of the bloodiest battles in Syria's ongoing civil war in the country's largest city of Aleppo.

Journalists on the ground have reported rebels are stockpiling medical supplies and weapons, while Syria's loyalist forces are staging soldiers, tanks and helicopters for an all-out assault on the mostly rebel occupied city, and civilians are fleeing by the thousands to escape the imminent Battle for Aleppo. 

Skirmishes have broken out across the city already

The imminent battle is vital for both sides, as rebel forces can further isolate Assad's regime by claiming the largest city against his professional army, and on the flip side Assad can prove the rebels are unable to hold major cities if his forces drive them out. The consequences will be pivotal regardless of the outcome, due to the unique nature of this conflict. 

And with the western world apparently paralyzed in fear of setting off a larger conflict with Assad's Russian and Iranian allies, or unsure of how to deal with his now acknowledged chemical weapons stockpile, rebels have only one shot of overthrowing Assad's regime: momentum. By keeping the conflict moving; by keeping pressure on his army's weakening supplies; by gaining new defectors every day the rebel forces can gain the upper hand on their own, because they sure as hell aren't getting any help from the rest of the world. 

Let us hope the western world's fear of the imminent battle turning into a full scale massacre is not only dead wrong, but that we witness the greatest defeat of Assad's butchers in Aleppo and hopefully soon, the defeat of his inhumane and illegitimate regime.

What say you?