You really think Assad is a poor leader? Do you have any evidence for this? Syrians, for the most part, seem to love him.

@KarlHannah Syrians wanted more freedoms and protested. He shot at them. This started the civil war. To be sure many factions not from Syria escalated it. Within the country there has always been dissension between Assad, an Alawite (sorta the Mormons of Shiites) and the other Shiite sects, Kurds plus the inevitable conflicts with Sunni. Perhaps Obama's speech in Cairo started this form of Arab Spring, but Assad's quick move to violence escalated it.

@clarkatticus I would ask for a source evidencing ^that, but there's so much fake news going around I wouldn't trust it even if you did.

I don't believe you. I don't believe Assad would order that. He certainly didn't fire at them personally, with his own hands. Everything about ^that screams propaganda.

@KarlHannah I doubt Assad ever picked up a rifle too. He is now supporting his government kill his own people however. He has made no effort to negociate outside of getting rid of some of his chemical weapons, whether or not he ordered the gas attacks is still unproven in my opinion. I don't know what will prove anything to you, I can only point out the obvious, people are dying in droves.

@clarkatticus People are going to die in droves regardless. If you're not part of Assad's inner political circle, how do you know he has said/done nothing to negotiate on behalf of innocent Syrian civilians?

@KarlHannah I'm going to go out on a limb and say if you are killing them and starving them you aren't really interested in helping them. This is not to say any other group in that debacle has any better intentions. The mindset there has little interest in the individual. It doesn't take a genius to infer a person's intentions through their actions so don't give me that "you don't have proof" b's. Listen, I will be the first to admit the US historically has abused the whole region and as a people we don't give a rat's ass about anybody there but we do have limits.

@clarkatticus I agree, but you're missing my point. Assad is just one person. He wouldn't remain in his political position very long if he openly opposed the decisions of others within the Syrian government who think in a similar way to the US government. There's no way to know, from our casual observer point of view, which individuals are responsible for killing and starving Syrians.

It's cognitively lazy to blame everything on the President. Trump is undoubtedly evil, but his cabinet are just as bad if not worse, for example.

@KarlHannah If he isn't responsible and wants better for his people he is in a position to change that. He will remain in power as long as Iran allows it. Russia just wants a base there. If the US was smart we would extricate ourselves from the entire area, Go to renewable energy. Israel isn't much of a friend either, they are using us as a proxy to fight their battles.

@clarkatticus If enough people in Trump's administration want things one way, Trump will not oppose them. He will yield to those pressures.

Assad is in a position to try to change things. You expect too much.