Syrian uprising not a surprise given Assad’s iron-fisted rule

Syria’s President Bashar Assad ig- nored the lessons of the Arab Spring and, in fact, insisted in January that his country was immune to a popular uprising because he was in tune with the people. Today, the 46-year-old eye doctor who inherited power 11 years ago from his father is on the verge of being toppled — by the very people he thought he knew.

Indeed, Assad may already have joined the ranks of fallen Arab dictators, such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, as this editorial is being read. Things have changed rapidly in Syria since last Saturday when the 22-member Arab League decided to suspend Damascus because the president had refused to abide by the terms of an Arab-brokered peace plan. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,500 people have been killed in the eight-month uprising.

The suspension was formalized Wednesday by the Arab League, paving the way for stricter economic sanctions and isolation if the regime continues its crackdown of the people. The foreign ministers also gave the Syrian government three days to respond to the League’s desire to send a delegation to monitor compliance with the peace plan.

Assad, like Mubarak and Gadhafi, has been blind to the reality on the streets. Syrians, who began with peaceful demonstrations against the government’s heavy-handed rule, became more brazen in their public criticism and opposition to the regime as the military generally loyal to the president tried to crush the uprising with brutal force.

It is telling that in recent days, soldiers have deserted the military and have turned their guns on Assad loyalists.

Even Iran, which has been Syria’s most important and loyal ally, urged Assad to end the bloodshed and find a way of meeting the demands of the people. The stagnant dictatorship that he inherited from his father, Hafez al-Assad, was never transformed into a modern state that many world leaders had hoped it would become.

Instead, his iron-fisted rule caused widespread dissension and set the stage for the demonstrations as the Arab Spring spread through that region of the world.

Dictatorships

It is telling that many of the 22 members of the Arab League are dictatorships. Unlike Assad, King Hussein of Jordan and others obviously see danger in the violence and bloodshed in Syria.

“Regime change is unavoidable,” Gamal Abdel Gawad, an Arab affairs expert in Cairo, told the Associated Press. Gawad was speaking of Syria, but he could well have been talking about any number of countries where dictatorial rule has caused so much pain and suffering among the people.

Arab leaders are scrambling to influence the type of regime that would follow Assad, which raises questions about the role the United States and its European allies should play.

Unstable Arab countries are not only a threat to Israel, but to the region because of the influence and power of Iran.

While there is growing sentiment on the part of the American people for the U.S. to reduce its involvement in global affairs, the reality is that the political uncertainty in the Middle East is cause for concern.

Weak governments are easy prey for Islamic extremists with ties to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida. Therefore, it is in America’s national interest to ensure that countries like Egypt, Libya and now Syria end up with governments that share our concerns about the spread of global terrorism.