State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland has described as “detached from reality” a proposal by Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad to convene a national reconciliation conference between factions warring inside Syria. Assad made the offer in a rare televised speech, at the end of several days that saw the Syrian army halt and somewhat reverse gains made by opposition forces at the end of 2012. Recent analyses have dramatically increased the estimated death toll in the Syrian conflict. Damascus’s seemingly unremitting willingness to generate civilian casualties has called into question years of analysis by some experts to the effect that the Assad regime could be fruitfully engaged by the West and encouraged to reform its domestic and foreign policies.