Analyzing Syria

The analysis of Syria in Western and Arab (Saudi and Qatari-funded) is so filled with propaganda that you can't really understand what is going on.  I mean, there are certain things that I personally don't understand. The opposition says that the no one in Syria supports Bashshar and that people are dragged against their will to the streets to demonstrate in support of the regime (but that does not explain who people oblige when many Syrians are protesting against the regime).  But forget about politics: no one has explained to me how the regime has remained unified: how no diplomat has defected, how no politician has defected, how the army and intelligence apparatus has by and large remained united (oh, I know: according to the Ikhwan opposition, there has been 2 million Syrian soldiers and officers who have defected from an army of half a million people).  The internal dynamics of Syria in government and in Damascus has not been analyzed as far as I have seen.