and andrew tabler, who lived in syria for most of the last decade and covered assad for an english-language magazine he founded there. he is now a fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. let me start with you. the observer mission from the arab league has been in syria for a month. have they accomplished anything? >> they've observed a lot of atrocities by the regime, a lot of fighting, a lot of unrest throughout the country but there are only about 160 of them thus far. and so the mission itself has been very controversial. they have observed the implementation of the arab league protocol to try and stop the crisis in syria but they haven't been able to stop the killing. this is where they've come under a lot of criticism by the opposition and the public at large. >> suarez: do you think that the arab league proposa to ease assad out of power is informed by what those observers have been seeing on the ground in the country? >> mostly informed by the frustration of the arab league because the syrian government hasn't been really response i have been. the arab league has los