Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them.
It was that last motivation which led to his downfall.
The reasons are complex: ever-increasing paranoia (particularly for women hitching alone), the advent of cheap coach travel in the 1980s and cheap flights in the 1990s all play a part in this downfall.
They believe the blame for Carole's psychological downfall lies with credulous, satanist-obsessed therapists who went along with her claims that she'd been sexually menaced.
He described harsh government controls in restive Xinjiang and Tibet as "ridiculous national policy", and also attacked a now-disgraced security tsar for abuse of power, before his downfall.
Messy downfall constantly predicted, but he stunned everyone by joining the cast of NYPD Blue and looking very much at home.
For understandable reasons, the press has largely spun this as the latest episode in the downfall of Tesco.
(Indeed, Gundlach has been one of the beneficiaries of Gross's downfall, pulling in some of the money that investors have yanked from Pimco Total Return).
The steamroller was to prove unstoppable all the way to the mass riots of 1990 after its introduction into England and Wales – and its role in triggering Thatcher's downfall six months later.
If like me, you are the age when being a top-flight professional athlete is now officially – rather than merely practically – impossible, try to remember this whenever you read a news story about the downfall of our society.
As much as rival clubs' supporters, or ones without vested interests, may take a delight in this very public downfall, the overriding sensation is surely one of sadness.
