Assad Regime Agrees to Attend Geneva Peace Conference While Continuing to Bombard Opposition

The major news coming out of the New York Times today is the Russian announcement that Bashar al-Assad's tyrannical regime in Syria has agreed to attend an international conference in Geneva to end the conflict in his war torn nation, which he started over two years ago and has caused 80,000 to perish.

Well, isn't that helpful.

Over the past month Assad has pushed rebel forces farther and farther away from Damascus along the pivotal main roads, including a strategic victory earlier this week that saw Hezbollah terrorists fight with government forces to oust the rebels, and these gains are due to increased outside support: one of them Russia.

If either Moscow or Damascus were serious about obtaining peace in the war torn nation, they would immediately cease offensive operations against the rebel opposition and al-Assad would signal that his intention is to step down from the presidency once both parties lay down their arms and an transitional government is put in place.

Instead the Syrian government has agreed to attend an international peace conference at some unknown future point while continuing to bombard their own citizenry into submission, in essence the stereotypical move: starve off potential foreign intervention by buying diplomatic goodwill while unrelentingly assaulting your opposition, or in Iran's case, advancing your nuclear program.

And, sadly, it works every time...

What say you?