DAMASCUS, Syria — It's tempting to view the Syrian conflict in terms of good versus bad, the people wanting free of the oppressive regime, the majority Sunnis versus the powerful minority Alawites. However, only two weeks ago I heard an Alawite woman in Damascus call one victim of a government assault a shaheed (martyr). At the same time I also spoke to a well-to-do Sunni man who considered the armed opposition’s struggle foolish and ineffective.

Those who oppose the regime continue to do so, but their criticisms are no longer leveled solely at the regime. Some activists I spoke with felt that the Free Syrian Army had been wrong to move so far away from the opposition movement’s early days of peaceful popular protests.

These days it seems that the only sentiment shared by all Syrians is one of collective loss of both a secure past and a meaningful future.

Indeed, despite the regime’s overwhelming military power, the general feeling on the streets of Syria’s capital is that the current system of governance is crumbling under the weight a 19-month civil war and crushing economic sanctions.