That's a Russian publication, by the way. So that is very likely Putin's personal digital toilet paper. Do you think he wipes till it's clear?

All by way of saying that to imply a Syrian election is in any way 'democratic' is ludicrous.

I noticed that the Russians indicated that the rebels probably used the chemical weapons against the civilians living in the same area, it's a "why are you hitting yourself?" argument familiar to the bully. This is not a new argument from the Russians.

As far as use of chemical weapons against civilians, 60 Minutes asked the question why would a ruler use such weapons, the answer was "to win".

I mentioned above that all warring sides were pretty much whittling down civilians. At one time there might have been a clear distinction between 'our' kind of rebels and the 'bad=ISIS/ Al-Qaeda" rebels. For all but the experts that distinction has been successfully muddled by the Syrians and Russians, with malice aforethought. ISIS has demonstrated that there are worse things out there than Assad. The trouble is, Assad has probably had a hand in assisting ISIS to prove just that. He is out-byzantining the Byzantines.

If you were a civilian suddenly in possession of a weapon, you could probably fire it in any direction and hit someone trying to get you killed.

If you are from Europe, you probably have similar situations in your past, possibly the Thirty Years War or the English Civil War. I don't think the United States has had a major war with this multiplicity of nasties, except if you were a Native American during the "French and Indian War".