Hala,

It's been said continuously how strong the Syrian Milliary is but how strong is it really when it could not initially stop ordinary citizens who formed the FSA?
As time past more citizens joined and Syrian Military defections increased subsequently making the FSA quite strong. But from some of the posted video reports there seems to be few Syrian Army personnel actually fighting. Am I wrong to assume the only reason the Syrian Military hasn't been overrun is due to the air power (which is killing far more ordinary citizens than FSA).

Obviously there is a strong structure, but can one assume that the Syrian Military is not as strong as it once was (perhaps when Hafez was in charge)? And are males of a certain age still required to serve?

Obviously in a police state it's hard to get the actual statistics, but what actual facts do we know about the Syrian Military?
Amount of war planes, helicopter, munitions and soldiers.
If the FSA actually gets a hold of anti-aircraft missiles, things could definitely change.

Today sanctions are enforced against many countries. Some of them are Iran and Syria. Even though it is hitting hard on these countries the worst affected are the poors and those who are against these regimes. Certain items like important medicines and child food are the most items disappear from the self and go to black market. Most of these regimes like the Syrians they don't care about the difficulties what the ordinary people are undergoing. Safety of women and children in most of the conflict areas will hurt for the worst.