The crisis over chemical weapons in Syria has underlined a central dilemma for the West as it tries to deal with the country's civil war — the lack of attractive alternatives to President Bashar Assad.
The political opposition, largely operating from exile with little credibility on the ground, has been hobbled by infighting. Inside Syria, rebels are also divided. Fighters linked to the al-Qaida terror network have become increasingly dominant, even as the U.S. and its allies try to strengthen rebels seen as moderates with better training and military equipment.
Rebels and Islamic radicals fighting alongside them have already come to blows in some cases, and their divisions could turn into outright battles without the common enemy of Assad.
"Should Assad one day fall from power, it is extremely unlikely that moderates and hard-liners would come to a long-term agreement because of completely diverging interests," said Charles Lister at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center.
President Barack Obama said early on in the 2 1/2-year-old conflict that Assad lost the right to lead because of the brutal oppression of the uprising against his rule, most chillingly displayed in what Washington contends was an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas that killed hundreds of civilians.
But it's not clear who would replace Assad if he were driven from power, either as a result of U.S. punitive strikes for the suspected poison gas attacks or in eventual political transition talks with the Western-backed opposition.
The end of Assad family rule, which has held Syria's rival ethnic and religious groups together with often brutal force since 1970, could lead to further anarchy and break up the country into enclaves ruled by heavily armed warlords.
"The most likely scenario is the Iraq scenario, complete chaos and banditry," said Syria expert Joshua Landis from the University of Oklahoma, referring to years of sectarian violence in Iraq after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein in a military invasion a decade ago.
"The idea that somehow you destroy Assad and there will be another central Syrian state is entirely wishful thinking," he said.
U.S. officials have said airstrikes they are considering are not aimed at toppling Assad, but to punish his government for the alleged chemical attack. Still, critics in the U.S. fear such strikes would drag the Americans deeper into the conflict — and now Obama is considering a Russian plan to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles as a possible alternative to military strikes.
The Obama administration has said its greater aim is to weaken Assad enough militarily so he'll negotiate a transition deal with the political opposition.
So far, its main avenue for doing so has been to use the CIA to quietly train rebels in Jordan. Under a new proposal being discussed within the administration, the program would be greatly expanded by bringing in U.S. military trainers, U.S. officials told The Associated Press last week, though they underlined that no decision has been made.
Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, fighting has killed more than 100,000 Syrians and uprooted nearly 6 million, or more than a quarter of the population.
Neither the regime nor the rebels has been able to deliver a decisive blow. Rebels control large areas of countryside in the north, east and south, while the regime is holding most urban centers, particularly in the densely populated west.