I don't think this is true. Revolutions come in all sorts of flavors, but some of them involve some point where armed forces are required to choose between shoo

I don't think this is true. Revolutions come in all sorts of flavors, but some of them involve some point where armed forces are required to choose between shooting on citizens or not. Most of the eastern block revolutions 25 years agos were peaceful. None had dissident firepower playing a significant role. When East German security forces decided not to fire on the wall crossers, it was 50% over. When Moscow decided not to send in tanks it got to 100%. Not many revolutions are armed insurrection like you see in Syria.