"...The reports are gruesome"

"...The reports are gruesome, from both sides: Syrian security forces are rounding up dissidents and torturing some of them. Opposition forces have engaged in reprisal killings. Western and Syrian government sources both say that captured soldiers are sometimes decapitated, and even dismembered; a few Alawite captives had their eyes gouged out. Afraid of the spiraling violence, a Syrian “silent majority” — composed of Sunni business leaders, Christians and some Alawites — has stayed on the fence.
The protesters chant “peaceful, peaceful.” ....