Is A Military Coup In Syria Possible?

Moving Towards A Military Coup In Syria? -- Brian M Downing, Asia Times

The uprising in Syria turned much more violent in the past week and the Bashar al-Assad government is tottering. Civilians have obtained weapons and begun an armed resistance. Syrian soldiers are deserting and forming a Free Syrian Army. While the Arab League on Sunday voted to impose punitive economic and political sanctions on Damascus, fighting is breaking out nationwide between the Sunni majority and Shi'ite minority.

A faltering regime and rising violence often leads to a military coup. They were commonplaces in much of the developing world back in the 1950s and 1960s and a convoluted and incomplete one began in Egypt last fall. Syria is ripe for one now. The Arab League's overwhelming approval of sanctions - the first in its 66-year history - increases pressure on Assad.

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My Comment: The Alawite Shiites still control the country and it's intelligence/military apparatus. But as the violence escalates .... and it is escalating .... coups have happened in the Middle East for much less than what is happening in Syria today.