Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Julian Pecquet this week that the negotiated exit by rebel forces from the Old City of Homs, which had been under siege by Syrian government forces, was a "huge victory" for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
That is one way to see it. Other ways might be as a victory for the people of Homs, who finally got some relief from a brutal siege, and as a possible model of the incremental, painstaking and localized diplomacy required to bring relief to Syrians in war zones, especially given the collapse of the Geneva process.