A Syrian national flag and a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad torn apart by anti-government fighters in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Nov. 30, 2024 . (Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
The images are strikingly powerful. Across Syria, statues of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, are being toppled amid wild jubilation. Cynics draw parallels to the fall of late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but the scene is starkly different. This time, the flags flooding social media and TV screens are not American ones waved by GIs but those of the Syrian uprising, ignited in March 2011 during the wave of the Arab Spring protests that swept across the region.Undoubtedly, Syrian rebels benefited from a favorable regional context for their anti-regime offensive. But the downfall of the Assad tyranny is, above all, the result of popular will, which even extended to demographics once seen as firmly loyal to the regime. Who would have thought it possible? Who could have imagined just 10 days ago that the Assad clan’s...
The images are strikingly powerful. Across Syria, statues of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, are being toppled amid wild jubilation. Cynics draw parallels to the fall of late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but the scene is starkly different. This time, the flags flooding social media and TV screens are not American ones waved by GIs but those of the Syrian uprising, ignited in March 2011 during the wave of the Arab Spring protests that swept across the region.Undoubtedly, Syrian rebels benefited from a favorable regional context for their anti-regime offensive. But the downfall of the Assad tyranny is, above all, the result of popular will, which even extended to demographics once seen as firmly loyal to the regime. Who would have thought it possible? Who could have imagined just 10 days ago that the Assad...