Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad

In his 2005 book about Bashar al-Assad, The New Lion of Damascus, Trinity University professor David W. Lesch gave the young ruler of Syria the benefit of the doubt, engaging in what Lesch today admits was wishful thinking. He had hoped that Bashar would not follow in the bloody footsteps of his father, Hafiz, but rather would begin the reforms Syria so badly needed.

Of course, it didn’t happen. In his insightful, valuable new book, Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad, Lesch describes the “excruciatingly sad picture” of Syria today, and his judgment of Bashar is devoid of hope. He reports that over the years since succeeding his father in 2000, Bashar “has developed a tremendously heightened sense of his own self-importance and believes in the delusions fostered by Syrian authoritarianism.”

Lesch’s account of Syria’s decline is based on firsthand knowledge of the country and its ruler to a degree rare among Westerners. Over the years, he interviewed Bashar many times and developed a feel for the country.

With objectivity tinged with sadness, Lesch chronicles the rapid political demise of Syria. As recently as late 2008, hope existed for a rapprochement between Syria and the United States. As late as December 2010, major U.S. newspapers were extolling Syria as a tourist destination. A year later, the world was calling for an end to “Bashar al-Assad’s killing machine.”

When pro-democracy protests spread to Syria, the government took the path not followed by the rulers and armies of Arab states such as Tunisia and Egypt. It jailed and tortured schoolchildren who painted anti-regime graffiti on walls in the city of Deraa, and its army fired on civilian demonstrators. With peaceful protests impossible, Syria moved into the civil war that rages today.

One aspect of Lesch’s book that makes it so important is his evaluation of Syria’s place in global geopolitics. Syria is allied in what Lesch calls the “axis of resistance,” along with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. Perhaps more significant are Syria’s ties to major powers: It buys arms from and provides a naval base to Russia; China is Syria’s third-largest importer; and it served as Turkey’s gateway into the Arab world. Russia and China continue to bolster Bashar, but Turkey has been trying to get rid of him.

As Lesch points out, Bashar has been careful not to push his major-power friends too far. “The regime,” writes Lesch, “has engaged in a Machiavellian calibration of bloodletting — enough to do the job, but not enough to lose what international support remained.”

All that is known about Syria’s immediate future is that it is certain to be tragic. The economy is in ruins, a river of refugees flows into neighboring countries, and no one seems to know what a successor regime might be like.

The U.S. audience, never much for international news, seems to have a case of acute Arab fatigue. But this region, particularly because it sits on so much oil, cannot be ignored, and for the world to turn away from the human suffering that now pervades Syria would be grossly immoral. Understanding Syria is important, and David Lesch’s book is invaluable for those who want to do so.

Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad

Originally published in The Dallas Morning News on September 28, 2012. To read the original article, click here.

Yale University Press

ISBN: 0300186517

288 pages