BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:10 P.M.) – The latest hype to be spread around by opposition sources to ease humiliation suffered by East Ghouta rebels is the new-found realization that the Syrian Army and allied forces have lost around two thousand armored vehicles since the Syrian War started in 2011.

In reality, the mentioning of this probably true (since it is reportedly based on video evidence and assuming every recorded hit equals a knock-out) statistic by opposition sources is a compliment in disguise for Syrian government forces because it actually proves their resourcefulness.

Around 2,000 armored vehicles in seven years (2,550-odd days) could be better translated as less than one fighting vehicle per day on average. Let it be said that double that number is the case (which it is not) – that is less two fighting vehicles per day when averaged out.

One does not need to be a military analyst to know that such a loss rate does not even register on the lowest ranks of what is considered major army equipment losses in the history of modern warfare.

Opposition analysts have also failed to factor in how about half of all knocked-out government tanks are recovered, repaired and then eventually returned to service, how new military equipment is constantly arriving from Russia or how the Syrian Army still currently possess thousands of battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (an ever increasing amount of them modernized types).

Finally, another reality seems to elude opposition analysts in all of this – the Syrian Army is winning the conflict at a time when the supply of anti-tank weapons given to rebel fighters by rich outside powers is drying up.

Indeed, the latest opposition ‘analysis’ report has served to prove something other than what opposition sources were hoping to prove. This is that rebel forces – who will not lay claim to a single tree in Aleppo province without first recording themselves next to it on a high-definition camera – have, despite the expenditure of thousands of sophisticated anti-tank missiles and tens of thousands of artillery shells provided by the US, Europe, Turkey and various Gulf States, failed to defeat the second-tier army of a small-power Arab nation after seven years of conflict.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Masdar.