The Assad Regime and Syria’s Ongoing Tragedy

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is pleased to host a book talk with Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Sam Dagher. In his book, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria, Dagher traces the Assad family’s calculus in Syria, from crushing the Hama rebellion in 1982, to the construction of a brutal police state and the outbreak of civil conflict and ensuing regional destabilization. Dagher explains the current crisis by investigating the relationship between two prominent Syrian families, the Assads and the Tlasses, and delves deeply into the decision-making behind the escalation of violence and war crimes by the Assad regime.

A panel of experts will discuss the ways in which the Assad regime has maintained its grip on power, even in the face of a popular uprising, international condemnation, and an 8-year regional war. Dagher will be joined in conversation by MEI senior fellow Wa'el Alzayat and Rafif Jouejati, co-founder of the Free Syria Foundation, both of whom will lend their perspectives to explain how the United States and the international community have failed to protect Syrians from the Assad family’s entrenchment of power.

MEI senior fellow and director of the Countering Terrorism & Extremism program Charles Lister will moderate the conversation.

[joshua_ch]

In retrospect Assad must go was naive/silly policy. It is a bit simplistic to think that Assad would have left and just his ouster would bring any real change. Look at Egypt or at whats going on in Sudan, the old dictator was ousted but the regime won't relinquish control.
The reality is that change can only come when the society comes to some minimal consensus on the need for change as also the kind of change, like in Tunisia and that must necessarily include a large part if not all of the regime.

[MegaSparklyRainbow]

Why does America get to use white phosphorus in Syria?

[Igorstadnick]

First question: what is the US doing in Syria? More regime change? The Russians were invited by the sovereign state_presence explained. US occupying and looting Syria is ok?