The regime of Bashar Assad, like that of his father Hafez Assad, was one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. Its collapse is to be applauded.
The future of Syria, and the wider Middle East, remains uncertain, however, and the ultimate outcome could be more threatening than that of the Assad era. The world must not wait to see what emerges, but engage now to try to shape that future.
The Assad family ruled Syria for more than half a century. After seizing power in a coup in 1970, the father, Hafez, instituted a system of repressive cruelty, one that played on the insecurities generated by the country’s ethnic and religious divisions. In one incident in 1982, he leveled the city of Hama after an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing tens of thousands of people.
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