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Source: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115993/bashar-al-assad-profile-syrias-mass-murderer
Bashar Al-Assad: An Intimate Profile of a Mass Murderer
(New Republic) Annia Ciezadlo - Bashar Al-Assad is weak; the polite phrasing, among educated Syrians, has always been that he "does not have the qualities of a leader." That is to say, he does not have the gravitas of his ruthless father, Hafez Al-Assad, who ruled the country from 1970 until June 2000. Other Syrians put it less delicately. They call him donkey, giraffe, a big, bumbling doofus. What outsiders have been slow to realize is that in the game Assad is playing, a weak man (or one perceived that way) can cling to his throne just as tenaciously, and violently, as a strongman. This nebbishy second son, who was never meant to inherit the family regime, has proved exceptionally talented in the art of self-preservation.