"Mulling the 'ideal endgame' in Syria"

"... even as international condemnation of the Assad regime builds daily and economic and diplomatic efforts increase, the endgame in Syria is anything but clear. What would it take to topple Assad?
Syria analysts (aah, 'analysts & experts' from WINEP/AIPAC) say regime change in the country will be a protracted and likely violent affair--beyond the current bloodshed. They assessed that given the country's sectarian composition and the deeper allegiances to the Assad regime of the commanders of Syria's security forces -- compared with Mubarak's in Egypt, for example--found it unlikely that Assad would be ousted quickly. And what might follow is a great unknown.
"The key here is to drive a wedge between the regime and those who still have a vested interest in the regime but are fearful of what might come afterwards," said Robert Danin,...
"The administration position [toward Assad] is now hardening substantially," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (AIPAC)...
But Tabler acknowledged that while measures such as energy sanctions could put a real squeeze on Damascus, the ethnic(?) composition of Assad's praetorian guard complicates the calculations of those seeking vulnerabilities in the regime... "It will take longer."
State Department spokesman Mark Toner asked Wednesday what Washington envisioned as the "ideal endgame" in Syria, said the question should not be what Washington wants (what is that salty liquid coming out of my eye?) but "what the Syrian people want ... That's their endgame."